Apartment Therapy 8 Step Home Cure!-Roster added 7/16 - Page 4

[es1967]

I love having fresh flowers in the house. Whenever I go to the store I look at the price and think $8 for some flowers that will last a few days and never buy them!! It makes such a big difference in my home though. Everything looks better!

[thewaggonerfamily]

Hey,
I found these household project forms to put our home projects on. http://delightinreallife.com/family%20notebook.htm DH and I started, but I think I'm going to go print some more and do one page for each room/area (Yes, we have at least that many projects! Our big old 128 year old house was condemnable when we bought it and it was a rental for 40 years before us. But she's a grand old gal and got really good bones.) Hopefully those of you in apartments can get away with just printing 1 or 2 forms. I'm actually pretty excited about this, since we have pretty much been going in circles and getting nothing done, not to mention DH being sick last summer and nothing getting done last year. And the mortification of dMIL being mortified about the state of our home last summer for the visiting nurse to come and wanting to do crazy surface cover ups that would cost big money and have to be ripped down to go back and fix what the real issue was. (I hope that wasn't too confusing) and we have materials for lots of the projects that need done. This will allow us to prioritize and actually FINISH a project or room <Gasp! Is that even possible?>

[anthasam]

I've been reading the book too, but we're still not sure if we're going to move or not, so I'm not committing to the full 8 weeks until we find out for sure. There are so many great ideas in this book!!!

I'll be lurking on this thread and hopefully joining late

[cece]

Originally Posted by es1967

I love having fresh flowers in the house. Whenever I go to the store I look at the price and think $8 for some flowers that will last a few days and never buy them!! It makes such a big difference in my home though. Everything looks better!

Me too! I bought a rose bouquet last week (cream they were gorgeous) and this week I got a bouquet of Everlasting (well, that's what they called them at the Farmer's market) It really brightens up the place and my LO really enjoys them too .

[miss_sonja]

Our dining and living rooms are looking and feeling good. We finally got rid of our old fridge this week and I decluttered the living room. Culled a box of toys too.

[Kavita]

I got flowers, and I also bought two inexpensive vases that are actually the right size for a smaller-medium sized but tallish bouquet (aka the average $7-10 grocery store mixed flower bouquet!) I've never bought a vase before, the ones I all have are sort of just inherited ones from when I've been sent larger flower arrangements. (We have a dear family friend, like an adoptive "aunt", who has sent us lavish flower arrangments when we got engaged, and when we got pregnant, and when we had DD.) The more modest flowers that I buy or DH brings home don't look as good in these huge outsized vases, and so I am excited now that I have two medium sized vases that they look great in!!!! I ended up buying some beautiful orange roses, and then there were some beautiful irises that weren't too expensive so I splurged on that too!

We also ended up finding some wrought iron furniture we love for our sunporch--we've been sort of looking around/planning to buy something for this room (which currently has no furniture at all except for an old table that we set plants on) since we moved in a year ago. So I ordered that today! yay!!! Even though that isn't really on the "program" for now, I'm taking it loosely and using it to get unstuck in areas where we've procrastinated or haven't really turned our full attention or cheaped out before doing what we'd planned.

I'm not making much progress with doing the floors, but I'll do that over the weekend when DH is home to run herd on DD, so she's not smearing yogurt or peanut butter on the floors in one room while I'm busy mopping in another. lol.

I also am working my way through "Mt. Washmore" of all the items we have that must be washed specially (handwashed, done separately, dirty dog rugs, etc.) that can't just be thrown into the washer with a load of clothes. And the regular clothes that are piling up while I'm occupying the washer with those items.

I am also making significant headway on ton of baby clothes that are strewn all over the basement floor. They were all nicely packed up in a tall moving box from when we moved, but then as I've gone to dig out one thing or another (cloth dipes to lend to a friend, carriers to demonstrate to another friend, preemie outfit for DD's doll!) the clothes and stuff on top have kind of come out of there and ended up migrating all over the basement. I'm sorting them out, picking out things to keep and deciding what to give away or sell.

P.S. Hope you all don't mind that I'm including things in here that aren't strictly "by the book", I am using the book a lot though for inspiration and new ways to think about our space.

[cece]

Kavita,

Fantastic! Thank you for sharing, please continue to do so. I love hearing what you are up to. I too am doing things other than what's just in the book.
I found the books so motivational, but rarely stick to "programs" so we'll see how this goes, or if I just have a fabulously cured apartment at the end of it any way no matter the means to get there, lol.

It's funny that you say that about vases, I found myself without any after a major purge when we moved from MN to CA two and a half years ago. Well, I bought my first vase as well- I got a great deal on a pretty little vase....and then my neighbor (and good friend) borrowed and broke it. So, long story short, I've been thinking about getting another new vase or two sometime soon. I've been using ball and mason jars in the mean time. The flowers I've been getting have been super cute in them any way.

