Weekly Recap

Hi!

This is another slow week for projects.  I only did a few little things around the house.  Such as, putting our tools in a toolbox!

  I didn't take a Before Pic, but the tools used to be in a plastic drawer behind the sewing machine. My first idea was that the drawer would stay in its holder, but it never did. Then it finally dawned on me, that that drawer was kinda like a toolbox without a lid. HH seems to like to collect tool boxes, so we had about 3 empty ones in the storage room.  I was able to put our most used tools into the small box above.  The rest of the stuff from the drawer went out to the tool bench in the breezweay.  So, that's another thing to clean up, but I'll do that on another, warmer day!

Here's a pic of the laundry closet.  It's currently in DS's closet and will eventually be in the hall closet.

As I was in a cleaning mode this week, I moved the white plastic drawers (similar to where the tools used to live, but that was smaller and in the kitchen). They used to be in the above pic on the right.  Below is a pic of the future laundry closet, looking into the master bedroom closet.  You can see the drawers on the right.  The laundry will eventually go kinda where the shoes are... 

And in the most exciting news this week, we got our rug from Cottage Industry!  I got a gift certificate Christmas 2012 and this is what I finally bought a couple weeks before Christmas 2012! It came in last week.  HH went to Charlottetown on Tuesday and he picked it up then. 

So, here it is! Since it took so long to get here, I was afraid it would be different than I remembered but it's pretty much like I thought it would be, so that's good. 

This is an indoor/outdoor Dash & Albert rug that will go in the front room. However, because it's been so cold, HH suggested it go in our bedroom to help keep the floor warm. Here's a pic from the bedroom looking out into the hall. Doesn't it go well with the painted hall rug?  It's not exactly the same, but it looks nice.  

Can you believe I haven't even tried it out in the front room yet? I may do it today! :-)  The front room floor colors are the same as the hallway floor so I'm sure it'll look good.  Except the front room is such a mess now.... Oh, well.

We are supposed to get more snow Saturday night.  This time it'll be right around freezing, so it'll be slushy snow.  Have a great weekend! :-)

Responsiblity/Chore Chart

Hi!

I went for a walk this morning with the walking group.  It's supposed to be for ages 55 and up, but I was invited and they said anyone is welcome.  It was a nice group of about 8 ladies who walk from 9:00-10:00 on Mon, Wed, & Fridays.  The pace was a bit slow though so I never really warmed up much.  I am trying to do so now with my coffee!

So, what did I do this week?  Well, not much really.  Except on Sunday the kids helped me with their new Chore Charts.

I'm trying to give the kids more responsibilities and thought this would be a good way to keep track. I remember seeing this 

on Under the Sycamore and I thought it might be a nice craft for the kids to do.  We got rid of the magnet chore chart we had such good luck with 2 summers ago since it didn't really work for during the school year.  I replaced it with some hooks so the kids can hang their coats and snow suits there. This is temporary until the front room is done. It works for now because it's over the heater and keeps their stuff warm!  If they have to leave stuff in the front room (which is unheated), things get really cold!

  So, here's what we did.  After I explained the concept and DD stopped crying and DS stopped complaining,  they painted their boards and clothes pins and we made labels on the label maker for their "responsibilities".    Each day they have to do 3- Breakfast, Homework, & Plate (taking plate to dishwasher after dinner).  For this, they get to use the computer the next day for around 45 min.

Then there are daily chores which they get paid $.50 to do.  Such as (Taking out the)Trash; (Folding) Clothes; (Unloading) Dishwasher; (Helping with or Fixing) Dinner or Lunch; (Cleaning) Bath(room sink and mirror); Sweep(ing); and (Setting or Clearing the) Table.  When they do a chore, they move the clip to the top.  Or in DS's case, the side. 

The bigger white pins are weekly chores- Vacuum(ing); (Helping with or Doing the) Laundry; Dust(ing): (Cleaning the whole) Bathroom; and a Bonus for whatever.

Probably about a year ago, I tried another system where they had to do chores to watch tv.  I felt they were watching too much and thought this would be a good way to limit it.  Well, it turns out that it did limit their tv, because they just didn't do any chores!  I hope this turns out better!  They know how to do all these things, it's just getting them motivated to help...

