A Little Catch-Up

I know I have been so behind on posting lately.  It's been busy around our household with repairs and our actual jobs, that I have had little energy leftover for posting.  I feel like I am constantly playing a daily game of catch-up...and losing horribly.  Sadly, I've even been pulled away from enjoying my camera lately that I missed a free workshop this past Thursday that I had been planning on attending for a few months.  arg.

I have a lot of updates to share but little time to compose it all at this moment.

This past Friday and Saturday, we finally got our new roof installed since it was severely damaged from the huge hail storm over a month ago.  It was previously a dark  boring color, but Sparky and I decided to change it up with Terra Cotta shingles this time around.  It's not ready for a final unveiling quite yet, but here's a sneak peak halfway through.

I'm still working on sanding and re-painting all the guest bedroom furniture.  I hope to get this done next weekend.  As for this past weekend, my mother and I finally ventured out to the fabric store and I picked out the white linen fabric that will be my new sofa slipcover!  yay!  I can't wait to see the final product and share with you!  I'm hoping the final look will sort of resemble the Oasis sofa from Crate and Barrel...or at least the same feel without the $2,000 price tag.

As for now,  enjoy a little romp in the back yard with Ruby!

I always wonder what she ponders...I imagine it's food related.

What?  Did you say food?

Look at the movitation in that face.

So much enthusiam for such short stubby legs.

...and,

No.

I didn't mean myself.

Keep on Keepin on.

Closet Bliss

So, Sparky did it again.  He came through on another promise.  Yay!

Here's the background.  I have a tendency to be a bit controlling in my home about where "things" go and how they are organized.  I need my daily life to be functional and un-cluttered at home.  Otherwise, I am very cranky...to say the least.

When you live in a house that was built in the 1950's, closet and storage space was not considered a priority.  I only know this because I live in a house that was built in the 1950's and I'm convinced it had the original closet systems.

Why is it that people thought one single metal rod stretching 6ft would hold all the clothing you own in a functional clutter free zone?  It is beyond me.  One of my first annoyances moving into this house WAS the closets.  Even my little house built in the 1940's seemed more functional for some reason - and it wasn't great by any means.  Luckily, this house has one walk-in closet in one bedroom.  The other two bedrooms have closets with sliding doors.  We won't even get into that.  I first had the two closets with the sliding doors and finally convinced Sparky to switch with me so that I had the walk-in closet. 

Everytime we go to the local home improvement store (which is often), I sneak over to the organization isle to drool over the awesome and organized closet systems.  They are soooo pretty.  I always stand and stare until my cell phone rings and Sparky is wondering where I wondered off to...as if he didn't really already know.

One day back in January (yes, January) as I snuck on over to the organization isle, I stumbled upon an amazing sale on the Closet Maid systems.  I waited for Sparky to find me so that he could see my discovery in hopes that he would fall in love with my closet renovation idea. 

It worked.

We left the store that day with all the pieces to make a dreamy closet for myself and to overhaul the other two closets in the house.  I almost cried.

Anyway.  That was back in January.  We were able to complete the two other closets within a couple of weeks, but my closet had to wait.   The reason?  Because my closet also has a window in it...a very old window.  It HAD a very old window, again, probably original to the house, that was single pane and loved to condensate and sweat all over the window sill and down the wall.  It was gross and definitely time for it to be replaced. 

So.  I waited.  and I waited.   and wated...and 4 months later during our vacation, Sparky finally got a chance to replace that dang-o window with a brand new double pane and much more energy and house friendly window.  Yay!  And finally my closet was able to be complete.

This was the first day we brought home all the boxes.  Of course, Ruby and Chewy have to inspect anything new to the home.

Fors some reason, stacked drawers in a closet is so appealing to me.

Here is the closet after the new window was put in.  We were able to put in half the closet system back in January, which is why the right hand side of the picture has the shelves and drawers.  You can still see the old rod hangar supports from the dumb dumb old single metal rod hangars that are totally not functional at all.  They are the two wood slats with a hole in each one on either side of the window.  Just sayin.  You can also see under the NEW window where the old nasty window left the stain from condensation.  ew.

EEEEEE!  So I found this pretty blue gallon of paint in the returns/rejects pile at the home improvment store.  It was only $5!!!  As soon as I saw the gallon of paint sitting there alone with all the other rejects, I just new it was perfect for this one wall in the closet...and I just had to bring her home.  And I'm so glad I did!  One of the best (and few) spontaneous purchases of my life!

This is also before we installed the left side of new shelves.

And here it all is with my stuff all snug in place. 

Here is a look at the right side of the closet.

Front view of the drawers that hold my folded sweaters and folded jeans.

 And here is the newly installed left side to complete the transformation.

I have a place for my shoes and I even still have an empty shelf!!

I of course have to have a place for my hats.  I love hats.

It's finally complete.  Now I should go buy something new to hang in it!

Keep on Keepin on.