Organization Overhaul Is Just Around The Corner

 

January in Never Listless town is going to be a fresh and clean month. It will be a major Organization Overhaul.

For now, I am putting bandages on my organization problems. But when January comes, it will be time to fix the problem permanently with some organization surgery.

Let's take a look at one of my recent bandage fixes.

The Junk Drawer!

 

Everyone has some sort of junk drawer. Mine is in my kitchen. It is supposed to hold pens, scissors, tape, floss (sorry, we're gross- we have it in the kitchen for those stinkin' popcorn kernels, broccoli bits, and asparagus skins that love to tag along in our pearly whites), note paper, q-tips (gross again- it is for booger patrol on Cora), baby wipes, etc. It ends up being the dumping ground for change, various tools and hardware, and all sorts of other random things. So, every once in a while it needs a good de-junking.

So, I tidied it up. When Organization Overhaul comes along I will take a look at what the problem is and try to figure out a permanent solution.

Here is the beautiful junk drawer after:

 

Unfortunately, there is a little babytoddler who can still reach it. 

Why not take a little gander at one more hideously disorganized area of my house...

The Pantry!

I love organizing... love love love love love it. So, you might wonder how something that I see so often could be so disgustingly messy. Well, a little over a year ago a little baby by the name of "Grabby-Hands Get-Into-Everything-McGee" entered my life. It was the most wonderful thing that ever happened to me, but not so for my poor pantry. As she gets taller and her reach gets higher we just keep moving the pantry items up and up. Yes, we could tell her, "heck no, lady. Your paws aren't allowed in the pantry." But I like her to explore and she loves opening and closing doors like nobody's business. We are in the kitchen a lot and the pantry door is hot real estate. And, so it goes... Ms. Grabby Hands goes a-grabbin'.

I did my pantry cleaning magic and turned it into this beautiful thing:

The Pantry After

 

Here she is playing with one of the things I leave on the lower shelves for her- an apron. 

Well, there it is, my friends!!! Are you counting down the days until January's Organization Overhaul?

Go ahead and make yourself a little list organization to-do list to get ready to go overhaulin' wild in January!

More About 80s Cabinets!

You're still reading? Good! That must mean you are really looking forward to a post about 80s cabinets! 

I could hear you chanting it... 80s CABS 80s CABS. Well, your wish is my command. 80s cabinets is what we will be talking about today.

In case you forgot... this is not the first post I have written about 80s cabinets. That is why this one is MOOOOOREEEE About 80s Cabinets!

Yep... this is what I do with my time. I take a photo of cabinets from the 80s and attach it to a super cool 80s girl (wearing  jellys, a SBTB cut-off sweatshirt, an Anaconda flap cap, smiley faced earrings, slap bracelets, and a mullet). I am normal.

A few weeks ago, I talked about painting the 80s cabinets in the lake house we thought we were going to move into.
Then, I mentioned painting an oak wet bar black.
Later, I showed you my first try at cabinet painting when I had no idea what I was doing.
And don't you worry your pretty, little heads because in the future I am going to show you some bathroom cabinets that I painted.

I get a lot of questions about how to paint cabinets. You could say that painting cabinets is my specialty. You really shouldn't say that though.

Well let's get this party started! I am going to show you some before and afters of 80s cabinet transformations!

I ran into a lot of really impressive cabinet redos when I looked into how to make cabinets like these:

from the Rustoleum Transformations website

look a little more like these:

Photo from here

So, without further ado here are the before and afters that impressed me most:

Before:

Photo from Rustoleum Transformations. I have never used the product Rustoleum Transformations but they have a great gallery of before and after photos that people have submitted. People seem pretty happy with them. 

After:

Photo from Rustoleum Transformations

Before:

Photo from Rustoleum Transformations

After:

Photo from Rustoleum Transformations

Before:

Photo from Rustoleum Transformations

After:

Photo from Rustoleum Transformations

Are these makeovers TOTALLY BLOWING YOUR MIND OR WHAT?

I know they aren't the most amazing thing you have ever seen. But for the cost of a gallon of paint and a weekend of your time... WHAT A DIFFERENCE!

Before:

This not so attractive kitchen was found here.

After:

The impressive after photo can be found here.