Also, they do have other responsibilities when they get home from school.  They have to put away backpack; take out lunch can and put on counter; hang coat and snowpants to dry; put mittens in basket to dry; and put boots on boot dryer.  These are pretty automatic by now so I didn't include them in their chores.  And whenever they go somewhere they are responsible for packing their own stuff.  Usually it's for an overnight trip to Grammy and Grampie's and they don't need help with that, but they even pack for longer trips.  They usually need a list of clothes to take, but they get it done and even pack a little bag of stuff to do on the way! This is something they've been doing for a while and I'm glad not to have to do it as I still have to pack for myself and HH! ;-)

Have a great weekend! :-)

Friday Paint Removal- Doors and Trunk

Hi!

It seems like it's been a slow week for projects.  I'll have to look thru my photos to see what I've done!

First, I've done some paint removal. 

 Here's the door to the secretary. (Plus some door knob hardware.)

 The secretary belonged to my mom.  She had refinished it, but never used the door to it, so it never got refinished.  Here's the secretary in the back room.  HH & I brought it up from NC in 2004.  My brother had the desk door and he brought it to me last year when we went camping in ME. I was so glad to have it!        

Here's the door with the fancy paint remover on it:

 Here's the door after I sanded the front,

and painted the back. I used the same color as the dresser. I also painted the back of the secretary the same color. You can see it in the secretary photo above.

I'm waiting for it to cure before I attach it to the secretary.  When I do, we'll put the keyboard on it!

Here's the 2nd door for our coat closet. (Here's the first door.)

Here it is with the paint being removed.

And here it is now, waiting to be sanded.

Here's the trunk I started back in July.  I learned that it was too hot for the paint remover and it kept drying out too fast.

 

The paint remover seems to be working better now that it's cooler.  

It looks a mess, but I'm using fine steel wool to clean off the residue and I think it will turn out great!

 I'm hoping by next week it'll be back in the living room!

And finally, here's a good idea.  I have a lot of paint.

And sometimes the metal cans get rusted and then it messes up the paint. (I got this paint at the Restore for $3!)

So, I used an old plastic Dole fruit container to decant my paint into.

I've also used old ice cream and yogurt containers, but I really like how the fruit container looks!

Have a great weekend! :-) 

Drawers

(This post was written in December, but I'm just publishing it now...)

I read a good post yesterday on Decluttering before the holidays.

The Amazingly Awesome Pre-Holidays Declutter Guide

I've been trying to declutter the whole house since the summer.  But today, let's talk about kitchen drawers.I've done pretty good in the kitchen which is pretty small I guess, compared to other kitchens, but it seems to have all the space we need.

We have one "organized" junk drawer, which looks a lot better since I moved all our tools to another location.  (Since we are renovating/building we have a lot of tools, screws, nails etc. The indoor tools live in a plastic rolling cart drawer under our Breakfast Nook.)

The silverware drawer is fine.  It looks empty because I haven't unloaded the clean dishes from the dishwasher yet!  Somehow this summer we lost about 6 of our spoons. I have a double set of silverware which I really like for everyday use and I have some different extras to send in the kids' lunches so if they lose them I don't have to worry. But for some reason, my good spoons are missing. So, I brought out my 2 "good" silverware spoons to use.  (We got that silverware for our wedding from an old family friend of my husband. She had picked out the pattern "Belle Rose" which happened to be the name of the little plantation cottage we stayed in for our honeymoon! We're not really into "good" dishes or silverware, but we kept them anyway because of the nice coincidence.  Anyway, she gave us 2 settings.)  I also borrowed 2 spoons from my dad and step-mom who this summer bought a travel trailer to keep by our cottage.  To go in the trailer, they also bought spoons!

Next is the spice drawer. It seems we have a lot of spices, but I really use most of them!  I have gotten rid of a few jars so the remaining ones were sliding all around. I fixed this problem by putting in the little basket for garlic, the garlic press, salt and pepper. I was going to put in a couple baskets to group like-spices together, but I didn't have room so I only used the one.

The utensil drawer was also cleaned out this summer. I use all the things!  This is a drawer my husband built from the drawer that would've gone where our cooktop is. He had to narrow and lengthen it.  I'm noticing the bottom is a bit funny looking. Perhaps I should look for some drawer liners. Maybe I could use some wallpaper from the Restore...

So there you have it! A look into all my kitchen drawers!   :-)