Anyway,  I was sitting on the couch watching TV after I got home from work tonight, waiting for the meatloaf to finish baking. Neal walked in the door and the first thing he said was “I smashed the shit out of my fingers today.” (I know, we talk so sophisticated, don’t we?)

Anyway, he held up his hand and showed me this:

And I threw up in my mouth a little.

I have this weird fascination with blood/wounds. I mean, I want to see, but then I also get that horrible sick stomach churning feeling and then I gag. Dry heave. Ugh.

First of all, I told him I don’t want to hear about it until after dinner. I had to eat meatloaf. With ketchup. And he also isn’t allowed to touch me with that hand, HAHA.

OK, so after dinner he explained that he was at the gym this morning and his fingers got pinched between one of those big disk weights and a bar. And then I proceeded to dry heave again. Neal said that was the same reaction he got from the front desk employee when he asked her for bandaids.

Anyway, we hope nothing is broken. Neal said he didn’t make a sound when he smashed his fingers. I told him I would have screamed my head off. He’s so stoic.

Dry heave!! GROSS!!

I’m changing the topic here, because I can’t handle the grossness anymore.

We had hail damage to our siding, so we are getting new siding. It’s just about done now, but here’s what it looked like halfway through.

The top is the old. The bottom is the new. I love it!

We also bought new outdoor lights. I completely despised our old ones.

Yay!

Anyway, that’s pretty much it for now. Neal needs help changing his dressings, HAHA, so I’m off to try and not throw up all over him. Have a great day!

I instantly began hanging my clothes on the rack and getting things organized. It was so exciting! I couldn’t believe I was so excited. And then I started thinking – I have not had my own closet since I lived at my parents’ house. In college I shared closets (a tiny dorm one doesn’t count). Neal and I shared a closet in the house we lived in on the west end, and we have shared a room in this house since we moved in. That’s a long time of sharing closets!

So anyway, I ran to Bed, Bath and Beyond and used their cool 20% off coupons to get a shoe rack for my closet. I’ve never had a shoe rack! Ever! I’m so exited about this! Hey, it’s the simple things.

Anyway, I had to be careful, as my shoes are… well… tiny. Fortunately I managed to get a shoe rack with bars close enough bars to fit my shoes, albeit barely, haha.

YAY!

I know, I’m so ridiculous.

I got some adorable shots of Simone this weekend. She’s so stinkin’ cute.

I love her little pink nose.

Ferris was in his “defensive posture,” as we call it.

HA! That’s obviously said with sarcasm.

So, I have a closet and cute kitties, haha. I’m so lucky.

Thursday night, we hung out with some of Neal’s coworkers, which was tons of fun.

Friday, Neal’s brother and parents came over so that Drew and Neal could move our dressers up to our bedroom. It took a whole of 10 minutes, and I’m so happy with how the bedroom is shaping up!

Please excuse the multitude of construction tools scattered around. It’ll look like a real bedroom soon!

Then, Neal’s parents and brother stayed for dinner, and my parents joined us. I made a bunch of stuff. I recently bought some Tastefully Simple beer bread, so I made that and threw in some cheese and garlic. It was really good.

Then, I made some ribs using my cousin’s boyfriend’s mom’s recipe (did you get all that? haha). They were magnificent. My dad loved them. I forgot to take a picture before we dug in, so this is a pic of the loan half a rack that was left.

And I made some lemon pepper shrimp kabobs.

I also made a pound cake and served it with some fresh fruit, but forgot to take a picture, haha. It was really fun to hang out with the family, and Neal and I really enjoyed ourselves.

Saturday night, we attended the wedding of college friends of ours, Paul and Bird. As always, it was a blast.

Paul couldn’t seem to keep his eyes open for a picture, hahaha. They were such a cute couple! I love Bird to death because she’s short like me.

And we had a great time dancing.

So anyway, it was a really fun-filled weekend! So sad it’s over. I still haven’t posted pictures of last week’s wedding, so I’ll have to do that later this week.

OK, sorry for yelling, but I am REALLY excited.

Want a peek?

Eeeeeeek!! I love it! Obviously, the room still needs trim and the baseboards need to be installed, which will look really cool. But for now, we have carpet!

The cats were hilarious. After about two years of pining at the closed doorway, Ferris was finally allowed to venture into the promise land. He was pretty funny. He cased the joint by walking the perimeter.

