Organization Overhaul Completed

Tags

house projects, organization, remodel

Four portions of my kitchen have been reorganized for the new year of ’14!! I originally had only planned 3 – the shelves, closet under the stairs, and the pantry area; however, I realized with the new space in the closet, I could move boxes of dishes out of my upstairs closet and unpack them or restore them, which inspired me to clean and organize my dutch hutch. 

First here are the before and after pictures of the first three areas newly organized. 

 

The closet is very narrow and oddly shaped: 27 inches at the widest part and then it narrows to 25 near the floor. Yeah old houses are fun. 

Before Area 1: closet under the stairs

 

There was about two feet of space in the very back that was not even being used! As I struggled to move the shelf, I prayed that there were not mouse turds/nests back there, but it was clear! 

Semi-after: completely cleared out

 

In the far back area, I have the larger electric cooking materials (i.e. frying pan and griddle). There are a few more boxes back there now that contain dishes that are still in the boxes. Our cupboard space is limited in the kitchen and we like our Correll dishes. 

After Area 1

 

Small stacking bins are great for holding smaller items

 

Only items that fit on this shelf are allowed to be in the closet (kleenex, rags, swiffer wet pads, and paper towels)

 

These are very visible areas as the kitchen/dining area is all one room. I think I’ve done a good job keeping the food neat/tidy, but I just get tired of looking at it. The smaller shelves in the background contain cookbooks and vintage tins (flour, tea, etc), and the three shelves beneath are all frequently used office supplies. 

Before Area 2: the shelves

 

You can still see a few things inside the baskets, but overall they conceal all of that stuff quite well!! I was slightly disappointed in Target’s lack of variety in baskets. Are they going out of style? They had two choices. And I wasn’t willing to drive all the way across town to Michael’s. Grrrrr.

After

 

The pantry area received a new concealing curtain. I wanted a simple, geometric pattern that had vertical lines to draw the eye upward. It’s kind of a dusty grey, blue color. My husband hates it. Well maybe not hate, but is not very keen on it. (For one who hates clutter, the open pantry did not bother him). I still have my receipt, and I’m debating about taking it back and getting something a tad brighter. We both love the new rug though. It strangely matches our counters quite well and adds a new pop of color at the bottom of the stairs. And of course, Twiggy photo-bombed the shot (as cats are wont to do).  

After

 

This is my Busia’s dutch hutch that I think she had in her first home when she and my Jadja moved in. It had a cute little niche in the wall where it sat. It contained all the Pfaltzgraff china and on Christmas, she set up the Nativity scene on it. I remember when I was six or seven, I got my first camera with the cool flash bulb you stuck in the top and one of the first things I took a picture of was the Nativity set. 

After Area 4

 

In the winter, our kitchen area is really bright and cheerful around 10 a.m. and then again on really sunny afternoons as the sun sets.

After Areas 3 and 4

 

I’m really please with how everything has turned out!!!! Who knows what project I will tackle next. 

Flowers and man caves

Tags

cats, flowers, garden, house projects, man caves, yard

In the second spring in our home, we are settling into some spring traditions. Last year my mother-in-law helped a ton with planting several containers/boxes with me. She showed me the ropes and how to pick out flowers from the store and then how to fertilize the soil etc. Now this year, I felt comfortable accomplishing all those tasks myself.

So the asters in the boxes have not fared well. I’m not super upset about this because they cost 1.50 from Walmart. But still. I got flowers from there last year and they were fine. Are asters not hardy WI spring flowers? Hmmm. I guess not. Almost half of them have died. At least, I’m assuming they’re dead. The flowers have withered and died (so I popped them off, thinking/hoping new ones would sprout) and then the stalk turned brown. Not sure that’s a sign of life. However, the pansies are doing well and growing. Hopefully our little bout of frost Sun night (grrrr) did not hurt them too badly.

But in better flower news, the muscari have taken off and even a second flower sprouted out of each stalk! The hostas that I transplanted are all surviving too. They have filled in nicely. Lastly, the bright red tulips bloomed and so did the pink hyacinth. I love the color combo next to each other as well as the height contrast. I want more all around that rock. New goal. Then, in the shade garden all but one hosta (a bluish colored one) have come back and the bleeding hearts have shot up and bloomed and each of the two plants has two or three branches with flowers. So pretty!! Those are my husbands favorite. And yet…..he despises poppies because right now before they have grown a stem/bud/flower they look like weeds and he can’t stand them. I love them and I can’t wait to see them. I think we definitely have more than last year (haha). Because I want to keep them, I think I’m going to have a hard time convincing him to do so unless I figure out a place to transplant them to. So….now I’m wondering how do I transplant poppies? And where do I put them in my yard? They are growing int the “shade garden” which isn’t so shady when the trees don’t have many leaves.

