Mission Organization: Day 5

All of the soggy weather we’ve been having is good motivation to keep moving with my kitchen organization.

My 2nd window eyesore was much worse than my 1st.  Yesterday, I fixed that problem.

The Monkey art (birdhouses) received some wood glue and have made their way outside.  The yeast tin was cleaned up and put on the 1st windowsill.  We’ve planted our seed pots and put them in the living room with our Table O’Seedlings (our seedlings are still inhabiting my living room but are to be transplanted in the garden ASAP).  Everything else was trashed or put where it belongs.

I decided my precious mixer needed to be moved and gave it a home under my butcher block table and rearranged the small display shelf immediately to the left of the window.

Ahhhhh.  So much better. 

I’ll be putting a few potted herbs on the sink under the window mainly because I am sick and tired of buying fresh herbs all of the time (and my thumb isn’t nearly as brown as it used to be).  

The shelves have 2 old milk bottles, complete with lids and the Maine Seal in the glass.  The large glass jar is a Tom’s peanut container my grandmother gave me.  I use it as a cookie jar but my mom remembers it being filled with homemade doughnuts all of the time when she was a kid (I love pieces that have a story – especially when it’s a piece of my family story).  A couple of cookbooks and my recipe box round it out.  My recipe box got some love and a makeover while I was at it.

Monkey did a number to it on the shelves at the old house.  I had to replace a few letters and changed the ribbons.  I’ll have red in the kitchen even after we get around to redoing it, so I’ll incorporate red accents now and ignore the orangey-red on the cabinets and walls in the meantime.  ;-)

Here’s what I attack today:

It’s the good, the bad and the ugly here, folks.

I’m trying to decide if my Day 7 and final day of this round of organizing should be under my kitchen sink or my junk drawer.  Both need a little [lot of] help.

I can’t go wrong with either, that’s for sure.

Mission Organization: Day 4

I realize I’ve posted Day 1-4 today.  I started on Friday but just haven’t kept up posting.  :-P

The kitchen is coming along nicely.

Today, I took a small and easy organization project (seeing as I have my hands full with fiddleheads!).

The window above my sink was a real eyesore.

I’ll be putting a display shelf up eventually.  Until then, I’m keeping a few small NEAT things on the windowsills.

Now:

So much better.  I got the yeast tin at a yard sale for $1.  I keep our matches and scraping blades hidden in it (out of the kids’ reach, of course).  The spice jars I found in my grandfather’s store.  It’s mostly been cleaned out but there are a few little hidden treasures still.  These jars are still full! (The thyme still smells good too – though I have NO intention of using them.  lol)

Next up – the 2nd window sill in my kitchen.

What.an.eyesore.

Mission Organization: Day 3

 

After finishing up on the sun porch, it was time to move into the kitchen.  The one room in the house I insist on being clean is my kitchen.  My entire house can look like a tornado (or 2) came through, but my kitchen MUST be clean.

One day last week as I was doing my morning cleaning, I noticed I have a few hot spots of clutter.  They’re spaces that we stick things to keep them away from the kids or because we don’t know what else to do with them – or, my favorite, something that needs fixing and we still haven’t fixed so it sits there, forgotten.

This is really what sparked my Organizational Mission.  As I was looking around I realized, no matter how clean my kitchen is – the clutter just detracts.

No more.

I started with the kids cubbies.   I forgot to take a before picture of this.  Bad, I know.  Let me describe the mess for you.

The cubbies are a freestanding unit given to me by my boss.  It has 3 cubbies, each with a hook and a shelf.  I have the kids hang their jackets on the hooks, put mittens and hats on the shelf and shoes on the bottom shelf.  The extra cubby had a ripped plastic bag stuffed with paper recycling.

The top has a basket for T and me to leave our hats and gloves.  A basket for mail was also there, overflowing with 2 weeks worth of junk mail.  I also had a nice collection of tupperware to return to family members (we’re a big family of stuffing filled tupperware containers to give each other.  :-)

Does this paint a good enough picture for you?

