Laundry Room Makeover - Before

This room is a straight up mess.  It needs help.  Lots of it.

Entering the Yellow cave

I spy a pile... although all the same items there has got to be a better place for these

Game, drinky drinks and Pampered Chef storage.... for now.  Still waiting to finish the hutch for the drinky drinks 

From the far wall looking towards the door.  Yep... that's a disgusting fish tank with no fish in it.

pile o clothes, sewing machine table covered in clothes and a rack that fell 1/2 way out of the wall

sewing table covered in clothes

dumpster diving cabinet with missing door... totes of clothes

bassinet that doubles as a rolling laundry cart just like in the laundry mat!

Piles of "to do" laundry

Random shelf of junk

our old dryer

our old downstairs bathroom sink (waiting for dumpster days to get rid of) and old dryer

Spring Cleaning in the Summer time

Alright... here goes...

I'm going to post some things soon that is going to be disturbing to a few out there... A MESS!

So, it's been a year since I've been gainfully employed and you would think I could have a pristine house that is completely organized. Not so much the case. I know... bad Kim!

But... I do believe the hubs and I have finally reached a point after watching a little bit of Clean House. It's time to get organized! So... here goes.

Wish us luck!

Spring Cleaning...

Okay... motivation is starting to come to me!

I actually cleaned out all of my email boxes. Yes... it was a tough thing to do... considering how many I have! I've labeled and archived things and added things to my delicious account where I could.

Now I just have to get the motivation to work on the house... it's coming... I can feel it! Especially since dumpster diving is a mere 6 weeks away! There is a ton of stuff that's got to go and there is a ton that needs to get ready for our annual garage sale. It's time to purge... I'll attempt pictures when it starts... I highly doubted you wanted to see my inboxes :)

I'm getting the bug at work too to revamp my living quarters so that's how I know the Spring Cleaning Bug is floating around!

Winter Cleaning

Sunday Jerome and I had plans to run to Burnsville to confirm that the place where we bought both of our wedding rings is going out of business. We didn't make it.

Instead... we did some heavy cleaning. It all started with me waking up in the morning. I went to get a new bottle of creamer out for my coffee and couldn't handle the cupboards. They were a MESS. I have a method... but it slowly gets wacked out and I need to do an over haul one of these days... maybe with BASKETS! But, that wasn't for Sunday... instead I just put things back to where they belong and called it good. (PS since I drove passed a new large store called The Container Store on Black Friday I can't wait to check it out and find some baskets or containers at!)

Jerome came in the kitchen and asked what I was doing and I said looking for a bottle of creamer made me do it! We sipped on coffee and I made breakfast. Then it started. I started wiping down counters and putting away the dishes from the dishwasher... scrubbing the stove top - even removing the pans under the burners and cleaning under there. Man the stove really needs to be cleaned... figured out to how to turn on the self cleaning method. Jerome then started vacuuming in the living room - hands and knees kind of vacuuming. Yeah.... tables were cleared off. Counters were rearranged. It's soooooo nice to have a clean house.

I think we need to make a schedule to clean on a select day so we don't have to do these complete over hauls and miss our entire day. We shall see!

April - Master Bedroom

So this past April we had to work on our Master Bedroom for Org Junkies round up.



Thank god. Here are the Before: I can't believe it was this bad... who added so many clothes to these photos?






I'll be taking photos of the the after in just a few hours - I forgot! And I'm at work right now!

March Round Up

Holy cow... March just swooped on past me. This month we were suppose to work on organizing our dining room through Org Junkie's Monthly Round-Up.

Here's before:
And here's after:

I added a white board, calendar/bulletin board and mail/key rack to attempt to control all of our paper/mail/appointments and notes.

For April we're suppose to work on our Master Bedroom. Lord knows ours needs some help!

I'm in the top 12!

Remember when I had the post about organizing my kitchen drawers and food storage containers? Well I am in the top 12! Check out Laura over at "I'm an Organizing Junkie". She's listed all of the top 12 contestants.

If you need some inspiration... check out the other 11 contestants posts and mine! If you want to join, this month we are suppose to organize our dining room... which we don't have so I'm continuing on the kitchen cupboards hopefully.