My father-in-law suggested adding bead board and trim to the cabinets we were planning to redo. It sounded like a great idea to me. So I did my research and found someone who had already done it.

The blog In Between Laundry has some wonderful photos and advice about how to take ugly cabinets, add bead board and trim and make them beautiful! Her father-in-law seems to be involved in her cabinet redo too!

Here is the kitchen when they moved in:

This is what they did to each cabinet front.

And this is what they came out with! This is the best after photo I could find. I think they are still working on the kitchen.

So, there you have it! 

Life lesson of the day: Ugly kitchen cabinets can be transformed. 

And, last but certainly not least... A HAPPY BIRTHDAY PHOTO OF MY BFF ANGUS!

Here is a photo of the birthday girl enjoying Thanksgiving dinner on the beach in '05!

Fresh, Light, Beautiful Kitchens

I got all excited about the idea of fancying up a kitchen recently. Thoughts were running through my head of redoing the cabinets, changing out the lighting, the flooring, counters, sinks, adding a back splash, fruit bowls, everything.

I began looking at some beautiful kitchens for inspiration. Well guess what! I am going to let you, my friends, in on the fun!

I love a bright, open-feeling, kitchen with lots of light!

Here are 19 examples from some hard-working, talented folks.

This one reeled me in with its beautiful grey walls, the gorgeous greens outside and the wooden beams. This wonderfully-windowed kitchen is from here.

Look at those subway tiles! Look at those glass cabinets! I'm ready to move in. The photo is from these talented folks.

I love the vaulted ceilings on this one and the long bar. These are the fireplace lovin' people who I borrowed the photo from.

This is a house I could imagine growing up in. I would be doing my homework at that island (at 2am because I am a terrible procrastinator). I would be making my pierogies on that stove. I would be breaking those pretty bowls and plates by spastically trying to juggle the oranges. Check out the bead board backing to that bookshelf!

This is one bright and modern kitchen. If I lived here I would definitely feel like I was vacationing in Stockholm but I don't see any problem with that!

Hello backsplash! What a pretty thing! I wish I could see what they are hiding in that open area under the sink. The photo is from these sneaky people.

Add bright yellow into any room and I will be a happy camper. I love how they have cabinets all the way up to the (very tall) ceiling. No wasting here! What a lovely, airy door! This photo is from these  yellow-lovin' dudes (probably dudettes too).

This kitchen has combined lots of different styles and they have done it well. What a fresh, light, beautiful kitchen. Photo from here.

WHAT IN THE WORLD! Who has a view like that? Why have I not been invited. To the people who own this kitchen: Yes, I accept your invitation.

LOVE the industrial look mixed with the calming blues and the awesome backsplash. This is the kind of kitchen where you have a good time making deviled eggs (?) just like the folks above. Photo borrowed from here.

SMART PEOPLE! See through cabinets when you have a nice window and lots of light on the other side of them. Adding some subtle grey tones and beautiful pendant lighting certainly didn't make me turn my nose either. This beaut of a kitchen was found here.

Clever! I am very impressed at how they were able to make this tiny kitchen feel so big. Those floors are driving me wild! Drool-worthy floor photo from here.

How lucky to have two windows in a fairly small kitchen. The bar really opens the space up! I love the wood counters! Photo on loan from here.

What a neat grouping of bottles at the top right of the page. That space is perfect for it. I love that they used a vintage-looking cabinet for the wet bar. Once again, I am digging the back splash on the back wall. This lovely space was found here.

Bead board bead board you are nifty! I love the idea of having a shelf stop right at the top of some tall, bead board wasinscottng. This fresh kitchen was found here.

This one is not exactly fresh and light but it is beautiful. AND look what I see hiding on the left side of the picture. I think I see a loft!!!!! Photo from here

Ohhhh la la! That FLOOR! That ceiling! That beautiful pendant light. This kitchen is wonderful! They even snuck a bunch of my favorite color, green, all over the place. Image from here

This one is a bit country and  a bit shabby chic. All of the light and the wood ceilings are what caught my eye. I do love some yellow and grey too- those are some funky cabinets! Image from here

Last but certainly not least is the gorgeous kitchen from the the clever folks over at Young House Love. They magically turned a dark, wood-paneled, claustrophobic eating factory into this fresh, light, and beautiful kitchen. Image from here.

