Help I Moved Into A Giant To-Do List

I've been working my butt off around the house, though I feel like I have nothing to show for it - which is the problem with maintenance and upkeep tasks - they're not flashy, or pretty, or fun.  But things have been accomplished, all the same (I can tell by my aching muscles, the cuts and bruises all over my body, and the spray paint on my legs).

Since last we spoke, I've: 

• replaced most of the outlet and switchplate covers in the house with new ones (old ones were yellowed, dirty, and encrusted with paint)
• hung blinds in my bedroom (white, 2" faux-wood "plantation shutter"-esque) 
• gutted and mostly-organized the garage (everything had been just thrown in there in a hurry and I couldn't get to anything to use it)
• purchased and assembled the following items from IKEA: 
• FORHOJA kitchen cart (squee!)
• HELMER metal file cabinet (I have one serving as a "leg" on my 8'-long sewing table, I wanted another one for the other end, for even more small-items storage) 
•  DALFRED swirly-stool, used as a plant stand in my bedroom window (I've always wanted one of these, and for once, by the time I got to Ikea, they still had it!!)
• pillows, comforter, sheets, bathroom rugs, towels (not "assembled" so much as washed and put into use, and OMG is my bed comfy.  It's been like sleeping in a hotel bed!) 
• spray-painted all the iron decorative things I had hanging on my front porch at the old house.  Not sure what I'll do with them, but at least they've been freshened up
• spray-painted all the decorative push-in garden edging and placed it around the border in the front yard (no plants yet, but I'm working on that).
•  gutted this little shelfy-nook in the living room wall, which had about a million plastic clips which were caulked (?) to the wall and had been painted over a few times;  I removed them with pliers (!!) and then scraped the holes flat and patched them, and primed over them. Here's a before picture: 

 

Aw, there's the old flooring. I do not miss it.

• This isn't a me-thing, but we got Google Fiber installed on Saturday!  We had had our AT&T U-Verse transferred from the old house, but it would NOT. WORK.  Seriously, we didn't have tv, and only barely had internet and spotty wifi, since October 1.  THANK YOU GOOGLE OMG.  
• Installed a towel rack in the master bathroom; and a towel rack, toilet roll holder, and vanity towel ring in the small bathroom. 
• "Repaired" loose sink faucets in the master bath (they just weren't screwed together all the way)

Next Up: 

New blinds for Sylvan's room
Prime and paint everything, ever
Hang a pot rack in the kitchen
Put up new covers for the exhaust fans in both bathrooms (one missing, one broken)
Repair a leaky, running toilet - first the flapper, and if that doesn't work, the whole fill tube and float
Start looking at fabrics to reupholster the couch and wingback chair in the living room

Also, I need to take a good hard look at the way I'm scheduling myself.  I am not happy.  I am, in fact, staggeringly unhappy, frustrated, sad, and angry all the time.  I've been busting my butt on this house, and even though the stress from the sale of the old house is over, I don't feel better at all.  I'm not allowing myself time to rest, or to do things I enjoy that lift my spirits and make me feel good.  I haven't ridden my bike in over a week, because I keep having to do something else that's more pressing than cleaning my bike and getting it souped up and ready to ride - which I need to do.  Bike makes brain run smoothly.  And I literally can't even remember when I last played my guitar, or painted a picture, or did anything, really except either get a house ready to sell or fix up a fixer-upper house.  I gave myself a little manicure one day after work last week and I felt SO guilty and angry with myself for not getting anything done for a whole two hours.  That's a bunch of self-induced, unhealthy stress that I can really do without.

Even at my busiest, I used to always allow myself the entirety of Wednesday evenings for a "spa night" - it's when I would do my nails, my toes, take a hot bath, dye my hair if I needed to, and generally just sit around and pamper myself all evening.  I also used to have a "noise night" on Thursdays, when Sylvan goes out for a coffee and writing date with a friend of hers.  Noise Night was for guitar practice, or for throwing on the radio at top volume and painting until I couldn't hold a brush anymore.  I miss doing those things.

If scheduling time to chill is what it takes to get me to freaking chill, then that's what's going to happen.  I am officially putting myself on my to-do list.
So there.