Wooot wooo! I'm in the top 12!

Kitchen Organization - Drawers Before and After

So February is the first month of Org Junkie's Monthly Organizing Round-up and we are tackling kitchens. I've had issues with the kitchen in our house pretty much since we moved in almost two years ago. I've got so much kitchen stuff being a Pampered Chef consultant... I've lots of tools that I never use, except for at shows, tons of tools I use all the time and so I have two or more of them.... tons of Pampered Chef stuff everywhere needless to say.

Here are my before pictures of my four drawers - the only drawers I have besides a small one near the stove that holds hot pads and plastic baggies.

Drawer #1
Drawer #2

Drawer #3 and #4

All the drawers on the table for rummaging through... I mean sorting!

Hummmm perhaps I should do this more often...

My second section that I want to attempt to tackle is my food storage issues... we usually make enough supper that we can take left overs for lunch the next day at work. So storage containers are needed... but perhaps... not this many!
And...Well...Here are the "AFTER" shots... I purged and rearranged and added baskets. I've got a pile of tools that I'm going to put in my extra PC products bin - they're for sale as always... I've got a large bowl full of baking items (chocolate chips, gravy mixes) that are being tossed because they're either expired or not enough to make another batch of something.

Drawer #1

Drawer #2 - use to have never used tools... now holds the baking supplies - chocolate chips, gravy mixes, nuts, etc.


Drawer #3 and #4 - baskets, baskets, and more baskets!

Food Storage - got it cut way down....


way, way down... I'll save these for our garage sale this summer!
These were quick fixes... next thing I'm going to tackle is the cupboards... now that should be interesting!

So I didn't set a New Year's resolution.Sue me.

I use to set a New Year's resolution. Lose weight. Eat healthier. Drink more water. Do the dishes every other day instead of letting them pile up until I don't have any forks. Yeah those.

Now that I've finally not set a resolution I don't have any goals for the year... Well... I can't do it. I need a resolution. I've decided I would choose one that I can actually accomplish.

Purge.

That's my resolution. I plan to purge our house... everything in the house needs to have a purpose... and not one that is "I'll need that some day". I think of the three curling irons that I have. The last time I used a curling iron... was... ummmm... let me think. I have no idea. Sure, some day I may have bangs again and want to do mall bangs. I could save one curling iron and sell the others at my "ANNUAL" garage sale. (Oh did you see that? I see resolution #2 there!)

Yep, I'm thinking I may do an annual garage sale. With the positive sale we had this past summer how could I not?

There you have it.

Do you have a resolution this year? What is it? If not, why not?

Wassup?!?!

So nothing to exciting is happening around here. I've taken down the Christmas tree and put the living room back in order. Really nothing much....

Last night Jerome and I went out with Lisa and Rod for dinner... of course we hit up the crab legs at the buffet. Then we ended up heading out for the night to a club - yes... you heard me... a club. Needless to say I'm pretty sure we were the oldest people in there. Come to find out we think it was an 18+ night... ick. I felt dirty and out of place. Interesting club though...

Today we rolled over to St. Paul to visit with Anna. While we were gone we were using the self cleaning feature on our stove. When we came home we hoped to still have the house standing! We came home and the stupid thing was still running. Guess someone didn't set the timer... wooops! I called mom to figure out how to shut it off and now it's spic and span!

I watched a pretty hilarious movie tonight while Jerome was watching football...I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry. If you haven't seen it yet go directly to redbox and rent it!!!

Freakin' Frackin' Sink

So this past Wednesday I was cleaning up the kitchen after dinner. I filled up the dishwasher and started it. I washed most of the pots and pans that couldn't go in the dishwasher by hand.

I went downstairs and watched a tv show with Jerome. When I came up for some water to drink... ummmmmmmmmm well I got more water than I expected.... the kitchen sink had filled up... both of them. The dishwasher was still running... but this water was from the dishwasher. UGHHHHHHHHHHH.

Our sink was clogged. I ran the disposal and the water that was in that side drained into the other
one. Dang it.

Jerome came up and got the drain-o and the plunger. He plunged the full side. Poof.... water shooting out from everywhere - the disposal side and under the sink. Sh*#!

