The Neglected Office.

Normally I would refuse to show something like this. It's embarrassing. It's my office. Or at least, I want it to be my office. Right now it's more like the catch-all of everything that hasn't been organized yet. For almost two years it has remained in utter chaos.

This is an improvement actually. Well, it looks worse, but that's because things have been coming out of hiding and getting put away properly. Everything on the desk used to be INSIDE the desk, and I've gotten rid of about half the boxes that were in there previously. Yesterday we installed the IKEA Lack shelves above the desk (that the cat ripped out of the dining room wall). She loves the office, and has decided to climb on them in here now. Cats....

The IKEA Expedit bookcase used to be in the bedroom, but as my collection of paperwork has grown exponentially, I co-opted it for storage in the office and we moved the little dresser that matches the vanity out of the guest bedroom and into the master bedroom.

One of my summer goals is to get this room organized and functional. My husband is going to build a table following this design to house the printer and probably also the sewing machine.  I can't wait to get this room under control.

New Hardware in the Kitchen.

They say hardware is the easiest way to update the look in a kitchen. Before we didn't have any. I'm really liking the way it looks now. It's making me itchy to paint or restain the cabinetry now too.

Summer 2011 To Do.

This summer, I would like to:

• Finish painting all the trim and doors white (They are currently this ugly yellow-beige. What would you call that? Beijlow? Whatever, it's hideous)
• Install shelves on the other half of the laundry room
• More book storage
• Restain the bathroom cabinetry an espresso color (And possibly the kitchen, but I'm hemming and hawing over whether I want a dark stain or white paint)
• Replace the lighting in both bathrooms (well, we got the guest bathroom done at least)
• Replace the fluorescent light fixture in the kitchen
• Finish organizing all the boxes of paperwork in the office and make it a usable space
• Get an estimate for gutters and rain barrels 

My husband also offered to paint the exterior of the house. It's butter yellow, which is probably my least favorite color in the world.  I also think it makes the white door look really out of place.

See:

I'm envisioning a sage green or soft brown, or maybe a dove gray, with a creamy white for the trim (maybe black). But do I really wanna spend the money on all that paint? The existing paint isn't in bad condition, except for where the garage door rubbed against the trim and picked up some of the dark teal. And eventually, if we stay here long enough, we want to replace all the wood siding with Hardieplank cement fiberboard siding and redo the insulation, and we'd have to paint again then. But, that's a ways off, and maybe the house will need to be repainted again by that time anyways.

Cat Stairs in the Dining Room.

Our kitten Athena turns one year old in a couple of weeks. Her favorite thing to do is to play fetch and gazing out windows (there's a very large squirrel that likes to harass her from the tree outside the kitchen window). We installed some shelves for her to climb on some empty wall space in the dining room. The shorter shelves are IKEA Lack and the longer ones were made from whitewood boards from Lowe's. We still need to install carpet or something for traction, but I think it looks pretty spiffy right now.

Summer Bedding.

Well the weather is finally staying warm, and the overnight low is in the sixties instead of the forties now, so it was time to switch out the down comforter for something less heavy.

I picked up a quilt set at IKEA. I like it, but obviously it's too long for our platform bed. The smaller size does not fit a queen, so it was this or nothing :)