Bedroom: Accomplished

My weekend was extremely busy.  I was off work on Friday; I basically woke up, had some coffee, and got to work - and didn't stop until Sunday night.  I painted walls and fixtures, moved furniture, repaired furniture, worked in the yard, cut pieces of wood into smaller pieces, worked on my bicycle, rearranged rooms, hung curtains, knocked out a bunch of boring, regular ol' housework - so many things!  I'm actually sore all over, I worked so hard. 

My biggest (and favorite) accomplishment from the weekend was this:

At last, a bedroom that looks like my actual bedroom!  Literally, actually - like 90% of the things in here came from my room at the old house;  even the paint color is similar (this is Glidden "White Bucks," a very, very pale gray;  the old room was Behr's "White Clay", which was a warm white with yellowy-green undertones). 

All of my old bedroom furniture is here.  I didn't exactly want to throw it all into the same corner, but, that's the way the room works.  Believe me, I'm perfectly willing to sacrifice options for that huge, glorious box window. 

It ends up functioning like a little "work triangle", like you hear about in kitchen design - it definitely makes getting ready for work in the morning fairly hassle-free.

Interior With Woman Reading,
Carl Holsoe, 1863-1935

In case you're wondering - and I'm not sure if I ever mentioned it before - my inspiration in this room (and its predecessor) comes largely from Carl Villhelm Holsøe's paintings of his home.  I like Victorian interior paintings in general; but there's a contented tranquility in Holsøe's work that I really love. 

 I cannot get enough of this amazing, 16"-deep box window. 

 Rabi likes it, too. 

In case you missed it in the pictures above, this is my Aardvarkadile.  It's a crocodile with enormous, floppy, lopsided ears, because...well, why the hell not, right?
Hee.

Just in case you forgot, here's what the room looked like before I moved in - not a terrible blue on the walls; teal and gold inside the window box and all over a decorative shelf that spanned one wall of the room; linoleum tile on the floors. 

There's also a hand-painted ceiling fan;  it's still there, but I flipped the blades so that the plain, pale-wood-look side shows. 

The pink duct tape on the window was actually holding one of the panes in place - about a week ago I removed the tape, the pane, and all the old caulking, and re-set the pane into the frame. 

Things left to do in this room:  

• baseboards will be installed soon by the tilers, who removed the old ones when they installed the new (gray, ceramic, wood-look) tile throughout the house
• there's no door on the closet.  If I catch that curtain on my face and pull it down onto my own head one. more. time...
• what was left of my bedframe finally collapsed!  Time for a new bed. 
• The windows desperately need blinds, or some other privacy-protecting covering, underneath the sheer, white curtains.  That window film, though lovely - even though it's mismatched - is practically transparent at night when the lights are on indoors. No bueno. 

Bedrooms Underway

I've begun painting - well, okay, priming - my bedroom.  I'm nowhere near ready to show you a whole room yet, but here's a shot of the inside of the box window in progress:

The room itself is a medium/pale blue; inside the box window is a deep teal with a metallic gold paint sponged over it. 

I'm painting the room white for now, because that's what it was before, and I loved it; and also because white paint is what I have (left over from last month when I spent two weeks painting the old house out in a "neutral" color that turned out to be a bit lighter than I thought it would be (Glidden "White Bucks", which is actually a very pale, warm gray. Very pale).  I may change the color later, but for now, I'd really like to be ONE color.

Other plans include purchasing blinds to go into these windows; hanging curtains (blue or white sheers from the old house, not sure yet); and decorating that big, glorious window seat with cushions and plants. I'd also like to replace that window film so that the film is the same on all the panes - something low-e that offers a bit more privacy. (These swirly and frosted-looking bits are lovely, but I can see every detail in that room from the outside, and my eyesight is terrible).

(For reference, the "White bucks" on every square inch of the old house, just after we moved out).


















Meanwhile, over the weekend I painted Sylvan's bedroom.  I still have to finish the trim and doors in there, and then paint the ceiling; I'll have pics of that when it's all finished, too.

More soon!