The Great Bed Debate

This is a debate that has been ongoing in our house for about a year now.  Currently, we have a full sized bed, which works alright until you add two dogs into the mix and then things get interesting.  When we bought our house, it was vacant, so our bedroom looked pretty big.  Add some furniture in there, and it really starts to cut down on the space quickly.  Fast forward a few months, and we started trying to figure out how we were going to get our bedroom upstairs with the stair situation we have going on.  If you don't remember, we have the death trap stairs to access the second story:

 

What you can't really see from this photo is the landing at the top with a pretty tight corner and then another set of stairs that are a little more normal.  When we exhausted all options for what we could do with these stairs and brought in several contractors to consult on the stairs, we started weighing the options.  The weekend we took our bedroom apart to re-do the wall, we decided to try and get our bed upstairs just to see if it could be done.  I will save you the long version of that story and just say it couldn't be done; enter the discussions of moving.  

Well, now that the house selling thing hasn't been going so well and we are back to the possibility of staying at least for a while, we are also back to the bed debate.  I say, "we need a bigger bed" to which Andrew's response is "we can't fit a larger bed in our bedroom."  My response, "we can, you just don't want to cut down on the space in the bedroom."  That is pretty much how the discussion goes each time, and that is where it ends with no further discussion.  I think I'm going to go in there with my Frog Tape and tape off the floor so we can see exactly what it would look like. 

This morning I thought, "if I could have the perfect bedroom, what would it look like?"  I made my way to the Internet to see what I could find.  Here is what I came up with:

Source: shophomemakers.com via Natalie on Pinterest

Homemakers Furniture: Queen Storage Bed: Daniel's Amish: Bedroom: Beds

I love platform beds with storage.  I think they are a great practical use of space, and let's face it, who couldn't use more storage in their house?  My thought is perhaps if we had this bed, we wouldn't need night stands (mine is pretty much just full of junk) so that would be two pieces of furniture out of the room.  Some of the platform beds I have looked at are fairly close to the ground, which would eliminate the need for Buddy to have steps to get on the bed, but I think this is probably taller than our current bed, so we would need the steps.  Of course, I would love to have the other matching furniture to go with this, but it isn't a crisis.  Our current storage situation in the bedroom is working alright.  We each have our own dresser; mine is full, Andrew's not so much. 

Of course, if we got a larger bed we would also need a new comforter.  Actually, I think our current one is a full/queen, so we might be able to keep it and use it.  Lately, I have been on a kick with duvet covers though.  I found this one a while ago at Target that I like:

 

Source: target.com via Natalie on Pinterest

So, there you have the great bed debate that brought us to selling the house and back again.  Of course I will continue to keep you posted on where this ends up at. 

A "Finished" Project

For the sake of my own sanity, I'm calling the project on the side yard done.  OK, maybe it is only done for now.  I have a few things I would like to add at some point, but it isn't a crisis.  I was tired of looking at the bare dirt in that area since we didn't finish mulching at the end of last season.  That spot was in need of a few more plants and a lot more mulch.  You are supposed to mulch about 1 1/2 inches thick, and I don't think the mulch we put down in some areas last year was even 1/2 inch thick; it was not a good situation.  So, this weekend I set out to remedy that. 

I think I mentioned earlier this week I had picked up some new plants to fill in on what was left to plant.  I picked up three hostas and three ferns.  Growing up, my mom was always working in the yard and we always had flowers and plants.  However, we also always had sun, and lots of it.  We never even looked at shade plants because we didn't have any shade to plant in.  When Andrew and I bought this house and realized most of the yard is shade, I was a bit perplexed as to what I was going to plant.  I knew I could plant hostas in the shade, but that was all I had for ideas.  Through much research, I found several plants that are shade lovers; although, I think I'm becoming a bit of a hosta collector.  I find myself at the store reading the tags on hostas to determine if I have that variety.  There are thousands of different hostas out there, and I would love to have as many as possible in our yard.  While I was at Lowes early this week, I picked up three new varieties of hostas, and three ferns to try out. 