Sorry that I haven't had time to update the roster, it's been a crazy week for me, and I love MDC way too much (read:it's my holdup in this process) so I"ve been disconnecting on purpose because all of this work feels so good. I also have a LO who was exposed to the chicken pox, so we were out doing fun things, now we are chillin' at home for awhile

Good luck to all of you and keep us updated.

[Kavita]

It's week 2!!! (or whatever week you're on. if you're on a week at all, lol.)

Well, we're making our way around here. I have done a lot of weird obsessive deep cleaning in the past few days. I weeded the cracks between the brick patio pavers in the back patio. There was moss growing between some of them and I found that when I tried to clean the patio off with a hose, the moss started getting blasted out. So that led to an entirely new project. I also scrubbed and cleaned the patio chairs and table. Inside, I deep cleaned the shower surrounding tiles and grout, and the shower caddy thingy, and the tub, and scrubbed the grout between the bathroom floor tiles--turns out that the grout is white and not brown, lol! It looks a lot better. We also cleaned the guest room (family coming to visit) and then vacuumed and mopped the floors in the whole house (well, first floor anyway--not the basement.) Of course with a toddler and two dogs the floors are already needing it again a day or two later!

Meanwhile, DH cleaned a lot in the sunroom (which is somewhat the bane of our existence because it gets filthy really fast and tends to smell mildwey and we didn't have any opportunity to enjoy the room because there wasn't any furniture anyway.) He cleaned the floors and windows, and picked up the loveseat/settee we ordered for there. The chairs will be delivered on Thursday. Anyway, it looks a lot nicer now. I also got a few more hanging plants for in there, and some little lights and a cool photo print and a hanging candle holder. So in the next couple of days we'll work on getting that totally put together (and maybe return any decorative items that don't work/we don't need.)

As I was out scraping the skin off my fingertips weeding the brick cracks this weekend, I had a little epiphany. I had been reading some article about finances (something like "five financial mistakes that will doom you" or something like that) and they were giving some warning about not having your mortgage cost more than 23% of your income or something for optimal financial wellbeing. I had gotten curious about what actual percentage of our mortgage is relative to our gross income and figured it out, and we were well within that zone. So as I was weeding, I was starting to think about our state of being overwhelmed with the house and yard a lot, and about my DH's reluctance to hire people for anything and his preference to try to save money by doing it himself or actually by not doing it at all. I suddenly realized that we are looking at maintenance in the absolute wrong way--like any maintenance that isn't immediately threatening (like a overflowing toilet or a roof leak or something like that) is sort of an optional item, and we feel guilty/anxious spending money on it. This guilt and anxiety includes things too like buying bigger ticket items needed to furnish a home (like furniture, TV, whatever.) I just suddenly realized that this is as stupid as feeling guilty for spending money when you are paying your property taxes, or paying your homeowner's insurance. We don't have any feelings of guilt or anxiety about paying those expenses, we just accept them as natural parts of the expense of homeownership that are inevitable and normal and we just write a check. And, we have money planned and alloted for our mortgage each month. So really, we need to just think of it the same way, and consider the cost of maintaining and furnishing our home as just a part of homewonership, the same way we consider the mortgage.

[cece]

Nice, Kavita! It is inspirational to read your posts. I am mostly at home for the next two days and I plan to finish my week 2 kitchen deep clean. Working on it right now, just taking a little break. I thought it would be nice to put a face mask on and do a little deep cleaning of my skin at the same time . I need to do the oven today, and I think I'm just going to buy some new plates for the stove, the silver ones that go under the burners. I haven't been able to get them clean since we moved in. Maybe my apartment manager will just order some, I should check on that first.

I'm going to have my friend come over and give me her opinion on where to put things in the kitchen, she's awesome at organizing and I just can't seem to get it right in my tiny weird kitchen with tall cupboards (I'm 5'2", lol) I realized last night that I need someone else's opinion, I'm not making much sense of it all. She helped me with my closet, and there's no way I would've known that buying a simple rack at the hardware store would solve that problem!

Wish me luck today, hope you all have productive days as well!

[miss_sonja]

I don't have the book yet:-(

We've banned toys from being in the living/dining rooms. Allowed only during the day for specific play, otherwise must be put away in the kids room.

It's so nice to be able to walk through there without tripping on toys!

next step for me is to clear off our bench near the front door. It's currently covered with library books, my books, DD's books, DH's tools and various bits and pieces. CAn I get it done today??

