ORC 2: Jumping In, Reluctantly.

Am I really going to do this?
I've done this five times already. I know how crazy this is!

Last week, when I discovered the One Room Challenge (ORC) was beginning again this year (this is its tenth season!), I was a bit upset that I would not be participating. I was in the midst of a few updates around the house and well, honestly, it snuck up on me.

I just wasn't ready.

As part of my little "whole home refresh" I started to clean the grout in the downstairs bath.

....a few days later....

And I asked my husband to paint.

That would mean patching the wall beside the toilet.

It goes all the way to the floor.

A tricky job with the toilet there, so Chris asked me if he could remove it.

"Sure," I said. "As long as we have a new one in place by Wednesday (today)." We were expecting company.

Well, he ran into problems.

...a few days later...

Of course.


And I decided we should remove the wall unit--and not put it back up again. It is showing its age--and while I loved the storage, it has always felt intrusive.

This photo was taken right after the cabinet was installed. 

I want a sleek new cabinet, instead.

And, I decided I don't want to put the old curtains back up.

This picture was taken the day the curtains went up in 2012!

I love my roman shades in the kitchen and I think one would be fabulous here.

And then, there's the new paint.

I chose Farrow and Ball's "Borrowed Light" mixed into Behr Marquee paint. I chose it without thinking too much --which is not like me at all!

There a few other projects we can throw in as well.

1) Repaint the ceiling planks.
2) Buy and install a new fan
3) Buy and install a new toilet
4) Sew up a new laundry hamper. I've had my eye on making something like one of these at Yellow Brick House for a while.


And there, just like that, is a johnny on the spot, why the hell not six (but really five and now !)  week challenge.

I told my husband our time line, tonight. He said, "good luck!"

I hope we don't need it.


Here's to all the intrepid linking participants at Linda's blog, Calling It Home.

I am working on a ginormous post with links to all the Canadians involved in the ORC, but with over 250 blogs to visit, it is taking a while to come together!

The Project List for 2017

(I began writing this post during the January Cure when we were challenged to make up a list of projects to do around the house.)

This is always interesting.

Last year I made a list. The year before that, I made a list. I updated the 2015 list last night, thinking it was the 2016 list so now everything is messed up.

Oh well.

Moving on.

2017 is going to be a strange year. Sometime in the fall, my husband will be laid off from the job he has had for 35 years. He will be 61...and he does not want to start drawing on the government pension...there are severe penalties for doing so "early." As well, the union which was in charge of his work pension made a shambles of it: so there's no money to draw from there, either. So, to make up the slack I may have to apply to go full time where I work. There's a fellow in my department who wants to retire at the end of June.

As well, I am going to lose one hundred pounds this year. And I have no idea what my life will look like while I do it. All I know is that my life will have to change --profoundly-- to support the habits and activities that help a 53 year old woman live strong and lean. I have professional help for this. I'm writing about it over at the other blog.

So, there are a few small projects I want to complete---though, honestly, this list is quite ambitious for our circumstances at the moment.


Outdoors.

All outdoor projects (except for a little project on the right side) will be postponed.

Upstairs Bedroom:

This one is new.

As I was washing the floors in our bedroom, I decided that the yellow in this closet has got to go. I do not know how I have lived with it for 19 years! That will be a quick gratifying project.

Hallway and Stairs:

• Finish staining the handrail and topcoat
• Touch up dings and scratches and scuff marks on stairs
• Make or buy and install screen for window. (summer breezes!)

Dining Room:

• Put this engineering print into the new frame I designed and had Chris make for me last summer!
• remove resin on floor
• attach legs to the top of the table. It would make it easier to move when we need to do that.

Kitchen:

• Touch up paint on cabinets.
• Touch up paint on walls where the chairs have rubbed
• Put up hook for pendant light cord by plug in

• oops--I forgot to paint this side of the cabinet white! Do that.

Downstairs Bath:

Ok. I lied. Well, actually, I forgot. This little room needs a major overhaul. We should probably just tear down the wallboard on the exterior wall and insulate properly. That is part of our problem. The other part of it I hope can be fixed with a more expensive fan.

• Clean grout and seal it
• Repaint walls
• Replace the toilet
• Redo ceiling panels.(Scrape and sand off peeling paint, prime and re-paint or varnish.)  Chris re-sealed with a shellac based varnish last summer, but they are still yellowing
• Wash ceiling in tub/shower area. Re-paint.
• Install a hook or a towel rack on the back of the door
• purchase and install a better fan

Basement:

• Paint stairs and re-tack stair mats
• Declutter basement storage area with the recyclables and the bottles and cans.