He would take a couple of steps, and then look back at the stairs, then a couple more steps, and a glance back at the stairs. Cats always need to know they have an exit.

And just as he was finished checking out the room perimeter, Simone peeked her head around the corner. She’s more timid than Ferris.

Simone was very skittish. She walked with her tail practically between her legs and always had at least one eye on the stairs, so that she could run away at a moment’s notice.

And just when I thought she was through, our little climber monkey spotted Neal’s pride and joy – the half wall.

And then Neal got home, and the cats seemed to be completely comfortable in the new room. Simone christened the room with a patented back jump.

HAHA.

So the first thing Neal and I did was take apart the bed and carry each piece upstairs. I have no pictures of this, as we were kind of preoccupied. I will tell you that the cats were NO help at all. Simone kept jumping up on the mattress and box spring while it was on its end in the hallway. Grrr.

I’ll also tell you that Neal and I claimed  MAJOR victory, as we were able to get all parts of the bed upstairs. That’s a pretty big deal, because due to the curve of the landing, it’s very hard to get large pieces of furniture to fit up there. We were not terribly optimistic, but we got it!

However, the box spring was definitely a challenge. For a couple of minutes, we weren’t sure it was going to fit. But with several very strong pulls (Neal) and one smashed finger (Megan), we were successful. For now, we’ll just have to ignore the large gashes on the wall. Ooops!

We set up the bed. Again, the cats were no help, haha.

Simone thought the box spring was the PERFECT place to give herself a bath.

And finally, we have a bedroom!

Simone made a home under the bed.

And Ferris hid under the covers. I think it’s hilarious because he had his paw poking out from under the comforter.

HAHA!

So, anyway, that’s that! Neal’s parents and brother are coming up Friday to help us move our dressers, since Neal and I are unable to do that ourselves. We still have to hang the curtain rods in the closets. But we are able to sleep up there now and enjoy the AC, so that’s pretty exciting! I love the room to pieces and am so excited it’s finished. There were times I thought it’d never be done!

I’ll post more pics of the room as we finish it up. Thanks to everyone who’s been following this home improvement project with me on the blog. I appreciate all the blog and facebook comments of encouragement. I’ve needed it!

And obviously, thanks to Neal’s parents for their blood, sweat and tears on helping us finish this room. We could NEVER have done it without them!

I did want to post the results of the painting of the bedroom Friday night. I’m SOOOO happy with the color we chose, Ivory Coast. It’s perfect and really is the color I had in my mind.

It is a light color, so I’m not sure how well it’s going to show up in pictures. But I’m so excited it’s painted We’re almost there!

Carpet will be installed this week and then we can finally move in! I also can’t wait until the cats are able to investigate, haha. Ferris has been trying to get up there for months, so I know he’s anxious to case the joint.

I’ll post pics as soon as I can. I hope you all had a good weekend!

There are a couple of reasons for this. First, I usually know what color I’m going for when I decide to paint a room. Second, paint is expensive, so I don’t want to buy a non-refundable color. And third, it’s a lot of work to set up, paint and clean up. I don’t want to do it more than once because I changed my mind on the color.

So far in our house, we’ve painted our living room, stair hallway and upstairs hallway one color, and we’ve painted the kitchen another color. Both times, I purchased no less than three samples. Those paper swatches? Yeah, to me, they only narrow down the selections. But I think that it’s important to purchase the paint samples, as sometimes the paper swatches just aren’t accurate. Trust me on this. I know these things.

So, I take my samples, paint them on the walls in 2×2′ swatches, and then live with them for a week. I need to see what the colors look like during the day, and then also at night in artificial light. Anal and ridiculous? Yes, but I love the paint colors I’ve used so far, and I credit it with purchasing samples.

So, this is my deal with the bedroom. As if I didn’t learn my lesson, I picked up a paper sample at Home Depot of “Oatmeal.” For the bedroom, I knew I wanted a light, warm tan or off-white.

On a side note, I use Ralph Lauren paint, on recommendation from my mother-in-law. I think it’s important to use high quality paint. We have RL paint in the majority of our house at this point. It goes on well, and doesn’t need two coats. I also think the colors in cheaper paint look… well… cheap. We used Behr paint for the kitchen, and while it was nice paint, it definitely did not cover as well as RL paint. OK, end of tangent.