While I was trying to arrange my new plants, I ran into two issues that were cramping my design style.  The drain pipe for our sump pump runs through the side yard, and the tree roots from the tree in the back yard are massive and everywhere.  I was able to work around both though, and was happy with how things turned out.  Here is the side yard all finished up:

 

It may appear in the top photo that there is still more space to plant things, but don't let the photo fool you.  That is right up next to the tree, and I'm not messing with any more of those roots.  The tree wins the battle over planting more things.  I have a little more room for some ground covers, so I will probably fill in at some point.  If I can score some good deals at the end of the season like I did last year, that is probably how I will go about doing it.  I know it may look like I still have a lot of room in there to plant things, but I like to be a patient gardener and wait for things to grow.  We have three hostas in the front yard that I actually need to space out at some point because when they were planted they were planted right next to each other and now they are a little too close.   

 

While I was working on planting, Andrew was moving our compost pile around a little bit.  The pile we had created was a bit untamed, so he was working on containing it a little more.  When he finished moving it, we realized we had some very lovely black dirt where the pile used to be.  When I said growing up we had nothing but hot sun to plant in, we also had nothing but clay in the yard to plant in, which is less than ideal for growing anything.  So, buying this house and having a shovel go right through the rich black dirt was a bit of a treat.  In one hole alone yesterday, I encountered two or three earthworms.  When I think about leaving this house, I'm not sure I would want to leave the dirt behind.  I know these days when they build, they tend to haul off the top layer of dirt, which generally only leaves clay depending on where you are around here.  I have to say I rather enjoy digging in my rich soil.  Now that we have one project "done" in the yard, we have about fifty more to go.  Right now, we are trying to prioritize the project list.  Before the end of this growing season, we would like to have a spot prepared in the back yard for a garden, so we can get out first thing next year and plant that.  We also have a weed situation we would like to get under control, landscaping to do in the back corner of the back yard, landscaping on the other side of the deck, an extension on the front landscaping, and work on the side yard that is outside the fence.  That is only the list of outside projects, we have a growing list of indoor projects as well.   

A Birthday List

This week has been a week of ups and downs for us.  Yesterday, we got word that there was a non subject to sale offer put in on the house we had an offer in on, so we lost the offer on that house.  I was a tad upset, but knew that was a pretty strong possibility.  We took it as a sign that it wasn’t the house for us and we will find something else or know if we are intended to stay put for now.  Today, I got a call that there were some people in our neighborhood looking at houses and they wanted to look at ours.  Unfortunately, we only about thirty minutes notice and there was no way that was going to happen.  I am still waiting to hear if they are going to set a showing up or if we lost out on that one.  Things are a bit of a mess right now.  I have been cooking and baking and that makes for a messy kitchen.  Right before I got the call about people wanting to see the house, I had emailed about getting our house on the schedule to have the deck re stained and the trim re painted.  Some days, I feel like we have one foot in and one foot out, and it is a rather frustrating feeling.  I think it boils down to doing the smart and responsible thing, or doing what we want to do.  We don’t really NEED a bigger house at the moment. 

Speaking of want and need, my birthday is next week and it had me thinking about a birthday wish list.  I would like to reiterate that I don’t NEED anything and I am not intending this list to sound this way, it is simply a fun wish list

1. A tablet – I have considered several different options for tablets including an Ipad, a Kindle Fire, or other various brands of tablets that are out there these days.  I never bite the bullet and buy one because I can’t justify it.  While it would be nice to have when I am in the kitchen cooking of a new recipe I found on Pinterest rather than looking at it from my Ipod, that alone isn’t enough to justify the purchase.  It would also be nice to have one for night time rather than taking my whole laptop to bed with me, but again not enough to justify the purchase of one.

Source: gadling.com via Gadling on Pinterest


2. A new computer- My current laptop was purchased in 2010.  Yes, I realize that is only three years ago.  However, that laptop as seen a lot of use and probably some abuse.  The dogs have kicked it off the couch a time or two, the hard drive that was in it when I bought it died about a year and a half after I got the computer.  Rather than buying a new hard drive, we put one in my laptop from Andrew’s old laptop.  I went from a 500 GB hard drive to a 250 GB… you might see the issue there.  I think my current external hard drive is larger than my internal one.  I have a lot of music and photos on my computer, so those eat up a lot of space.  My current hard drive is on the last bit of space and I really don’t have a ton on it.  After the last hard drive crashed, I moved a lot of my photos to my external hard drive.  Andrew and I are both huge computer people, so one computer would be a bit of a problem for us. 