I also have a gazillion projects I want to complete at my Mom's.  There is a lot of clutter to excavate (mostly in the basement, now). But she doesn't really have any systems or routines for dealing with daily life so we need to put those in place so the house does not become so cluttered we cannot move again.

And as for decorating? Well, at Mom's house there's still the living room, the kitchen, the eating area and upstairs bath. It proceeds at a snail's pace however, between her low energy levels when I'm not there and my not getting over there very much what with one thing and another. Plus, my husband doesn't have the energy he used to have anymore either. But the more we do, the easier it will get, right?

I will be putting this list in the side bar and updating as we go, if I think of it. Who knows, I may even want to blog about the odd project now and again.

PS: Did you see that Apartment Therapy is offering a 20 day Spring Cleaning Cure starting April 10th? I've signed up! I'll be starting on this project list in the mean time.

From a Cleaner Kitchen to Emptying the Outbox: January Cure Assignments 10 to 20

Half the Cure.

My goodness, I hadn't realised I had had that much to catch up on!

The thing is, of course, I have been doing something...just not everything I wanted to do and certainly not everything I'd planned to do. This weekend was the end, though. I really need to focus on doing my daily four housekeeping chores.....and let January go. I am giving myself until Wednesday.

Here's what I've done.

Assignment #10: A Cleaner Kitchen.

I worked hard the weekend it was assigned.

I cleaned the spice rack:

It's always disheartening when the after doesn't look all that different from the before. But at least the canisters feel better. They get greasy right here beside the stove. 

Behind the stove:

And behind the fridge, though you'll have to take my word for it!

I cleaned all the open shelving, the garbage can, the side of the fridge, the side of the stove and the baseboards.

I washed the top of the fridge, the top of the microwave, all the cabinets, the stove top and the table.

And then I made a pie. To declutter some apples. Of course.

Finally, I washed the kitchen floor just this Saturday.


Assignment #11: Get a Get Together Together.

This introvert never does this Cure assignment.


Assignment #12 Cabinet Clear Out:

Removed one bottle of barely expired calamine lotion.


Assignment #13: Work on Your Project.

I haven't even finished the list of projects I want to complete this year!


Assignment #14: Lighten Up the Living Room.

I did this just yesterday, too. My son walked in and said, "nice job on the living room. The wall looks different without the mirror there."

A-hem.
The mirror has not been there for at least two years. That Value Village painting has been sitting in its place on top of the mantel since.

But I think he's a minimalist at heart. In fact, right after making this comment, he went right to his room and began cleaning and clearing his shelves.


Assignment #15: A Better Bedroom

I had such tremendous intentions. On the floors weekend, I'd spent the entire Friday night up in this room, going over every inch of the floor.

Last weekend, my husband and I flipped the mattress (flip with the Solstice, rotate with the Equinox) and I washed the mattress cover, pillow covers, bedding and couch cover.

Again, this weekend, I spent Friday evening picking up and tidying. But it wasn't until Sunday that I got around to dusting, (vacuuming up the dust!) and changing the sheets and duvet cover.

But, boy oh boy, is it worth it!


Assignment #16: Catch up Day.

Well, it's sort of catch up weekend, isn't it?!


Assignment #17: Bathroom Blast.

I did this Saturday, too. Spritzed all the porcelain, mopped the floor. The room really needs a full day, though, to wipe all the mold off the tile, the grout and the ceiling. Yes. The moisture problem in there is absolutely out of control. And frankly, we have done all we can at the moment, so I have been procrastinating the chore to clean it because it will just have to be done again, and again.....until we know what to do to fix it.


Assignment #18: Landing Strip

All I needed to do here was wash the floor and put down my new entry rug.

In time.

Assignment #19: Surface Sweep

I do this as a regular part of my daily four. I set the timer for 10 minutes and just go through the main floor and pick up and put away everything lying about on various surfaces.


Assignment #20: Empty the Outbox.

And here we are. This weekend's assignment. The last assignment.

There's more in the car!

I wondered why Janel had scheduled an entire weekend for it and also ended the Cure, leaving the last two days of the month completely unscheduled. But now I think I know why. Not only did I need to take the weekend to catch up,  I have five different places to go to to drop things off. I am going to want the time Monday and Tuesday to go to the second hand store, the animal shelter, the Eco-centre, Re-Store (Habitat for Humanity), and H&M (for textile recycling).


So, I figure I'm done...... Except for the floors in the hallway and the dining room, oh and emptying the outbox and I almost forgot, the list, the darn list I have no faith will be completed this year at all...well, except for those things, I'm done.

I am glad I did this. Adios until next year!

Looking Through the Linens

I started Assignment #9 after a conversation with my daughter about her sheets. A year and a half ago, she switched from a twin bed to a double. We discussed whether she would sleep with a bottom sheet, top sheet and duvet (like I do) or whether she would sleep "European" and forgo the top sheet. She prefers the European way.