We tried running the disposal... hot water... drain-o... nothing. Jerome and I ran to Menard's... yeah the most hated home store in the region but I had rebate cash there for about twenty bucks to spend. We bought a snake. We went home and Jerome tried to snake the drain a few times. We had bought a 25 foot snake... which he managed eventually to get all the way in the drain. He put the pipes all back together... we hoped.... but nope... nothing.

Thursday we just couldn't deal with it.

Friday I finally called Dad to see if he had any advice. He suggested that we run a hose into the pipe and try to force out the clog. Well... we tried that. NOTHING... Just water spitting back at us. Jerome tried snaking it a few dozen times again. Nothing. I don't know what's wrong with this stupid sink but it needs to get unclogged. Jeeeeeeze.

Anyone out there know a good plumber?

New Colors...

So just like anything I get sick of how something is... I have to change the living room furniture around like every three months, I change bathroom decor probably every year to year and a half... and now the blog... I've been itchin' to change it... I was sick of GREEN!!! I wanted a new layout... a new header... everything.

I had a lot of issues with the layout... and some of you will notice that the rounded corners are still throwing me for a loop... (html people help a girl out!). I loved loved loved making the header though... and I can see that changing up easily!

Fun fun fun! Look what my full time job teaches me!

New post requested...

So I've been requested to put up a new post... here goes...

We've been getting the house ready for all of our company that will be showing up sooner rather than later... my parents are coming here to help us with some work within the house... We've already taken some things apart, removed, scraped, sanded, broke some stuff. Can't tell you what/where we are working on or I'd hafta kill ya :) J/K actually I'd like to show it to people in person at our party...

Yup... the party that I started planning for a year ago is quickly approaching. I've been purchasing things here and there for it and moving stuff around the house to accommodate more chairs and such. Giving things a good once over for now and a whole lot more between now and then.

Well... since this is such a secretive post, I'm gonna shut up now... c-ya soon!

I got the bug last night...

No I'm not sick... just annoyed.

I managed to pull all of my clothes out of my closet that were either hanging or (dare I say this?) on the floor and ordered them back into the closet where and how they were suppose to be. I went through all my hanging clothes and made sure that if I hadn't worn it all summer long that I probably won't ware it next year (especially with hopes of a little one they wouldn't even fit).

I pulled out an entire basket full of clothes that either have holes, stains, are out of shape, just don't fit right, or I just don't like. I'll keep a few of the shirts for painting and yard work but the rest has got to go.

Now how did I get this all accomplished... well, honestly Jerome was over at JST's place with her and Tinker. I had the house to myself... and apparently this is what I choose to do with that time. Not to mention I cussed myself out when I was tripping over my shoes that were falling out of my closet. There was no one to blame but myself.

I worked on my armoire too. I need to hit it a little harder... perhaps tonight.... who knows. It'll only happen when the mood hits me. I really am looking at attacking our sock drawer next. It's horrible. Who knows if we have matching socks, what I do know is that we have a ton of mismatched ones with holes in them!

Swamped... in more ways than one...

Sorry for those of you who are concerned! Everything is fine... for the most part.

Swamp #1 - We were out of town Aug 31- Sept 10. We went down to Mississippi and Louisianian - swampland :) We were visiting Jerome's family - Grandmothers, Aunts, Uncles, Sisters, Brother, Mother, Father, Niece, and Nephews... and then some... as we had also attended another family reunion while we were there.

I finally can say that I have been to New Orleans. Although, I have heard how impressed the Monty Crew is with the city ( so much so that they honeymooned there) I can't say I was too impressed. Now, after speaking with Linda (a co-worker of mine of 5 years) I find out that I would have been more impressed had we been there at night. True, I hit Canal and Bourbon Street in daylight. I honestly thought it was just like any other city. I missed the night life, the people in the streets, the stumbling drunkenness in the streets, the performers. All of it. Guess I'll have to go again-this time at night :)

Swamp #2 - Since my return from my vacation I have been swamped at work. I've got a few big projects all full steam ahead and will wrap up come October 5th.... and the system that I work on has been broken for the past week... not good. Sorry for those co-workers that I may have chewed their head off and then spit it right back out. Honestly.