3. Earrings- A shiny pair of princess cut diamond stud earrings to be exact.  I would love a ½ ct. or greater.  Again, this is a wish list! 

Source: skylineempire.com via Skyline Empire on Pinterest


4. Tickets to a Green Bay Packers Game!


5. Tickets to Europe- Italy, France, England, Germany, you name a country and I want to go there.

Source: Uploaded by user via Cactus Language Training on Pinterest



6. $20,000- To renovate our house the way we want it.  While we are at it, I would really like to just win the lottery and pay off all our debt, who is with me?  

 

 

I'm Back From Under The Laundry Piles

As predicted, we had laundry to do this weekend.  Although, I sent Andrew off to Chicago with quarters and laundry soap and he did visit the laundry mat, so he has been learning the techniques of laundry!  I was reading on Pinterest that you should do one load of laundry per day to stay on top of the laundry rather than letting it build to be out of control.  That is fine in theory, but in practice our loads all seem to be ready at once.  Does anyone else have this issue?  Suddenly, you find that every pair of pants you own is in the laundry and you don't have time to wash and dry them.  That is a bit of a problem when that happens at 7:55 on a Wednesday night in our house.  Lately, we have been hanging all our pants up to dry.  I was having issues with pants shrinking when I ran them through the dryer, and Andrew's work pants kept ripping out.  Hanging our pants up to dry seems to be the best solution because we don't have as many issues any more; I don't have to wear highwaters!   

This weekend was a bit of a whirlwind with Andrew coming home.  Friday night we went to dinner and a movie (Star Trek) to catch up.  I honestly can't tell you what we did on Saturday and Sunday we did some errands and worked a little in the yard.  With all the rain we have been getting, I think we could probably mow every four days.  It only takes a few days for our yard to look like a pasture, and when you have a neighbor that is on top of it like ours is, that is a bit of a problem sometimes.  I got some weeding done in our yard while Andrew was mowing and planted a couple of new plants.  I'm already tired of weeding the flower beds and it isn't even June yet.  I think this is going to make for a long summer, what do you think?  I put some Preen down last year when we made the beds to keep the weeds from coming through and I have sprayed a couple of times with a weed killer, but it isn't keeping the annoying things away. 

Andrew had to run into work for a bit on Saturday, so I headed to Home Depot to look at flowers.  I was convinced that we needed some more plants to finish off the side flower bedz we did last year.  Unfortunately, I got to the store and had a total mind blank.  I found myself looking at about ten different varieties of ground covers and then realized I wasn't sure I had that much ground to cover.  I ended up coming home with only four plants.  Two ground covers I knew we had space for and two that needed to be added in on the front landscaping.  At the end of last growing season I was at Home Depot and they were getting ready to throw out what was left of their perennials.  The lady working in the garden center saw be buying hostas, and offered me a really good deal on them.  She wanted me to buy probably 20 to 30 hostas.  In hindsight, I should have gone for it because we have the space.  I think I did end up with about 10 hostas and added those into our side landscaping.  This year, I decided we had room for a few more, so tonight I ran to Lowes and picked up a few.  I have become rather obsessed with hostas and the different varieties.  If money were no object, I probably would have left Lowes tonight with about 15 different hosta plants.  Of course, we don't have the space for that many right now honestly, and that would have cost an arm and a leg.  I did come away with three or four hostas and three ferns I'm also excited to plant in with the hostas.  While I love the look of hostas, I also like to mix in some other textures. I need to get out one night this week and get them planted.  Once I get them in the ground and hopefully get some more mulch put down, I will snap a picture and post it up here.  For now, you will have to settle with a photo of what I hope our hosta area will one day look like!

 

Source: images.search.yahoo.com via Natalie on Pinterest

Friday Already?

I'm not sure where the weeks go really.  It seems like I pretty easily fall into a routine and before I know it, the weekend is here.  That's not to say that I don't complain about the week moving slowly during the week, because it does.  Tomorrow marks the day Andrew comes home from his work trip!  Everyone in the house is pretty excited to see him.  I'm not sure Maya is going to know what to do with herself; perhaps her pouting will come to an end. 