OK, so I thought the paper sample of Oatmeal was great. I bought a paint sample, but wasn’t even sure if I was going to put it on the walls. The paper sample looked perfect! See, I don’t even follow my own advice. Well, Neal told me to put the paint sample on the walls, just to make sure. Thank God he did. It was too dark and just didn’t look good in the room. A light color is rather important, because with the slanted walls, I think a dark color will really make the room look small. And I like warm colors, rather than cool colors.

So, I went out and purchased two other colors, Ivory Coast and Victoriana. In the picture below, from left to right, is Oatmeal, Ivory Coast and Victoriana.

Oatmeal, on the left, is too dark. Victoriana, on the right is too yellow/orange. Ivory Coast, in the middle, is JUST RIGHT!! Ding! Ding! We have a winner! Whew! Not sure how the color looks on your computer, but it is a really nice, warm…. ivory, haha.

So I’m happy now. Paint colors are set and we are good to go to paint this weekend! Whoo hoo!

And just a parting word – Buy paint samples and use them! Samples can run $5 per color, but you’ll save money using the right color the first time! Do not go by the paper samples alone. Trust me!

And remind me to follow my own advice next time I paint….

Here are some pics after the second primer coat.

Awesome, right?

A contractor Neal knows helped cut a piece of wood and sand it as a cap for our half wall. We secured it to the half wall today. We plan to paint it the color of our trim (like an off-white).

Wheee! I love it!

We also put some wood inside the closet openings. We’ll paint these the color of the trim and we plan to put molding on the outside of the frame.

Neal also caulked the molding we have up at the base of the slant on the walls.

I can’t believe how great everything is starting to look!

Next up – Painting! I put three samples on the wall, so I’ll take some pics in the next couple of days to post and show you.

Til then – Happy Father’s Day!

OK, so I had to give a shout out to Shawn, who is very, very far away, but yet took the time to leave Neal such a supportive message on my blog. And yes, I know I’m a sorry ass, haha. Thanks for reminding me.

Anyway, this weekend made me feel like a slave driver. I made plans a while ago to hang out  Saturday with Andi and some friends at her mom’s house. Neal’s parents still came up to help out with the attic. I helped do some work in the attic in the morning, which involved sanding. I left around 12:30, and could barely see Neal and his parents while saying goodbye because of the cloud of drywall dust in the room. I felt like such a schmuck. But I had been looking forward to hanging with the girls since we made the plans, and didn’t want to cancel. So I slunk out of the house. I felt like I was playing hooky, haha. I can’t thank Neal’s parents enough. Home improvement definitely doesn’t bring out the best in me, but yet they still come up every weekend to show us what to do. Amazing.

Anyway, Friday night, Neal and I primed the ceiling so that Neal’s mom could show him how to do venetian plaster. I came home from a relaxing day at the pool to find the room completely sanded and remudded, and Neal finishing up the first coat of plaster on the ceiling. It was awesome. They also put up the molding on the walls separating the slanted walls from the regular walls.

Here is the plaster. It was very hard to take a picture of.

And here are some of the sanded walls and molding, which we will prime and paint.

Woooo hooo!

So, what’s left? We need to prime the walls (two coats), finish the plaster, and then paint! Carpet goes in next, and then we’ll put up the baseboard and trim. We bought our ceiling fan today, which we’ll install once the ceiling is done. We’re almost there! I’m already plotting how I’m going to decorate it. I think I’m going to utilize some of the flower shots I’ve taken with my camera and hang those up around the room.

We had to purchase our last bit of stupid drywall today, and Simone was definitely the most excited about the purchase, haha.

HAHA! I love that cat. I do feel really bad about neglecting the cats. Neal and I and the kitties took a nap today, which was really enjoyable for everyone. The cats love naptime, and they like when we nap with them. It’s also probably my favorite thing to do as well.

I’ll have some more flower pics later this week. And I really need to start cooking again! I haven’t really been cooking dinner, because I’ve been working on the attic after work every day. Once this stinkin’ attic is done, I can get my life back! Aaahhhh!

I have had on my “to-do” list to buy new flowers for my large pot I keep on my porch. After a phone call to my green-thumb mother, I had a list of plants to buy. I ran to the local nursery and believe it or now, found what was on my list.

I really like coleus, because I think the leaves are pretty and interesting. I planted the coleus in its own pot.