Our kitchen at our current house is just fixed up enough that the anti-waster in me would be very upset about changing anything. I really like our kitchen and boy oh boy do we have a beautiful view (with lots of windows to show it off). 

All of these fresh, light, and beautiful kitchens have got me itching to get my hands on a real fixer-upper.

Getting Up Before The Sun (Way Before The Sun)

Good morning goooooood morning!

It is 6am and I have been up for about 30 minutes already. Surprisingly, it is not because my sweetie pie, little baby is up. She is still snoozing and that makes me very happy! I am up because I go to bed at 9pm. I like to act like I live with Dorothy, Blanch, and the girls (Yes, I figured that every other post needs a Golden Girls reference. Here was my last reference). And here is a photo of the gang because it makes me smile.

photo borrowed from here

Why do I go to bed at 9pm? It is not because I enjoying being a member of the Golden Girl Squad. Although, if that were an actual squad that I could join I would be all in. I go to bed at 9pm because my little, sweetie pie baby goes to bed at 7pm. Scott likes to make sure he gets some good, quality time with that little baby. He leaves for work by 5:30am in order to get home by 3 or 4. That way he gets a couple hours with Cora where she can do some of her favorite afternoon things.

I did warn you that Cora was going to get some serious post time.

A List Of Cora's Favorite Things To Do In The Afternoon:

• Jump on Big Bear. We have an ENORMOUS bear stuffed animal that we have cleverly named Big Bear. Cora thinks it is hilarious to run over and jump on him.

• Slap her belly. I'm not sure how she learned this trick but now when you say, "Cora, slap your belly" she will slap away and laugh and smile like it might be the funniest thing she has ever done.

• Find something just close enough to the counter's edge that she can grab and carry around the kitchen while acting very proud of her accomplishment. This usually means that Cora carries around a dish towel for most of the evening. She likes to put them on her head and walk around like she is hiding under it.

• Offer up her food while she is having dinner. Cora likes to try to feed me when I am giving her dinner  but she really likes to hold food out to people who are far away. She even likes to offer food to people on the phone or animals outside. 

• Take every single book out of her basket of books, examine each one for about 5 seconds then throw it on the floor.

• Zoom around in her "DJ Walker." She used to loveeeee that thing but now that she is a walking machine there is no longer any need for it. 

• Help me with the laundry. When she hears the dryer door open she comes a-running. Mainly because she is looking for a dish towel that she can grab and run around with for a while.

• Another sound that she goes wild for is the freezer door opening. Our freezer is on the bottom so it is just Cora's height. Exploring the freezer for the 5 seconds that the door is open is possibly Cora's favorite thing to do.

• Find some tupperware and take the lid on and off and see what she can fit in it.

• Put Kangy on our swivel chair and spin him around. Kangy is another cleverly named stuffed animal. I bet you couldn't guess... he is a kangaroo.

• Point to a glass of water on the table and clap (meaning she wants some). When she sees a smoothie on the table she goes wild. It becomes Clap City USA at the Ross-Spencer household. She does not take her eyes off it.

• Skype with Aunt Kelly or Grandmama. She doesn't get to do it all that often but when she does she is thrilled!!! We have found that the best time to Skype is while Cora is in her high chair. That way she cannot play "open and close" with the computer. She likes to blow nonstop kisses to them and they always get offered between one and a hundred peas.

• Head for bed. As I have said before sleeping is not Cora's favorite thing but for some reason when you say, "Cora, it is time for bed" she will stop what she's doing and go straight for the stairs. She does love to climb the stairs so that could be part of the fun. She also likes to take a quick detour to give Big Bear a little jump on before bed.

There is a little taste of Cora in the afternoon. Can you imagine if Scott missed out on all of that fun stuff. 

So, that is why we go to bed at 9pm and wake up at 5am (OK maybe one of us wakes up half an hour later at 5:30am claiming she is still trying to catch up from lots of night wakings when Cora was 6 months old and younger).

Decarpeting The House And Silencing The Stairs

It was Carpet City in our house when we moved in. It was in the bathrooms (I am not sure that toilets and carpet are supposed to mix), on the stairs, on the wall (it is on the wall part of a step from one room to another... I am calling it the wall) and it smelled like cat pee like you wouldn't believe.