I kept meaning to post a picture on here of the newly repainted coffee station, but the nights kept getting by me.  A friend from work got me sucked into the show Mad Men, so I have been working my way through season 1 this week.  My friend has been talking this show up for months, and I am glad I finally had her bring me the DVD's to watch because I am totally entertained by it.  It reminds me of a paper I wrote my senior year in college and always makes my brain swim with ideas. 

So, here is the newly repainted coffee station:

 

you might remember this is what it looked like before:

I was trying to find a better before shot, but it looks like this is the only one I took back when the bookshelf was a bookshelf and it was up in my office.  The black and red go much better with the colors in the kitchen though.  I even gave the red bins a new coat of paint to make them a little more red. 
You can see I have my coffee mug tree that I love.  I really need a larger one because I have several coffee mugs that I love to use and display.  Right now, I only have room for four, but they are some of my favorites.  I love mugs with good saying on them.  My mom gave me one a few years back that is probably my favorite my it says "work with me people."  Someone knows my thoughts a little too well!  My other favorite is "the older I get the better I used to be."  My other two favorite ones are in the dishwasher, which is currently running, so those will have to be shared another time.

In other good news this week, I think we finally got our climate control issue figured out in the attic.  We had someone out this week to service our air conditioner, which I'm glad is in good working order because when he told me how much a new one runs I about died.  Probably should start saving up for those now!  I asked the guy about our issue with the temperatures upstairs and he suggested a couple of things.  We closed off the main vent down in the basement to force more air upstairs; I didn't really think we needed to be heating and cooling the basement.  He also taped up a couple of spots that were leaking air around the cold air returns down in the basement.  The other thing he suggested to us was to run the fan controlled on the thermostat all the time to keep air moving throughout the house.  Since it has been pretty warm out the last couple of days, it has been a good couple of days to test out the attic and see if it was livable.  I haven't had the air on except when it was in the 90's earlier this week, and it seems pretty good up in the attic.  It seems like with the fan going all the time air is moving around up there is it doesn't choke you out when you go up there.  This is good news guys! 

Well, time to call it a night and prepare to face my Friday.  Other than seeing Star Trek this weekend and the usual grocery shopping plans, I don't think we have anything big on the schedule for the weekend.  I think I see laundry in my future.... two weeks worth of laundry for someone that has been away (not naming names here).  It will be glad to enjoy a couple of days together this weekend with Andrew back in town. I see some walks with the dogs and ice cream runs in our weekend plans!

I will leave  you with a photo I took last night of the dogs while they were sleeping.  Buddy was keeping Andrew's spot warm as he has been most of the time he has been gone, and Maya was keeping watch at the door awaiting Andrew's return.  Do you think they are ready for him to come back?

Mother's Day Weekend Recap

Did everyone have a good Mother's Day weekend?  Happy late in the day, or maybe next day depending on when you are reading this, Mother's Day to all the mom's out there.  Even for those mom's whose babies have a little more fur than human babies.  I count Buddy and Maya as my kids! 

The dogs and I spent the better part of this weekend at my parents house.  Saturday, my mom and I went to buy our flowers for the planters this summer.  We checked out a couple different greenhouses because everyone has something a little different.  Of course I bought more flowers than I had pots for because I can never say no to flowers.  Luckily, my mom loves flowers as much as I do and has collected several pots over the years, so I knew she would be willing to lend me a few to help me with my dilemma.  I was up at 9:30 this morning planting flowers; I'm sure my neighbors think I'm nuts.  I wanted to get things in pots before this open house this afternoon. 

Of course, it turned out the pots will be for my own enjoyment only.  I don't know if it was because today is Mother's Day or what the deal is/was, but there was not a single soul at the open house today.  I had mixed feeling when I found that out.  I have decided perhaps this is a sign that we are supposed to stay where we are for the time being.  I think I go back and forth on this minute by minute throughout the day.  One minute I think this house is too much work and not enough space and drives me crazy.  The next minute I think there are so many things we can do to the house and it is fine for us right now.  It is a constant battle with myself. 

In my rush to get flowers planted this morning, I was able to get two of my potting projects done that I have been wanting to do.  I thought I would share a couple of photos with you so you could check out the projects.

 First, I thought I would share a photo of Maya making her bed in a flower pot at my parents house.  This was after she paced around on their deck for a good 45 minutes. 