Yesterday, on Mother’s Day, the cat caught a bird. I really enjoy the birds in my yard. And yet, I don’t feel bad letting her  catch and eat a bird. I figure it was not going to survive one way or another anyway so what does it matter. It’s only her natural instinct. After 7 years of living indoors, she finally caught and ate an animal. I’d say her life is pretty near complete!

Our third and last chair has arrived. We picked it up on Saturday. In buying furniture, I have totally followed in my mother’s path of don’t get anything white that will show the dirt. I don’t have time to clean or pay someone to clean my furniture. I brush the cat fur off and febreeze the room and we’re good to go. So my couch is a soft red color and my other two chairs are grey (not awesome for hiding white cat fur, but she knows not to go on them). Well, I still stuck to my mother’s advice and got  a dark colored chair, but this one has writing on it. I’ve ALWAYS wanted a chair with writing on it, especially since it became popular to have that rustic French writing on it. Yeah. Well mine is in Lation. hahah!!!! I was shocked my husband agreed to this fabric. When we have to pick out fabric or colors, I sometimes pick out the most ridiculous one just to see him get all grossed out by it because he’s a boy. When I pulled this fabric off the rack, he’s like “wow, that’s really fun let’s get it!”. I know my jaw dropped and the older couple near us was totally laughing and the newly weds picking out furniture together. I was like, “ummm alright” and then I had to contain myself from jumping and hugging him because we finally agreed on a pattern!! haha again! Since moving into our house summer of 2012, we have officially replaced all of our living room furniture. It feels really good and the living room has a very adult look to it! We are both very pleased. We still have all of my furniture from my first apartment (2 chairs and a couch from my grandma) and his “man bachelor” lazy boy recliner. That’s up in the computer room which has a newly obtained “man cave corner” complete with Hawaiian scented candle that I got in Maui on our honeymoon.

Spring time yard clean up

Tags

flowers, garden, house projects, new plants, yard

Last fall, I believe I wrote about how my husband and dad reroofed a section of the roof on the outbuilding that is now my crafting oasis. Well, they threw down a tarp on the grass and all of the old roofing materials plummeted to the ground. Then it sat there from the end of October to the end of April. The worms, centipedes, and snails had a nice little home all winter!!!! We finally rented a dumpster and picked it all up (I tried to save as many worms as possible much to my husband’s dismay because I wasn’t “picking up enough stuff fast enough”).

Here is the before and after:

Before

Empty dumpster

After

After

Then I was feeling ambitious so I picked up some flowers for the boxes on the deck. Last year we had coleus, zinnias, catnip, dusty miller, and something else I can’t remember in the boxes. The deck boxes are the “annual boxes” (except for the catnip) so I’ve decided to change it up each year just for the sake of variety.

Wisconsin has had a really wretched spring with way too much rain, cool temps, random snow flurries/sleet, so I’m hoping that I did not jinx the weather by putting in the new flowers already. I purchased pink, white, and purple asters and yellow pansies. The dusty miller was left from the previous owner and reseeded itself last spring so I left it, but it had a mildew on it this year and did not look like it had come back so out it came.

Pansies and Asters

Then I was even more ambitious and since my hands were already dirty, I decided to transplant hostas. We have some really nice ones around the base of the walnut tree. The clumps are humongous and definitely need to be thinned. I just hope I did it correctly and did not ruin the ones already there. Around the deck, right at the edge, no grass will grow. I have no idea why. I think someone sprayed too much weed killer and ruined everything. Who knows. But my mother-in-law suggested we put hostas around it. I think it a swell idea because they do provide wonderful coverage. I chunked off about 4 – 5 sections of hosta and plunked them in the ground. Finally, in between those, I put in muscari or blue hyacinth. I’ve never had hyacinth and I really like the name and the shape. Except, after I put it in the ground, I read online that you are supposed to plant bunches of them near each other to give it a full look. I did not so much accomplish this as I split up the bulbs. But I’m hoping the hostas will fill in nicely around them and then the blue hyacinth will poke up in between.

By the tulips on the west side of the house, I put in two pink hyacinths. Not sure if they will bloom at the same time as the red tulips, but that would look nice.

Hostas and Muscari

We still have some more landscaping projects once it gets much warmer. I have holly hocks and a bunch of other bulbs/roots that need to get in the ground pronto. Our yard gets prettier each year!!