Sorry. This is the best before photo I have of there being carpet all up in the toilet's face. Just trust me. It was there.

The carpet had to go. I KNOW THAT'S RIGHT!

• First, we ripped up all of the old carpet and vinyl.

• We paid to have someone put the new carpet down for us, but we saved money by ripping up the old stuff ourselves. I am not quite sure how much we saved and I would do the same thing again but that is because I am pretty darn cheap. It was a lot of work cutting that carpet into just the right sized pieces so our bulk trash pickup would take them. We also had to lug them up to the curb. And the best looking part of it all was that the area of my arm that was showing between my gloves and my short sleeve developed some gross, red spots from carrying yucky carpet. That's right people... I AM A FANCY LADY!

• We sprayed vinegar on every surface of the floor (lots of internet research told us that this would help combat the cat pee stench). That did not do the trick, so we tried it again and again. It smelled a little bit less each time, but it was still there. So, I called a pro... our old neighbor who is a professional painter. He suggested something called "Zinsser Bin Primer/ Sealer."  This is the holy grail of pungency. It smelled stronger than any paint or stain I have ever used. He told me that this is used after a fire to cover up fire damage and he has used it to cover bad smells.  It worked!!! Not the slightest hint of cat pee anywhere.

• After the smell was gone we could concentrate on our new flooring.

We had bamboo flooring put down in the living room and dining room.

We put beadboard on the little step in the living room where carpet was on the wall.  I tried to match the color of the bamboo when I painted the bead board.

Before Bamboo and Bead Board:

After Bamboo and Bead Board:

We had tile laid on a diagonal in the kitchen and bathroom (yay for no more toilet carpet).

The Floor Before The Tile:

The After Photos:

Now onto the stairs... I knew that I did not want carpet wrapped around what could be a pretty cool open staircase. So we ripped the carpet off and underneath was a builder-grade step. It wasn't pretty and there were nail heads popping up from both sides of the step.

Before Any Change To The Stairs:

As a temporary solution I painted the steps black. (Temporary turned into almost 4 years).

I also painted the railings from white to black to match the steps.

My father in law suggested that we not wrap the carpet around the wall near the railings like it had been.  So, we had the carpet people stop the carpet with some tacks and we put up some boards to cover the seam.

After Painting The Stairs and The Raling:

Fastforward 4 plus years. We now have a baby who is not the world's best sleeper... HUGE UNDERSTATEMENT.

You cannot believe how loud and squeaky our stairs are. It sounds like an elephant brought his entire circus squad to dance around on them when you walk down the steps.

We knew we wanted to upgrade the stairs eventually but we wanted to do some research... apparently four years worth of research to figure out what we wanted to replace the steps with.

After a few months of me making Scott go around the house instead of down the stairs so he would not wake the baby we decided new stairs were a necessity.

I called around a few places and got some quotes. Everyone was very helpful but I didn't love any of the ideas people had. Most everyone wanted to use a junky wood wrapped in a nice piece of wood to give it the appearance of one big piece of chunky wood.

Finally, someone referred me to "The Stair Master." Who knew... I should have just googled "stair master" in Charlotte to find what I wanted.

Mr. Stair Master suggested getting one big, honkin' piece of wood for each step and cutting each one to a different size so it would be a perfect fit. It turns out that I like a big, honkin' piece of wood! The only thing was the price was not right. I talked him down about $200. The price was still not right but the cost seemed worth it to help ease the stress of being crazy, new parents (maybe just crazy, new mom).

This is a photo that I sneakily took soon after he arrived. I was so excited to see the beautiful, new steps!

Here they are going in:

Check out those cute, little feet in the bouncy seat at the top of the steps. This is before she was anywhere near mobile. I promise she was safe!

I don't think Mr. Stair Master knew I was taking this photo.

Mr. Stair Master recommended we let the stairs dry out a bit more and also get some patina to them before we polyurethane or stain them. They have really darkened up quite a bit since they were installed.

I will be sure to post an updated photo of them when we get around to polying them.

I love my beautiful, SILENT as can be new stairs! In fact, the stairs are so quiet that Scott and I kept startling each other because we used to know as soon as one of us placed the first hint of a foot on the stairs.