[MyLittleWarrior]

I just finished reading the book (I read it cover to cover over just a few days) and totally rearanged my livingroom furniture. It looks GREAT!! I'm so excited. I got everything out of the livingroom that doesn't belong, and everything here has a place to live. Now, even when the kids toys explode all over it, it's pretty easy to pick back up quickly. I also moved furniture in the dining room. It's not as dramatic of a change, but it does work better for the family. I really love all the ideas in there. I wish I could paint, but I don't think that;s an option in my apartment.

[cece]

Originally Posted by MyLittleWarrior

I just finished reading the book (I read it cover to cover over just a few days) and totally rearanged my livingroom furniture. It looks GREAT!! I'm so excited. I got everything out of the livingroom that doesn't belong, and everything here has a place to live. Now, even when the kids toys explode all over it, it's pretty easy to pick back up quickly. I also moved furniture in the dining room. It's not as dramatic of a change, but it does work better for the family. I really love all the ideas in there. I wish I could paint, but I don't think that;s an option in my apartment.

yay! : I love our new flow as well. Today, I need to empty my "outbox", or my trunk because I don't have room for one in my apt.

Still working on the kitchen, it's coming along .

[Kavita]

Wedding pics are framed!!!!!!!! ::::: DH is hanging them now.

(And I've only been married for five years! Cough, cough.)

Sister and family arrive tomorrow afternoon/evening. Woo hoo!!! Lots of last minute things to do, finish up some of this hanging/decorating. Tomorrow I'll clean house and rearrange the guest room. It was basically clean, but of course with toddler/dogs it gets dirty immediately. I think a little spiffing up will do, though.

[mamaheids]

Yea! just got notice from my library this morning that the copy I reserved is available. I'll be picking it up later today and hopefully get some reading time in today, since today is DH's day off. Sorry I'm beginning so late!

[es1967]

Originally Posted by Kavita

Wedding pics are framed!!!!!!!! ::::: DH is hanging them now.

(And I've only been married for five years! Cough, cough.)

Sister and family arrive tomorrow afternoon/evening. Woo hoo!!! Lots of last minute things to do, finish up some of this hanging/decorating. Tomorrow I'll clean house and rearrange the guest room. It was basically clean, but of course with toddler/dogs it gets dirty immediately. I think a little spiffing up will do, though.

I have a bunch of frames I bought that have been sitting in my closet for months. I wanted to put in some wedding pics(also married 5yrs ago) and of my DS. This has been bugging me too and I just need to pick out the pics then have DH hang them. My problem is I don't know which way to hang them on the wall so until I decide which way I am stuck. Their a group of white frames but I just don't know how to group them together.

[Kavita]

Originally Posted by es1967

I have a bunch of frames I bought that have been sitting in my closet for months. I wanted to put in some wedding pics(also married 5yrs ago) and of my DS. This has been bugging me too and I just need to pick out the pics then have DH hang them. My problem is I don't know which way to hang them on the wall so until I decide which way I am stuck. Their a group of white frames but I just don't know how to group them together.

Do it! It feels great!!!! :::

[Kavita]

Um, it's a week later and nobody's posted--did I kill the thread?

Continuing work over here--we are taking things a little bit out of order but I got my guest room set for our guests, and then took some time off of all but the most basic house stuff to do things with them, and now I've started doing some decluttering in the drawers, basement desk area, closets, etc. I am really enjoying my new fluffy bath towel that I bought too!

One big blockage is that we have things that have material value that we need/want to sell, but this is not our forte. One is even a really big thing--we have a fridge that we moved from our old house because it was pretty new and we loved it, but it doesn't even fit through the doors here, much less in the kitchen! So it's been sitting in the garage. We posted it on Craigslist and got a lot of responses but then nobody followed up. So, there it sits. I am going to get that done within the next six weeks, though!

[es1967]

I'm going on vacation to Canada for a month so I have not accomplished much other than chasing and cleaning up after my super active climbing toddler. I've also been off in la la land stressing about everything I need to do before leaving. Hopefully, when I return in September I'll continue on with my projects. I'll be checking the thread though. Kavita, do you have any pics of the frames you hung on your wall? I don't know how to group the set of frames I have. They are all different sizes and I'm stuck. I guess I could take a pic of them and see if anyone can help me.

[CrunchyDoula]

I'm back! The move is finally over and we are in our new home : That was a huge weight lifted off my shoulders!! I was able to pick up the book yesterday at the library and started to read it. I haven't gotten far, but I like what it has to say so far! I'll update more later once I read a bit more

[p.s]

Hi:
may I join? ordered the book on Amazon and it should arrive by Mon! so excited to cure our home too.

BTW, I love reading everyone's posts and find them so inspirational.

Kavita: just wanted to let you know I esp. am so motivated by your wonderfully descriptive, conversational posts . i suspect your posts do not kill the thread... but rather motivate everyone to go cure their homes and not waste any time OL!