And then filled my large pot with some dracinia, geraniums, sweet potato vine, ageratum (sp) and something else, haha. I can’t remember all the names now! I’m very happy with how it turned out.

And my beautiful lilies are in full bloom in my front garden. I love lilies. I know I’ve said that before on this blog. Something about them. They just make me happy.

Posting might be sparse this week. Neal and I are working a little bit each night in the attic. By this weekend, we should be ready to sand, and then remud any areas that need it.

I’ll keep you updated!

Numerous people told me that mudding and taping was way worse than hanging drywall. This discouraged me greatly, because I pretty much LOATHED putting up drywall. Seriously, it made me angry I hated it so much. I hated measuring, taping, holding drywall, screwing in the screws on the studs… Ugh.

Well, as always, I’m a little weird and of course I liked mudding and taping 10x more than hanging drywall. To be honest, now that I’ve done it a lot, I think I’m actually quite good at it. It might be my calling.

First, I have to show you the halfwall Neal and his dad built. See, we had to build some sort of wall at the top of the stairs so we didn’t just walk off the edge and fall. I’m super impressed with the wall. It’s very sturdy and is seamless. It was definitely a lot of work. We had to take up the subfloor so they could secure it to the floorboards, which is really the only way to keep it sturdy.

So, after three trips to Home Depot, the wall was finally finished! Neal and his dad hung drywall. Here’s what it looks like coming up the stairs

And then this is what it looks like from the inside of the room.

I was tired and grumpy at the end of the day and yelled at Neal because I didn’t want this half-wall to take all day like it did. But I realized I was just being a bitch and that Neal and his dad worked very hard to make this a nice, sturdy wall. It’s level and wasn’t done half-assed, haha, so I really needed to quit my bitching. I’m really happy with it, and I know Neal’s proud, too.

Neal’s mom and I taped and mudded (is that a word) all day and it was pretty exhausting work, but we got so much done!

And then Sunday, we had contractors install our HVAC unit in the attic. It is very quiet and does a great job cooling the attic, as well as the second floor. I can’t wait until we have the place carpeted and finished so that we can leave the door open to let the cool air in the second floor!

Whew!

Of course, there’s more work to be done, but I really feel like the end is in sight now. Neal and I are so excited to have this room finished. I’m not sure what we’d do without his parents helping us and showing us what to do. Actually, I do know what we’d do -  we’d either not finish or have to pay out big bucks for a contractor. I have to say, I watch DIY shows on TV in a whole new light. Oh, and I need to amend my previous post about the carpet. We have decided to go with the lighter of the two swatches at this point.

Poor Ferris and Simone have been very neglected lately. We can’t let them in the attic when we are working. Poor kitties.

Neal got some shots of Simone when she was in her “crazy mode.” We’re still not sure what she was doing on the stairs, but I think she didn’t quite have her bearings.

Ha! She’s so weird.

I’ll have some pics later in the week of some flowers. Our yard has been severely neglected because of the work we’ve been doing in the attic, but I still have some pics

Thanks for stopping by my blog!

Saturday, we stopped in at the carpet store. Turns out that was the last day for their 6 months no payment no interest deal. We really wanted that deal, so we booked a guy to come out and measure the room and we grabbed two carpet samples. We brought them home and put them on the living room floor. The cats, of course, did not fail to investigate.

And then they laid on them and wouldn’t get off.

(P.S. I don’t think these pictures are very indicative of the actual color of the carpet. We’re going to go with the darker of the two, for several reasons)

Now, the carpet squares are upstairs, but Ferris still won’t leave them alone. He keeps running around them, hiding under them, pawing at them and whining as loud as he can. It’s very annoying at 11 p.m. when I’m trying to sleep. Grrrrr. I can’t wait until we can just let the cats go upstairs in the attic. When we are working up there, all Ferris does is sit outside the attic door and cry. I feel bad!

I have some flower pics coming up later this week!

Here’s the deal. I’m not strong (wish I was, but I’m not). I try, but I’m not so good at screwing in the drywall screws. Our drill doesn’t have a whole lot of torque, so it takes some strength. I have managed to be able to cut the sheets of drywall with the knife, but I’m not as good as Neal is.