Now:

I tidied up our basket of gloves (yes, we are still wearing gloves – but they are our work gloves which get used almost daily), sorted through the mail, put up our farm sign and added a plant on the top.  So much nicer.

Don’t mind the weird shadow.  My kitchen doesn’t have the best natural lighting.

I added a hook to the side and made a bag to tame all the tupperware (which, amazingly, I have none of right now!).  I also made a matching bag for the 3rd cubby for our paper recycling.

It’s so much better.

Today, I attack windowsills.

In particular, this one:

These projects don’t need to be big or time consuming.  They just need to make an impact.

Who Cares if it’s Not Done?

I’ve been so deprived of workspace next to my stove for the past 3 1/2 months.

So deprived I hauled this bulk around on my own today.

 

I know I said it was too big to go near the stove, but I don’t know if I’ll be moving it again any time soon.

My husband may not like it but I love it.

I’m also finding it super handy tonight.

Ok.  Enough drooling over my table.  I need to go take care of the chicken.

It’s Here!

 

My brother just stopped in with a special delivery.

Remember this?

And the love I lavished on it?

It still needs some work - but look what my dad did today!

It’s love.

How I Spent My Day

 

Remember this?

Gross old thing, huh?

Three hours of sanding later:

Then it received a good scrub with bleach (it’s still drying here, hence the darker cracks – it’s clean, I swear):

It needs a bit more sanding with a finer grit sandpaper.  And I’ll probably scrub top and bottom with bleach again before I let my dad take it away to add the legs and a shelf. 

I really expected it to take much longer for me to refinish the top. 

The top will need more love once it’s here and in place (wax and oil) but that will probably be the easiest part of the entire process.

LOVE!

Trash to Treasure

I’m so excited. 

When we arrived at my parents yesterday, my dad had a surprise for me in the back of his pickup.

This rather disgusting looking slab of wood used to be the meat counter years and years ago in my grandfather’s store.

This rather disgusting looking slab of wood is going to be getting some much needed love this week.

A bleaching.  Lots of sanding.  A waxing.  Then legs.

It almost sounds like a day at the spa.

She’ll soon be sitting here – to the left of my stove:

It’s a very badly needed workspace. 

I can’t wait to go get my hands dirty. (And it doesn’t involve paint.  Oh, happy day!)

Hope you all had a fabulous Easter.  Ours was a wonderful day filled with extended family and too much good food. 

My big ass crazy project

There’s no other way to describe it.

HELLO big ugly yellow cabinet!  You are ugly.  What possessed me to paint you yellow? (Oh – I know.  A compromise with my husband.)

You going to talk smack to me?  Well then.  I’m just going to spray some chemicals all over you. (Tip – Get a sitter if you’re alone with kids…  unless you can lock them out of your kitchen.  Open concept kitchen/living room in my house makes that impossible for me.)

Then I will attack you with a putty knife.

After a quick bath, I will caress you with a paint brush.

Then after you have dried for a few hours (not long enough, but I’m impatient after all of these years with the ugly), I will refill your shelves with care.

This is section ONE of SIX.  This is a fairly SMALL section.  I’m breaking this big ass crazy project into small, bite sized pieces as to not completely and totally overwhelm myself with it.  I’m sure some of these items will be moved around once I paint/organize the rest of my cupboards.  But for now, this is what I have.  I store a lot of our dried goods in jars.  I have a ton of canning jars, so why not put them to use, right?

I’m supremely annoyed at the bleeding from the tape.  Tape is supposed to PREVENT paint from getting all over the place.  TAPE FAIL.

Also on slate for the kitchen is to replace the countertops (they have been purchased and have been residing in the basement for a month or so now), build in a book shelf on the end of one cabinet for cookbooks (and to ever so slightly increase counter space in that area), add bead board to the ends of the lower cabinets, paint the walls and re-accessorize with the new color scheme.  The walls and re-accessorizing also happens in the living room thanks to that open concept flooring I mentioned earlier. 

Baby steps.  One little bite at a time.  I hope this doesn’t take me a year.