Swamp #3 - Today we had a bit of a down pour here. And when I say a bit I mean holy crap! The window wells filled up - and yes, we do have window well covers over them!!!! So I went outside - in the rain and scooped water out of the well with a pitcher into a bucket that I then slung over the fence to the front yard. JEEEEZE! We have had enough of what damage can happen when it rains. Between the power outages, the trees uprooting, and now this. Enough.

So yes, we are live... just... swamped :)

Menards

Well as some of you may know, Menards has their 15% off bag going on. We picked up 3 gallons of paint last night for the living room, some refill supplies for our painting supplies, and a ceiling fan for the master bedroom.

Looks like we've got projects! Time to clean out the living room (move everything to the middle) so that we can start painting! YEAH!

EEK!

Look what we found when we arrived home from work today...


They're like flying ants and little yellow ants...

THEY WERE SO GROSS! Something must have crawled under the deck and died or something. Ick. They were only in that one spot though... thank goodness.

Jerome sprayed to kill them off and then continued to spray all around the house.

Storm August 2007

Update: We came home from Anna's to find that our power had been restored! I asked a neighbor how long it had been on since we were gone most of the day and he said only about an hour before we came home! Which would mean from Saturday at 3am until Sunday at 7pm is when we had no power. Ugh.


Holy Cats!

So Friday night we had JST over for the night. We ran to the grocery store to pick up something for dinner and walked away with $100 worth of grocery - surprise surprise. We watched a movie and just hung out until we decided to head to bed. We were asleep in our house when for some reason I awoke. It was 3am. Outside there was flashes of lighting - but no lighting bolts - just the sky was light up like daylight. I nudged Jerome and told him to move the car that was on the lawn since it looked like it was going to rain. He got up in a dash and tossed on some shorts and headed outside.

I figured I would take a look at what was outside to see if I really wanted to deal with it getting wet since we were having a Block Party Saturday afternoon. Off came the cushions of the chairs and we tossed the carpet pieces into the garage.

When that was done I went inside and turned on the TV to watch the weather channel. It stated that we were going to get some high winds (50-60 mph) and there was a sever thunderstorm warning. And then it happened... the TV cut off along with the fans, air, lights, clocks... you name it. The power was out.

It's kinda funny that JST had made the remark before heading to bed that there was a flash light in her room! Good thing as we needed it. We found the other flash light and I light some candles. I just stayed watching the rain since it's been so long since we've had some like this.

It started to rain and the winds picked up. I went downstairs to check the window/wall in the laundry room... sure enough there was a leak. A bad leak. It was spurting out of the window well. Ughhhh. I grabbed the dirty towels from the laundry and started sopping up the mess. I ran upstairs to get the mop.

Jerome woke JST up and told her that it was cooler the basement to go and sleep downstairs. Which, we all did after having a quick snack and chat. (Gotta love having an 8 month pregnant person in the house!)

I called the electric company and their machine stated that we should have power by 8am. Fine and good - we don't really need it while we sleep downstairs. We woke up at 9am or so, with no power. I called the electric company again. Now, it stated that we may not have electricity until end of day Tuesday. WHAT?!?!?!?! ugh.

There was a pretty good sized branch in the middle of the road from the tree that recently lost big branches when Monty Crew was at our house last. We had twigs and a few branches in the yard but nothing major. I figured we better check the gutters since I noticed a few of our neighbors up in theirs. Sure enough it was packed. I got to cleaning it out.

Since we had no power, we didn't dare go in the fridge for long. And, with an electric stove now we had to cook our bacon, eggs, and grits on the grill! It was kinda fun, until we realized that both of our cars were in the garage - that has an electric opener.

JST's mom and sisters came to pick her up and take her back to the land of A/C and TVs. We of course stayed in our "campsite". I called Lisa and asked if she had power. Sure enough she did, so I asked if we could bring over stuff from our deep freezer and our fridge/freezer. I packed up the two coolers and we were on our way. We hung out there until about 3 pm when we left for our Block Party, that we weren't even sure if it was still going to go on.

I set out two chairs and a table out front and brought the charcoal grill around front too. We figured we could grill up some of this chicken from the freezer for the party... and figured other people may want to too.

