Tag: House

Adventures in Organizing…Part One.

Leave a comment

I have begun a mission, a mission to get rid of the junk in our house and keep it as clean as one possibly can with two small children. To get my feet wet, I decided to start with our bathroom. It really needed it. The Fly Lady helps a lot and while I don’t follow her intensely right now, its my plan to do so. If you are wondering what The Fly Lady is, click here to check things out!

The Fly Lady has one mantra that I know is working for me and that’s “Baby Steps”. I am usually the one that bites off more then I can chew and then has twice the mess half way through than what I started with. Its at that point I give up and nothing gets done. So tonight I decided to tackle one a small chunk of our master bathroom, the counter top and the top drawer. It took me only 20 minutes to complete both and I no longer live in clutter! (Well in those two places at the very least.)

Before

I constantly tried to organize this counter top, but to no avail. I needed a better system and I wanted counter space once again!

After

Counter space and accessibility to some of the items Shaun and I use on a daily basis.

I have to say that the two things that helped our situation the most were the jars I bought and re-purposing the top drawer because I had a new place for the things inside it. Here are a few tips that I discovered:

  • First off, I didn’t want to spend a ton of money reorganizing. I have enough junk as it is so I didn’t need to add anything else to the mix. So I went to a place where I knew I could find things at a very cheap price… Walmart. Ok, so I know a few of you out there have some issues with them and so do I but I knew I could find what I needed without breaking the bank. I just had to get past the lack of organization and the chaos.
  • What I wanted for the counter were apothecary jars to hold cotton swabs and cotton pads. I went to the bath section and found some cruddy looking plastic ones with metal tops. They cost $8.99 a piece. When I went to look for some drawer baskets I found myself in the kitchen organization section and found the beauties you now see on my counter. For a total of $8.97 plus tax I was able to buy all three of them. So, ONE cruddy PLASTIC apothecary jar for $8.99 a piece or THREE GLASS jars for $8.97 total. I WIN! It just takes a little bit of searching.
  • The small jar holds my cotton pads perfectly, the medium jar holds our cotton swabs, and the large jar holds my collection of lip gloss that I can never find when I actually need one of them. Now my lip gloss and chap stick can be found in one place and it looks pretty too!

The top drawer was simple to clean out. Most of the cotton swabs in the box fit into the medium sized jar and what was left in the box is now stored in our linen closet (another baby step for later). Basically once the jars were full, this drawer was empty. Now I could rid myself of one of the biggest pieces of clutter on my counter, my make up bag.

Before

Poorly used and cluttered drawer space

After

My new clean drawer with accessible make-up, moisturizer and face cleansers.

This one was a really cheap fix too! The black basket for all of my brushes was something I already had in the house. Its actually meant for my desk drawer to hold supplies but I wasn’t using it. So I re-purposed it. The three white baskets I also found at WalMart and set me back only $1.97 for all three.

So for this little adventure in organizing, I spent a total of $10.94 plus tax. Not bad and now my sanity is safe. At least for the moment. Next step, tackling the two remaining drawers and the cabinet under my sink. What about Shaun, you ask? Well, he is a guy so clutter in the bathroom really isn’t an issue for him! On to the next!

The Unpacking Continues

Leave a comment

So the day has gone fairly well. I have spent most of it working from home, cleaning and unpacking. The living room and kitchen are looking great and I will hopefully be able to post before and after pictures of them later this evening. All in all it has been a pretty uneventful day with most of the excitement coming from a trip to Target for diapers, wipes and a few other special things. Hopefully I will have pics of the house to post tonight!

The House and It’s Changes… Part 1

2 Comments

So many people have been asking to see the house and while we still have a lot of unpacking and cleaning to do, I will start the series of pictures that I have. What I plan to do is show before and after pictures of the house. Before we moved in and after we did some work and moved in our things. I have to say looking back the house has changed quite a bit and that is a very good thing! We basically have the kitchen finished, as well as the living room and master bedroom. Abby’s room is still in the works, as we dont have her furniture yet (it has been ordered and should be here in a week or two) and the office looks more like storage at the moment. It is exciting to watch as things change. Hope you enjoy and I will post more pictures as I take them to show the comparisons!

For the moment you can see the front of the house and the master bedroom. We havent done much to the front other then clean up the landscaping a bit. Any cosmetic changes will be done later on.

That’s 8427 Hatillo Avenue… pretty isnt it?

The master bedroom is a conversion that was once the garage. Yes that means we are left without a garage but oh well. We now have a large master bedroom that fits all of our furniture, which was a must. In the ranch style and contemporary homes built in the 1940’s, large master bedrooms are hard to come by. As you will see there was a lot to clean up and change, but its amazing how a little bit went a long way in here.