 This flower tower above is supposed to be straight stacked pots and not tilted, but I had an extra pot and there was too much of the metal rod sticking out the top, so I came up with an adjustment to the original plan.  I think it turned out alright though.  I can't wait until things start blooming!

 Here is my herb tower I planted this week along with the watering can I picked up last weekend with flowers planted in it. 

 The rocking chair with a new cushion and the foot rest with new fabric on it. It is supposed to be warmer out this week, so perhaps I will get some use out of the chair this week! 

    Here is my flower tower out front with red white and blue flowers.  Stop on over and see us and check out our flower tower! 

 

I have a few more projects I worked on over the weekend, but I will post those later this week.  Hope everyone has a good Monday.  Monday's aren't my favorite day, but this one begins out countdown until Andrew is home.  We will all be very happy to see him at the end of the week.  Maya has been a little lost without him this past week. 

Can't This House Just Look Like The Ones In The Magazines

I see all these photos of houses in magazines while I'm in waiting rooms, or online on websites like Pinterest, and I wish for a minute my house could look likes those. I love some of the styles they show, but I'm always afraid that attempting too many of those projects is going to end up in a total hot mess.  I think my main problem with the house is that there really is no theme for the decor in the house.  OK, we might have a color scheme going on with natural earth tones: reds, browns, and blacks.  Other than color, I'm not sure what else we have going on.  I feel like I might need to leave for a few weeks and come back to the house to see what I think.  Perhaps my problem is that I sit and look at these things all day, so to me they just seem kind of blah.

I took today off to try and get some projects done around the house and get ready for the open house on Sunday.  Since I have been running around most of the week, I haven't really been keeping up with the cleaning this week.  Come look at my kitchen, and you will know what I am talking about.  I'm not sure I got any cleaning done today though, I think I might have made a bigger mess than when I started.  I did learn today that we have the tilt out windows in our house, which makes cleaning them super easy!

I did actually get a lot accomplished today, despite feeling like the only thing I did was make a mess.  I spent a good hour shredding paperwork today.  I don't understand how this task can take so long, but it did.  I got my herb planted finished up, and started on one of the other stacked planters.  I ran out of potting soil though, so I had to make a run tonight to get some more and will have to finish up on that project this weekend.  I also managed to get the lawn mowed, which was pretty major for me considering I'm not sure when the last time I started a mower was.  With all the rain and then all the sunshine this week, our lawn was starting to look like  pasture, which wasn't really screaming "buy me." 

I had one destruction project I managed to get out of the way today.  In the stairway down to our basement, there was some random wood paneling that has been ripped off part of the way since we bought the house.  I decided that was an eye sore, and something needed to be done about it.  I slapped on a pair of gloves and drug out the hammer.  After pulling out a few old nails and giving the paneling a good tug, it came down pretty much in one large piece.  That space looks so much better now and doesn't feel quite so claustrophobic.  I will post a picture for you guys later. 

My current project, and I say current as in it is still drying out in the garage, is painting the bookcase I am using as my coffee station.  When I was at the store earlier this week, I picked up a can of black spray paint.  Never again will I use spray paint for something like this.  I would much prefer to use a can of paint and a brush for this type of project; although I suppose you could also use a roller and a can of paint.  I have now gone through two cans of spray paint and the project isn't done yet.  In addition to being high on spray paint fumes, my finger hurts from pushing down the button on the spray paint, I managed to get paint on a pair of sweatpants I didn't really want to get paint on (yes, I realize I shouldn't have worn them if I didn't want paint on them, and I'm annoyed that the project still isn't done.  Sometime tomorrow, I am going to have to go to the store and buy yet another can of paint; annoying.  I will post a picture of the project when it is finished. 

This will probably be the last post until Monday.  Since the hubs is away this weekend, the dogs and I will be spending time out of the house.  Tomorrow is flower shopping day with my mom in honor of Mother's Day, and Sunday is flower planting day!.  I'm looking forward to spending a pretty solid weekend with my mom.  I love me some mother daughter time!  Don't forget to wish the mothers in your life a happy Mother's Day on Sunday.  Of course, don't wait for Mother's Day to tell them how much you love and appreciate them.  Mother's like to hear that every day!