I’m debilitatingly short. I really am not tall enough to hold up sheets of drywall. I can’t reach high enough to use the drill because then I have no leverage. Basically, I’m useless. When Neal parents are here, the three of them are doing all the hard work and I’m scrambling around, fetching screws, drills, pencils and knives. I suck.

But anyway, Neal and I got a good amount accomplished on Sunday and Monday. Here are some updated pics. I’m warning ahead of time that it isn’t perfect, but I’m damn proud of what we’ve done so far.

This is a shot from the landing upstairs into the room. Basically, to access this attic room, you have to go to the end of the hallway on our second floor and go through a door. Then there’s a landing and short flight of stairs into the attic. We had to drywall the landing, stairs and the room.

And here’s a ceiling shot of the room. Two closets are framed out on either side of the window. We still need to finish the drywall in the closets.

Here’s a shot down the stairs. Neal and I did down the stairs and the landing ourselves this weekend.

Yay! Neal and I were able to use up some scrap pieces around this window.

For a little while, we had six sheets of drywall stacked in the office downstairs (now, there’s only two) and for some reason, Simone couldn’t get enough of the drywall! She started chewing on the paper, so we had to put towels over the ends, and she loved sitting on top of the sheets and walking from end to end. It was funny, because she had to grip the ends with her toes. We called her “grapple toes.”

Haha! She’s got some weird obsession with the drywall.

So anyway, that’s our update. Neal and I are going to do more work this weekend, and then his parents are coming up again next weekend. Hopefully we can start taping and mudding at that point! Whoo hoo!

Thanks for looking!

We spent all day Saturday, (which was Neal’s birthday!) putting up the ceiling, sloped sides and walls. We got so much accomplished and I’m really happy with how it looks.

Yay! I seriously cannot wait until it’s all done. The previous owners had two closets already framed out and partically drywalled, so we are that much closer to a new bedroom! I’ll try to post more pics as we progress. Neal’s parents are coming up to help us again in two weeks.

We live near a large commercial bakery, and they make a lot of desserts. Today, I got out of my car in my driveway and breathed in the sweet, sweet smell of brownies. The warm weather really carries the smell of the baking desserts right to my front door. It’s freaking awesome. Seriously, who doesn’t want to smell that everyday?

Spring reminds me of when we first bought our  house. We closed in May of 07, and every spring, I get that excited feeling. It reminds me of moving in to the first property I ever owned. That’s exciting.

I love to open up the front and back doors and let the cats look outside. They love it and are just so cute.

And spring means flowers. I love flowers. Flowers smell good. They are pretty. They symbolize growth, rebirth, etc. And I get to take pictures of them.

My peony is still growing. I’m so excited! Here’s the progress so far.

Who hoo!

We have this one tree in our yard that I posted one picture of it yesterday that Neal took. I really love this tree. I think it’s a cherry tree, but I’m not sure. Please feel free to leave me a comment if you know what it is. I love the little flowers. I had a great time taking pictures of it today.

My mom bought me some pansies for Easter. I replanted them in my pot and put them on my front porch with the tulips that Neal’s mom bought me for Easter.

Awwww…. Spring. Warm weather, brownies, happy kitties and flowers. Life is good.

And if you build it (or, stock it with bird seed), they will come. We have birds  by the dozens outside. And the cats are loving it! They sit at any door/window they can to chatter away at their winged friends.

Neal broke out the 55-200 lens last weekend while I was laid up sick on the couch. He took some pretty cool photos.

Yeah, robins, get those worms!

Funny story, because Neal doesn’t really know his “birds.” He kept saying “Look, there’s an oriole in the yard!” Yes, he was serious. No, I’m not joking.

So, my mother-in-law said that everytime I mention that the weather is getting better, it turns crappy again, so I’m not sure if I should say anything about the weather. I can say that today was AWFUL! It rained all day. Gross, gross, McGrosserson. Blech.

As I said, I haven’t cooked in forever. I did make a whole chicken in the crockpot yesterday and some mashed potatoes, but didn’t take any pictures. I’m also a slacker and didn’t take any pictures of the amazing Easter dinner. I will try to make something fun soon to blog about.

After waking up feeling better Saturday morning, I braved venturing out of the house to go to a friend’s to watch the Final Four basketball games. I had a really good time, but only made it through the first game before my head began to throb. We headed home before the second game started.

