Make my house more of a home

As I set out for my run this morning, this is the sight that greeted me by my mailbox. Catherineaq sent me the seeds, and I’ve been worrying that I’d have to tell her that I was so garden incompetent that her fail-proof Morning Glory seeds wouldn’t take in my garden.

Evidently I just needed patience. (Weeding might have helped.)

This weekend was a flurry of activity, and while there’s still some stuff I’d like to do, I feel like our house has made a big step forward.

We’re renters, so painting is out. But, we have curtains in every room except the office (makes a huge difference!!). I hung two paintings and two postcards in the guest bath and added green towels and a mat in there (it was looking pretty bare!). We are getting a new bed and new linens in our bedroom, and maybe a headboard (whoa!). In the guest room, we hung a map, curtains, and have linens to put in there that will actually look nice. I feel like every room has something on the walls and a touch of US. It’s so nice!

I bought some curtains on super clearance at Target which look great in my living room. I have a map and another curtain to hang in my office/guest room, and soon we’ll have a new bed w/ new bedding in the master bedroom (which means nicer bedding in the office!).

Small things add up.

Last time I was pregnant, I bought baskets. Lots of them. I’m not sure what I was specifically planning to do with them. I had these images of little baby things in them, but quickly discovered that was totally impractical. We still have a few too many baskets in the house (toddlers love them!), but my nesting instincts haven’t yet manifested their useless, annoying trait yet.

Instead, last night, I annoyed my husband by removing a large quantity of his (and my) clothing from Q’s closet so I could insert a hanging shelf for more baby stuff storage. Then I folded and reorganized all these items that have gradually become less and less useful for Q: receiving blankets, diaper pad cover, cloth diapers of two different styles (neither of which I used on the kid’s butt, but did come in really handy). I determined that I’d want to wash all of them (maybe even bleach them and then rewash them with fabric softener) and refold them before Fee makes an appearance. But there is a serious satisfaction level with seeing them all tidy on their shelves. Not to mention the empty drawer in the dresser. I also weeded Q’s summer clothes (why are those in the dresser?) so that my life would be easier in May, without worrying about why size 18 month shorts were hanging out with his size 3 years bottom. Actual blankets got refolded (while Q was bathing and couldn’t interfere) and tucked back under his crib. I’m so mentally ready to go through his baby clothes and sort them into gender neutral enough, and way-too-baby-boy-for-a-girl. But since I’m not even done with month 6, I’m trying to restrain the nesting a wee bit.

We’re heading up to my fil’s house where I’m going to check out my husband’s childhood bunk bed. No need to rush that down here, since Q can’t stay in a toddler bed overnight yet, but I’d like to get a sense of whether the bottom bed might work for Q in the fall. Grandmary would like furniture removed from her house, and I think L would like family furniture to be used by the grandkids, so maybe if it needs some alterations, they’d give us a hand… J’s already got a lot on his plate with the house projects planned and in progress.

I’m trying to not borrow trouble and get any overt desire to nest by repainting Q’s room. It could use a refresher, but it’s never as simple as my whimsical thoughts imagine.

Must keep nesting within bounds.

of a treadmill, we got a toilet.

when I consider the stress that is involved when the toilet backs up, this is bargain. (It’s only backed up for more than 24 hours, oh about 3 times in the past 12 months.) It’s white and new and doesn’t have any mineral deposits, which is aesthetically pleasing. J installed it and has removed the old toilet, which is good, although the old toilet now needs removing from the house… which hopefully will happen this week?

Anyways, he pulls out the toilet, and the first thing we see is that, of course, behind the toilet, there is a large area of the wall with no paint. I managed to quickly whip a blue coat and then then a metallic blue coat (to match the rest of the bath, less odd looking than it sounds) onto this square, and touched up a place or two where we’ve already nicked the previous paint job. I was thinking that this had been very industrious of me, and not at all necessary, although a good idea, when J pointed out that the tank for the new toilet might not be the same size as the tank for the older toilet, so this actually was a fairly crucial step, especially if I wanted the toilet to be installed within 24 hours. And, being pregnant, I kind of really prize having a bathroom 30 seconds from my bed.

so J gets the usual moral points for improving the household, but I get some credit for helping with details (for once). (Usually I’m in charge of general maintenance, and try to exempt myself from special projects.)

-exterior sun room
-most of upstairs in Sand Dollar
-my study in a purple inspired by eatitorwearit’s choice

We got a small desk to make the guest/storage room an office. My parents gave us a nice office chair to use. I’m excited! I’m looking for curtains and a bedspread to make it feel really nice in there.

We got a nice soap pump for the upstairs bathroom… made a difference, even if it seems small!

I’m setting up a home office/guest room, so we bought a very cute small desk for that room, and I’ve found some super adorable curtains to go in there… hopefully I can find an inexpensive quilt/coverlet and some sheets to make the room seem really pulled together. I think it will be in warm tones of taupe and red with some retro accents of avocado/aqua. I want a room that is collected but comfortable.

I’m also on the lookout for towels for the downstairs bathroom and a new shower curtain for the upstairs bathroom… and I want new bedding. And all kinds of STUFF. Sigh.

I think we just decided to keep renting our townhouse instead of buy a place. This means no painting. We have a pretty comfy place now, but it has no driving vision… a smattering of hand-me-down furniture, some framed prints. I want to work on this place, and work on making the small stuff we have work together so that when we DO get our own place, all we’ll have to worry about is the painting part! :)

So…
- curtains
- some cohesive palette/theme for the bathroom including an enormous picture of some kind
- hang up the rest of the pictures in our house
- small desk for me (I know the one I want, I hope it’s still there and still under $200)
- figure out something to go over the couch in the huge gaping white space
- do something about the wacky lamps we’ve accumulated
- replace this shitty coffee table and move this one to the basement!

I am not real good with this task. But now that I’ve got a little more time to think about it, I’m trying to set up a regular cleaning schedule that I think will help the house feel more cozy, and, heck, clean. Friday I have designated for laundry and fresh sheets on the beds. Clean sheets make me feel very happy. And clean laundry entails a certain amount of general tidying that always improves my satisfaction level.

We also ran annoying errands as a family today: oil changes and fixing what was wrong with my car (battery, much to my delight, I’d hoped that was the case). I’d love it if these things got done without me, and so would J, so doing them together eased the pain. Also picked up some freecycling stuff that will hopefully decrease our ice dam problem this winter. (Nothing makes a house less home like than a dripping ceiling and a cursing spouse.)