We hung out with Denise and her daughter and a few of the other neighbors showed up too. We ended up going to Denise's garage to "congregate" and stay dry as it decided to rain again.

We headed home and went to the basement to sleep. I'm starting to feel the pains of not sleep in my bed... the floor and that couch are not cutting it. Ughhh. I awoke this morning hoping we would have electricity... not the case. So, today, we headed over to Anna's where we are BBQing up the last of the meat that we kept.

I'm sure I'll be calling into my renter's insurance this coming week. Wonder if they will cover everything????

We went around the neighborhood to find out that about 5 block south of us many large trees were down, along with power lines and electric poles snapped in half. We took pictures, but I'm not sure when I'll be able to load them here.

And by the way, I am not cracked up for this whole camping thing!

It's done... for now...

We were given some paint from Jerome's co-worker Anna after hanging out with her on the fourth of July... We (I) ended up painting two of the walls. I debate on what we should do with the other two... but I'm happy with it right now... for now... :)

This shot is taken from the doorway to our room:


This shot is taken from corner near the closet in our room:


This shot is taken from the corner near the other window in our room:


These pictures will eventually be hung back in the room above our bed on the white wall... nice how the blue is already tied into the pictures... and yes, they are the ones that were in my parents room for a long long long time... I've always loved them.

Weekend in review

Friday night I was invited to a purse party... and you know me... I had to go! On my way there I met up with Lisa for a brief exchange and went on my way. The party was at a Pampered Chef consultant from my cluster's house. I haven't seen her, or her sweet little one since my director had a holiday party at her house - two Christmas's ago! It was good to see and catch up with her.

Saturday morning Jerome and I awoke and started picking up the house. My sister and her two kids were on their way back home after visiting with mom and dad and heading for Chicago for the weekend for a wedding. The had a layover at the airport here and we weren't sure if we were going to be heading out for lunch or making it at our house... so... of course we picked up a little. Ends up that we headed to AppleBee's for lunch.

I had the Aloha Burger. YUM-O! I totally have a thing for pineapple. I love it. Especially since going to Cancun, Mexico and having fresh pineapple every morning. Jerome had a Chicken Strip platter, Tammy had some sort of salad and the kids... well of course had hamburgers and chicken fingers!

AKT, my niece and godchild, (and the flower girl that didn't make it down the isle at our wedding) managed to drop her bottle of beer on the floor which happens... no biggie but of course she cried. Poor girl. She's getting so big!

ALT, my oldest niece, was a barrel of fun! She sat next to me which was nice, I was able to poke and tickle her while we waited for our food to come. Jerome had the camera and took plenty of pictures I would guess, but I don't think I looked at them!

The bill came and we left. I was taking them back to the airport. Stupid me, instead of getting on Hwy 5 to the airport didn't get off the ramp and ended up taking them on 494. I hope they weren't too late. I didn't get a call so I assume they made their flight. SORRY AGAIN!

Once I left the airport and returned home I jumped in bed for a quick nap as we were going to a party Saturday night. Last weekend at the birthday BBQ at Lisa's house we were invited to E's house for his birthday bash. Lisa gave me the heads up that it could be an all nighter - aka leave at 6am kind of party... thus the nap Saturday afternoon. We had a good time at E's and even watched an HBO boxing fight on the the projection screen that was attached to the back of his house... I wish I had taken a picture!

Sunday we woke up and headed out for breakfast. I had been craving pancakes. Yes, pancakes. I wanted Denny's fluffy pancakes. Scary I know. So off we went, plus we had a $5 off coupon for there!

After breakfast we went home and were gathering items to go to Anna's house. She had purchased at mirror from our garage sale that she needed hanging but didn't have a stud finder. So I took Jerome, ha ha ha... (stud finder). No really, we went and hung up the mirror in her kitchen/dining room.

Once that was finished we headed to Lisa and Rod's to pick up the battery charger for the car (the bucket). Apparently there is something going on with the battery of my old car... I don't know I don't drive it but Jerome does. I headed in for a quick nap while dozing off to the TV while Jerome was outside.

We did end up slapping some paint on the wall Sunday night to see if we liked the color... I have a feeling I'll be painting the rest tonight... I like!

That's about it. C-ya later!