I had feared all this gunk would head right to my sinuses and I was right. I woke up this morning with a sinus headache so bad, that I wanted to rip open my skull, take out my brain and stomp on it. It was horrible. I took what medicine I could and the pain has subsided for now, but I know it’s only masked. Looks like I’ll have to head to the doctor for some antibiotics tomorrow. Ugh!

However, the weather was so nice today, that I had to at least get outside in my own yard. I noticed some of my flowers are blooming, and so I took some pictures.

And the best news? My peony looks like it’s coming back! I wasn’t sure what peonies did in the winter, so I just assumed I killed it, which made me mad. But I checked today and saw a couple of buds/leaves coming up from the dirt. Yay!

I know my shadow is in the photo, haha, sorry.

Well, here’s hoping I feel better soon and this weather quits going back and forth. I’m ready for the spring weather to stay!

Anyway, Shawn, a military man and Eagle Scout, taught us how to use thumb sticks and feather sticks and all of that. We had to make a fire the “right” way. Andi and I just wanted to sit by the fire and eat, and Neal and Shawn took an hour to make the freakin’ fire. But when they finally got it going, it was a good, self-sustaining fire.

So, Neal and I had a lot of sticks and stuff from cleaning up the yard this weekend, so Neal decided to bust out the outdoor firepit thing on Saturday night that his parents got us for Christmas. It took him FOREVER to get the fire started, but eventually he got it going. It was dark out, so we huddled around the fire with some hot chocolate. Not sure what it is about fire, but I could sit there and stare at it forever.

Isn’t it pretty! It was a lot of fun. I can’t wait to have company over on summer nights and we can fire it up. I tried to play around with my camera to get different shots. It was really fun to take pictures of fire!

I know I haven’t posted food in a while. As I said before, we’ve been trying to not make as much and utilize leftovers. But I have some things planned for this week. Stay tuned!

I did some weeding (which should have been done a looong time ago, but oh well, better late then never) and Neal worked on the large garden plot in our backyard. The previous owners designated a rather large area in the yard for a garden. We’d like to make it smaller, but just haven’t done it yet. So Saturday, Neal worked on weeding, tilling, etc., because we’d like to have a vegetable garden.

And then I decided to change the location of my herb garden. Before, I had them off on the side of the house, and it was kind of a pain to go out and cut my herbs when I was cooking. There is a really small plot right beside our patio that had irises and phlox. I think iris flowers are really pretty, but I just don’t like the plants a whole lot. They get really tall and straggly. So Neal pulled out the black rubber edging for me (previous owners put it in and we think it’s ugly). I tried to pull this out myself, but simply COULD NOT. I threw my whole weight into it, but just couldn’t pull out the stakes. Of course, Neal pulled it out with no effort. I’m a wimp.

And then I ripped up the irises and phlox. I bought some dahlia bulbs at the store, so I planted them in that plot. Once my herbs come up again, I’ll transplant them here.

Neal and I also bought some vegetable seeds. We are going to plant them indoors for now in peat pots, and then transplant them outside after the last frost.

I’m really excited about growing my own veggies! I really have a black thumb, so I’m a little nervous about how they’ll turn out. Neal and I did grow tomatoes before, and that turned out OK, so we’ll see!

The cats kind of hate it when we are outside working in the yard. They sit at the door and meow. It’s pretty funny.

Awwww, Ferris! Neal and I have been talking about putting Ferris on a leash and walking him outside. Tons of people walk dogs in our neighborhood that are smaller than Ferris.  Still, I think people would think we are super weird. Although, it can’t be crazier than “Crazy Walking Lady” who walks for hours at a time with 2 purses, a CD walkman (who still uses those?) and ripped acid-washed jeans. It’s hot. And she’s crazy.

Bake cookies, getting there, butter is softening

Bake dessert for Super Bowl Sunday to take to my brother’s house

Cry about my laptop (see post below) we haven’t turned it off since Neal got it to reboot, so I’m still using it. Good news, Neal is ordering a part that might fix it. Cross your fingers!

Pick up zillions of cat toys lying around the house

Take pictures of random crap to blog about

Vacuum

Cry about my laptop

Clean kitchen and bathrooms

Put away clothes

Run to the grocery store or Sam’s Club

And…. cry about my laptop

OK, can I just tell you, that I actually CLEANED THE BASEBOARDS in my kitchen. Seriously. Me, the person who never cleans. I was just in a really clean-y mood. It was weird. Kind of an out of body experience. Vacuumed the kitchen floor, mopped it, cleaned the baseboards, scrubbed mysterious stains off of walls and floor, bleached sink. Whew!

