Sucess

   My re-organizing is going very well and is almost complete.  This started this spring with me deciding I wanted the bookcase & linen cabinet I had in boxes put together.  Then I moved on to cleaning out the workout room and turning my office into a sewing room/office. I then turned my "talents" to assembling a cherry hutch for the breakfast nook that had also been in boxes for 8 years. I then tackled turning the workout room into a storage/guest room.  Complete with a  fresh paint job and new curtains! I have also made curtains for hubby's office - I always line the curtains so they are great at holding in the heat in the winter and keeping the upstairs cooler in the summer.  Made a dust ruffle for my daughter's bed, a basket liner for my office, and spent a memorable afternoon (UGH!) cleaning the shelves in the laundry room.


So here are a few before and after pics:
The corner of my office with my daughter's desk:

Now it is a sewing & genealogy corner:

This bookcase had been in a box on my bedroom floor for 7 or 8 years:

 and it matches my bedroom desk:

This place did not have enough linen closets so I have added some: 

this one in the hallway: 

this one had been in the hall but was woefully inadequate, so it moved to the hall bath: 

I had a cabinet in the hall bath but it did not match the decor - i.e. it wasn't white! So I moved it: 

This was the breakfast nook hutch: 

Now it has been re-purposed to the master bath!

This is the hutch I built- that is one solid piece:

The storage area before: 

Now my dining room (the piano & bench have been moved to the livingroom) :

The workout room as it once was- gathering dust:

And now as a fully-functioning storage room/guest room: 

Some of the exercise equipment now resides in the master bedroom- to inspire us to use it more I hope:

Hubby had the brilliant idea of storing dumbbells under our bureaus- great use of space! 

What is left? Well, I still need to move a file cabinet for my hubby upstairs (it needs a cleaning), clear a bit of space in the garage for grill storage, move the grill there, paint my small white-glass fronted cabinet and move it into the dining room, design a table centerpiece, make my daughter a set of curtains (already have the fabric), and buy a traverse curtain rod for the dining room.  Then do the outside "stuff" --weed, mulch, etc... Then I'm done -- for now.  We have lived in apartments for 24 of our 34 years of marriage and I was not aware that in many respects I treated the house we built as an apartment - boxes everywhere, nothing ever "settled", etc.  When I finally realized that this spring, I chose to finally "settle" into our home! 

Conference, Mom, & a project

Well my "project" has gone well thus far.  Per usual it is moving faster than I thought it would.  The upstairs storage room is painted , touched up, and the blinds are up.  We have emptied the downstairs closet and reorganized that - which means moving my daughter's things to the storage room.  We shall see if I can get more done tomorrow (despite it being Sunday - with general conference it feels like "Sunday" during the 8 hours of sessions over 2 days) with my sweetheart's strong back to help out. Monday I am hoping to get the curtains done for the storage room, Tuesday I need to move the Lane chest downstairs and set up the tv & exercise bike in the master bedroom, and Wednesday I am hoping we will finish moving the storage upstairs!

It's LDS General conference this weekend- so I have been working between "sessions" (2 hour sessions watched on tv) and getting a lot done.  The talks by our leadership have been very inspiring.  Elder Holland (former BYU pres) had me sobbing with his talk about a mother's love.  I could think of Mom and not have any bitterness in my heart over what I perceived as her shortcomings.  Nothing like a temple sealing (done last weekend) to draw us closer to those we love. I am grateful for Mom.  She always sang "you are my sunshine to me" and I know she meant that.  She loved me and tried to be supportive even when she didn't understand me.  I am so different from her and my sisters, I often think she wondered if I was a changeling.  We weren't alike, had very different interests, and made life choices the other one couldn't understand.  But still she was my Mom and I love her and miss her.

I think Mom would have gotten a kick out of my redecorating.  Many of my earliest memories of Mom was her planning her next repainting binge.  Between the wood stoves and Dad's smoking, we had to paint the ceilings every year, so Mom would repaint or re-paper various rooms.  Furniture in my folks home was fluid-- most items were "family" - didn't belong to one kid or in one room.  I can remember taking a table from one room, a lamp from anther, and the dresser from a third to "redecorate" my room.  I do that in my home too. Some furniture stays in one place- especially in Hubby's office.  But recently a set of shelves have been moved into the foyer as a shoe rack, a closet has been re-purposed from long-term storage to hold the vacuums (yes I have two - one a Kirby and one a shop vac), and a Lane chest will become entryway decor.   So despite insisting I am not like Mom at all, I do have some of her best traits.