Kitchen remodel on the cheap

I need to share with you the amazing pictures I received from my Mom last night. She's trying to make me feel better for not getting to see the finished product in person until September. HA

My parents built their house back in 1983, doing as much of the building on their own as they could (even Itty Bitty Jodi hammered some nails into that house!). Money being as tight as it was, much of the house was left in an unfinished state (as in, the plywood subflooring was painted until real flooring could be purchased). As the years went by, Mom started to have more and more of a passion for decorating (which, as you've seen, she passed on to me). But, again, money being tight and decorating resources very limited in Northern Maine, they've very slowly been working on turning their house into the home they want it to be.

The kitchen was outfitted with second hand cupboards they got for cheap when they built the house. There were a lot of empty spaces between the top ones so my Dad built some in to fill the spaces (in the before pictures, you can tell the homemade ones because they have no handles on them). Appliances have been replaced once (and are on the slate for their next big purchase). And the flooring is a slate blue laminate floating floor installed in the mid-90's to cover the cheap linoleum they'd had installed early on.

I'm having to dig through my old photos to find some true before photos, so there are some cheesy family pictures in here. Pay no attention to the people - just the room. HAHA

Before:

Sorry Mom - It's the only picture I could find that showed the old light, the old table AND that corner of the room. Dear Readers - focus on the puppy on the butt. hehe


Here, you can see an empty spot next to the stove. There used to be a broom closet there (this picture was taken after the remodel had begun and Dad had taken that closet down).


You can kind of see the broom closet here, on the right.


And here is the big honking desk.

Now feast your eyes on this! Remember, it's still in progress, but it's already a huge transformation!

The table was scored at JCPenny on sale and with a discount code. Having it shipped to the nearest store saved on shipping as well. (Notice the half wall in the back - my Dad built it years ago. It's going to be getting a paint job soon).


The new light fixture was also from JCPenny on clearance plus a discount code.

I am in love with the doors. The cabinets themselves were not changed. My Dad, with the help of their carpenter, built the doors.

Dad built a new cupboard/cabinet where the old broom closet was. LOVE it!

Closeup of doors, knobs (Ebay find) and new countertops (purchased through their local hardware store and I think is the most expensive change they made).

Finally, the big desk was moved into the basement. Beadboard was added to the bottom half of the wall. This cupboard was bought on clearance at JCPenny (again with discount codes). Notice how well the new cupboard doors match it so well? An extra piece of countertop was purchased to put on here. And there will be something happening above it (If memory serves, Dad built or is building some type of shelf).

It's pretty much just the fun stuff left - as in, the accessorizing! I'd love to be able to go help!

And now I need to convince my Dad to come help T do the same to MY cabinets. hehe

Mom - care to chime in on any of this? Corrections or additions?

My stairway remodel:

I tell you, I've been a busy busy bee this week (as were my helpers!!).

This is the entryway to my house. We come in through the kitchen and you are immediately faced with the doorway to our basement. So very inviting, right? (Please read that dripping with sarcasm) . I'd also like to just point out the awesome built in gate my Dad made for us. Leaving the door to the basement closed made the basement (and the house) smell musty. But, we don't trust portable baby gates enough to just use one of those. Enter Carpenter Dad. (He's done a lot of building of things for me since I moved into this house).




There's not much I can do right now about the wall at the foot of the stairs. BUT, you don't see that unless you're actually standing at the top of the stairs looking down. So I'll live with it for the time being.


The curtain is hiding 2 shelves. I've been using them for extra kitchen storage. Really, it's just a big mess behind the curtain.


My brother did all of the wall prep (I had the brilliant idea of using a Swiffer with a wet pad to clean the walls - it worked well!) and painted the shelves for me. And T did the painting of the walls.




And this is what you will now see walking into my home:


The baskets were a TJMaxx/Homegoods find ($9.99 a piece), as was the wine themed clock ($15). The painting I got on clearance at Linens N Things when they were going out of business for $25. And the wine crate is 1 of 6 unfinished crates I bought on Ebay (I don't remember the cost).

I do still have some work to do. I want tags for the baskets, a plant (probably fake because it's not really a plant growing environment) for the top shelf and I need something for shoe storage. We also still need to paint the stairs themselves.

It already feels so much cozier!