Neal is not home. He went to his parents’ house to help them with their kitchen renovation. I always seem more productive when I’m home by myself. I also get to make whatever I want for lunch, which today was fettucine alfredo!

I’m still working on finding a great recipe. This was OK, but I’m still on the hunt.

So, let’s hope this productive/cleaning mood keeps up! I’m taking a break now while my butter comes to room temperature for my cookies.

I’m avoiding going outside. Because it’s cold. Still.

Brrrrr…..

But I know I’ve commented on this site before about how disorganized Neal and I are. We can never find anything, and our house IS NOT BIG. It’s ridiculous, and I’m tired of it. I hate being unorganized, but yet I’ve let this house got to hell. It’s mostly due to laziness.

So my New Year’s resolution? GET ORGANIZED. I visit this blog, The Hyper Homemaker, and she’s going to be starting a series on how to organize your house, room by room. I’m looking forward to reading what she has to say. But I decided to get a head start. New Year’s Day, I ran to Bed, Bath and Beyond to get some organization stuff. The cashier said that’s what was selling most, HAHA, so my resolution is not unique.

I started on the kitchen, since that’s where I spend a lot of my time and I’m tired of not being able to find stuff when I’m cooking. Plus, our pantry is A MESS. I’m sick of thinking I have something and then not being able to find it.

LOL, yes, Simone was trying to help. Beside her is the roll-out wire basket that I had Neal install for me (and no swearing was involved! Amazing!). I bought a plastic thing to hold soda cans beside that. And below you can see my little wire rack that doubles up the room I have for cans. I’m not sure if this looks organized to you, but trust me, it is. I LOVE IT. I cleaned up all the crap we had on the floor, and Neal commented on how nice it is to be able to actually walk into the pantry.

So amazing. I have shelves behind me when I was taking this picture, too. I organized those better as well.

I bought a wire rack to hold my cutting boards/sheet pans and set that up in my cabinets for easy access. I also bought small wire baskets that were on sale to organize some of my drawers. We have a kitchen cart with two drawers that ended up being junk drawers. Do I really need two large junk drawers?

Yes, Simone is also in these pictures. She’s always in my business. The first drawer pictured has pens/pencils, scissors, tape and my coupon organizer. Second drawer is batters and other odds and ends.

Whew. It took me over two hours to do all of this, and it really wore me out. I feel so much better now. I can actually find stuff in my kitchen, and it feels great. Once we take our tree down, my next project will be organizing our office and downstairs bathroom. Both have a lot of storage space, but it’s underutilized because it’s not really organized.

OK, sorry if I’m boring you, but I’m pretty excited about this resolution. My second resolution? Finish our attic. Neal’s parents bought us drywall and supplies to finish our attic last Christmas (it was already wired and insulated). We have been slack on actually completing it. Neal and I would like to make that our bedroom. So come hell or high water, we are finishing it this year, HAHA. I can’t wait!

To celebrate our clean kitchen, I broke out my new food processor Neal’s parents got us to make dinner. I wanted to make au gratin potatoes. Last time I made these, I sliced the potatoes using my box grater, and almost lost 2.5 fingers. My processor has a slicer attachment, so I decided to give it a try. And wow. My first though is that I’m sad I didn’t have this sooner.

I love it! I love, love, love it! I also used the shredder blade to shred up cheese. What took my 5 minutes on the box grater now takes 2 seconds (seriously) with the food processor.

Funny thing. It came with a video to watch on how to use the food processor. It was a VHS. I don’t think I’ve held a VHS tape in my hand for like 2 years.

LOL! Seriously? I had to take a picture. I was shocked Cuisinart would have a VHS rather than a DVD. Doesn’t matter, because I don’t watch these instructional videos anyway, and we do have a VHS player, it just made me giggle. Am I the only one that thinks that’s weird?

The au gratin potatoes came out perfectly.

I served them with garlic and basil broccoli and some Italian panko-crusted chicken. Very good dinner!

So anyway, get on my case about organizing, because I really need it! I added an Organizing category to the blog as well. Happy ‘09 and I hope you stick to any resolutions you have made!