Day 4



Floor

Top shelf

Today I added pics to previous posts, and decided to clean out the front entry closet, because it was too cold to paint outside. This is where all the painting stuff is stashed. Here we have the before pics.

I found all kinds of stuff shoved in here. A plethora of pens and pencils and colored pencils that I had put in a plastic container one day while doing a fast tidy up. We must have been expecting guests or something. I also found a marble, a missing tap shoe lace, plastic page protectors I had been looking for two months ago, passport size photos of Brian, which was actually perfect timing, because he needed one for an ID, and a Santa hat, among other things.
I ended up with a nice pile of garbage, a pile to go upstairs to assorted places, a pile to go out to the garage, and a little bag of goodies to give to my sister. I have cleaned out this closet before, but never to completion. There were always stuff that I wasn't sure where to put or that I just didn't want to deal with at the time, but not this month. This month things are gittin' done!

Garbage pile

Pile to go to the garage.

My garbage pile contains an old pair of shoes, a hole nearly worn through at the toe, a used paintbrush and two paint trays I had preserved by wrapping them in plastic bags, because I wasn't quite finished with them yet. One of them still had some wet paint in it from June!! Not enough to bother with though.




A paint can I am done with, goes to the garage, as well as some sandpaper, a fly swatter and an umbrella.

Stuff to go upstairs


 Okay, now. Years ago, probably six or seven, I got a bunch of these file folder games and activities for small children, to keep them occupied and what not in church or wherever. I did do some, but not all, and now most of my kids are too old for them. They are in various stages of completion, and I just don't have the time to finish them, nor do I really want to, to be honest. So I called my sister, and she said she'd take them, and/or give them to friends.  So I put them in a bag for her and will give them to her next weekend when I see her.

After: Top Shelf


 I moved the remaining painting paraphernalia to the top shelf, so as to be out of reach of children. I will put them in the garage as I finish with them. Also up there on the top shelf are a couple of pairs of boy's size winter boots that I just posted on kijiji to sell, some board games that have lots of pieces that I like to keep out of reach, and a stash of printer paper.

After: Front Closet

The items hanging are my baby carrier/wrap, and a snowsuit and winter coat I just posted on kijiji. Hopefully those will move out quickly!!



November is William Morris Month

" Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful" - William Morris

After coming across this fun blog last month, I have been totally inspired. She made a list of stuff that she'd been meaning to do around the house, or things that should be done to make it more beautiful, got rid of a lot of stuff, plugged away at it all month and blogged about it. Every year (usually spring or fall) I try to do something like this, but never make it all the way through. I am hoping that by making myself accountable to this blog, I will actually finish this time. Here is my list, it no particular order. It will not all get done in the month of November, but but most of it should. Perfect timing to get the house all dolled up, with Christms not far away. Or maybe it's a nervous breakdown waiting to happen. We'll see what happens.

-clean out back closet and garage cubbies, and put winter stuff in baskets, coats on hooks, etc.
-go through laundry/sewing room  Re-evaluate mending projects, etc.
- finish stripping chairs, stain them, recover them
- go through toy room. Be brutal.
- fill in holes, retouch paint in toy room
- paint exterior doors black gloss
- paint powder room wainscoting white semi-gloss
- paint bench and trim in entryway white semi-gloss
- paint Diningroom half wall and pillars and coffered ceiling white semi-gloss
- clean out family room shelves
- fix family room couch and ottoman
- clean out front entry closet
-  clean out kid's schoolwork, transfer to attic
- clean out fishtank, put in attic or on kijiji
- re-post stuff on kijiji
- wipe down all kitchen cabinets, ALL of them
- go through each cupboard, reorganize and purge as needed
- figure out valance or curtains for guest bath
- figure out what to do about moving around kid's rooms
- go through Izzy's room
- go through Avery's room
- gothrough Jacob and Logan's room
- go through Meghan's room
- make profile silhouette picture
- clear out all the STUFFfrom me and Brian's room
- go through armoire in my room (stash of future gifts)
- finish going through our closet, get a valet hook?
- finish putting frosted window stuff up in garage windows
- clean out and reorganize gargae
- put up wainscoting and hooks for backpacks in back entry hallway

Pretty big undertaking. Hope I'm up to it.

Landscaping: Before, During and After

**Beware: This post contains numerous pictures**

Our landscaping is done now, well, for this year anyway. The difference is huge!! We are very happy with the final results. We did A LOT of work. Well, not us personally, but a lot of work was involved. The results are astounding, to us anyway. First of all, we had nothing but rocks and dirt all around the house. A lot of dirt. We moved our trampoline to the septic bed or septic field, whatever you call it. Then, we set up the playground we had purchased last year, also on the septic bed. Don't worry, we asked the septic guys before we set anything up there, to make sure it wouldn't wreck anything there. We enlisted the help of local company R&D Harris to do the rest. They leveled and graded all the land, hydroseeded it, put in a stamped concrete patio and front walkway, built a rock retaining wall, cut down two trees, planted two apple trees, four high bush blueberry bushes, put in the front gardens and mulched them, and because we weren't completely satisfied with the rock wall, they offered to level, grade and grass the sides of our driveway, on the house! Here are a few before, during and after pics.

BEFORE:

This is the front "yard"

This is the out building. We kept it, but the foundation in front of it is gone.

This is a view of the old driveway, lawn, and how many trees there were. Wow, I thought I had a lot more "before" pictures. Guess not so many of the outside.

DURING:

Finally, nice flat land that the kids fall and trip over anymore.

More flat land, and a bit of a view of the playground. Trampoline is on the right, behind trees.

Rock retaining wall. We were expecting round rocks.

Side yard and top of rock wall, or as Jacob likes to call it, "the cliff"

Outlining the front walkway and gardens.

AFTER:

A view of the patio.

Another view of the patio.

The side yard.

The play area. Yeah, I know it needs to be mowed. This was before we got a lawnmower.

The driveway and newly grassed on either side, done for free! If you look closely, on the right of the driveway, you can see Brian on the John Deere.

A view from one side. The little tree planted, (left) will eventually hide the post.

A view from the other side. The front gardens are all perennials, so they'll only get bigger and better every year. I'll plant colorful annuals to fill it in til then.