As you can see the blinds and trim were all in dark dingy wood and the carpet was once a blue color.

The french doors in the master bedroom lead out to the gorgeous backyard, which was a major selling point to the house. As you can see, the walls were super dirty and the carpet that was once blue, well… it was absolutly disgusting! Let’s just say they had several dogs and cats…

The transformation only took a few days, but what a difference! I am sure its noticable, even in pictures!

As you can see, we repainted the walls in a color called Potters Clay. The trim through out the room, the french doors and the windows were all painted white. We installed new blinds which were also white. And the biggest difference… we put in new carpet! Eventually we will put hardwoods floors down to match the rest of the house.

As you can see, no more dirty walls and carpets. We eventually took that fan down and replaced it with a chandelier that matches the sconces on the walls by each closet. So pretty!!

Well that is a small peak. I plan to take more pictures over the next few days as we clean things up and unpack more boxes. Once it is clean, I will take a picture of the master bedroom with our furniture placed in it and with our art and pictures hanging. It makes a huge difference and looks even more like a home!

Much more to come…. Stay Tuned!!

Growing Older, Wonderful Memories and New Beginnings!

Leave a comment

Ok so I am back! There has been so much going on that it was nearly impossible to keep up with it all. But I will catch up with everything as best I can!

Abby at 5 months… look at those big baby blues!

On April 2nd, 2009 Abby went in for her 6 month check up. We are always blessed to hear the words… “she looks perfect” and that was exactly what Dr. Calig said again! Abby was 26 inches long and weighed 18 pounds 15 ounces at the time. I am sure she has grown more since. Abby is changing so fast and is doing a lot in regards to development. She has just finished eating her first round of veggies and is now on to fruits. Luckily, she is not a picky eater and peas were her only issue. While she makes faces of distaste for them, she still eats them. Abby is rolling all over the place and I am sure will be crawling soon. If she had it her way, she would be walking instead of crawling but Shaun and I dont want her to miss that important step in development. We shall see what happens in the next little bit!

Abby at 6 months… Smiling away like the little cutie she is!


Since my last post and I happy to say that we have found a house! Yes, we finally found a home that we absolutely love! We put an offer in and now we have a wonderful home in the San Fernando Valley. We closed escrow close to the end of March and moved in not too long after. We have done some work on the house which has slowed our ability to unpack boxes, but we are finally settled and hope to stop living out of boxes soon! Once the work is finished I will post some before and after pictures for everyone to look at. It is a beautiful home and I am so happy to live here!

One drawback to the house was that the kitchen hadnt been touched since the house was built back in the 40’s. So Shaun decided that it was the first thing that needed to be fixed and right away. Work began completely gutting the kitchen before we moved in. I think we hoped that a bulk of the work would be done before time came to move, but alas it wasnt meant to be. The kitchen renovation has taken care longer then expected and still has not been completed. Shaun knew it was driving me batty as it meant that we couldnt really even unpack everything from the move, so I spent spring break with my parents and sister up in Montana. Abby came with me, but unfortunatly Shaun had to stay and work. I already had the time off. I had a wonderul trip and it was great to get away. Even though my parents still had to work because of the late notice, I still had lots of time to visit and relax. Abby and I had the chance to see where Aunt Jillian works ( both Bath and Body works and Tanya’s Dance Company), meet one of my dad’s coworkers, meet my moms coworkers and we had the chance to visit Yellowstone National Park. It was Abby’s first trip! We also had the chance to see Jillian dance at the Montana State Games in Billings. All in all it was a wonderful trip and as a plus I came home to a kitchen that was almost done, minus a few important details.

Its early in the morning but Abby smiles for mommy just before hitting the road for Montana.

Abby and Auntie Jillian had the chance to hang out quite a bit and Abby took everything Jillian had to say very serious…. I love this picture!

Abby seems to think she is Grace Kelly! She is sporting her glasses on her first morning out to Yellowstone…

Lamar Valley, Yellowstone National Park. This area of the park is home to several of Yellowstones largest wolf packs, the Druid Pack and the Slough Creek Pack.

Mommy and Abby in Mammoth Hot Springs, Yellowstone National Park. Can you see Abby’s adorable bunny slippers? They were a gift from Great Grandma Prueter, Aunt Diane and Uncle Barry and they looked absolutly adorable on her tiny little feet!

Other then that, we have been settling in and trying to get everything unpacked. Abby’s room is still the area were we have our boxes stored, but Shaun emptied a lot while we were away! Hopefully we will have it cleared and can set up Abby’s own room soon. It will be nice once Abby can have an official nursery of her her own!