So guess what I found in the linen closet? (other than a mess)

Two bottom sheets and three top sheets. Why?

I didn't get rid of them though, as she is not sure what she's going to want to do in the summer. Plus, my son is still in his twin bed----and I wondered if perhaps he might prefer to have a larger top sheet. He is, after all, a very big boy in a very small bed. I wish they still made 3/4 beds and mattresses and bed linens. It would be the perfect size for his smallish room.

Plus, I didn't find any top sheets for a twin bed. There is one on his bed--maybe the other is in the wash?

I do believe in the old rule "one for the bed, one for the wash" for keeping bed linens, but I have a noted weakness for textiles. I've mentioned it before. I have four duvet covers--just for my own bed! I have four sets of sheets to play along. And then there are the uncounted number of pillowcases to further mix and match.

Meh. Small pleasures.

And I don't get out much.

I will get rid of a few washcloths and a bucket with markers in it--(oh that bucket! Back when the kids shared a room, we set up this bucket so they could lower it over the railing and anything they'd "forgotten" to take to bed, like a stuffie or their slippers would be put in the bucket and hauled up. The rope was still inside.) I used it to store the chandelier bulbs I needed for Emma's room. But she she doesn't have that chandy anymore.

I also found a sheer curtain, still in the package from Ikea. Not sure what is going to happen to that.

There are more linens elsewhere in the house, but that was enough for tonight. It took me about 45 minutes.

A Closet and a Carpet.

It was supposed to be a 30 minute job. It took me 50.

I am a bit surprised it took me that long.
It is a pretty straight forward closet--awkward to photograph, though.

It is, first and foremost, our coat closet.

But it is also our games closet,

and the broom/cleaning tool closet.

it's like those pegs fell out just so I could put that space to better use! The orange Miele bag holds the vacuum cleaner attachments and various mop heads.

oh and it is also our access hatch to the bathroom tub and shower taps and water supply lines.

It took me nearly an hour to clear out some games,

that black bag holds our picnic/backyard snuggle under while there's a firepit going blanket

relocate a few coats, clean the lint off my husband's coat, and vacuum and clean the floor,

and, oh yeah, hang the Ikea bag holder. As you can see, it was hit or miss (and mostly miss) getting the bags into that thing at the back of the closet where I was anxious it would tip through the hole into the basement.

I've been wanting to put a piece of wood up at the back of the closet ever since we enlarged the hole to get access to the pipes when we did the bathroom in the winter of, ahem, 2011-12. I am adding it to the project list.

Just for fun, I looked back through to see what closets I tackled in past cures. In 2015, it was the linen closet.  In 2016, it was the closet adjacent to this, the cleaning closet. Other than the closet in each of our bedrooms, these are the only closets we have. Nice that each have had a turn!

In other news, I continued with the floor assignment.

I borrowed my Mom's Steam vac to clean my living room carpet.

It arrived with an abundance of cleaners.

I watched a you tube video...which wasn't all that terribly helpful so I tried to watch another one. But man, it is boring watching people push a machine back and forth and back and forth and back and....what was I saying? Oh yeah. So I just called my mother.

I vacuumed. Twice.

There were all sorts of stains.

I think this is from hot chocolate? Or maybe coffee?

General dinginess.

see how the white bits of the carpet are actually white over there on the right? They get greyer and dingier  as you go left. Same thing happens at the other end, only in reverse.

I used one of the bottles to pretreat the various spots.

I went over the rug about four times with the steam vac. The first time, I didn't pull the trigger. The second time, I pulled the trigger but didn't use the "spot clean/clean surge" button. The third time, I pulled the trigger and used the spot clean/surge clean button, both, at the same time. The fourth I just went over it without the trigger, again.

This was the waste water.

One of the videos advised me to empty all the water out of the machine, turn off the brushes and go over the carpet one more time. He said that would draw water out of the carpet and help dry it. When I talked to my Mom, she said she didn't bother.

I am so glad I did. This is what the water looked like after being sucked out of the carpet.

Imagine if I'd left that!

I think the rug looks really good--but not as good as new. The specific spots are gone, it's true, but that fade to dinge is still there--though its much less noticeable, to be sure. (At this end of the carpet it goes left, white, to right, grey.) Now that I know how it's done--I want to do it again before the week is over.

I cannot tell you how happy I am to have found a solution to keeping this carpet clean. I love me a good looking rug...and a good sized is next to impossible to find here for what I can afford. This was purchased at Target in 2014 when they were here. The rug conundrum is one of the reasons I was so upset they left.

Tomorrow is the media fast, so catch you on the 12th, I hope.