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Well, Spring Break officially starts Friday, but I have no more classes this week, so I’m calling it. Some homework tonight and tomorrow should leave me homework-free next week. Additionally, I took off both Thursday and Friday next week, to sleep in and then paint the bedroom, and maybe get an estimate on new gutters. So exciting, I know.
I do have to share with you the picture I promised on Monday. Warning, it’s not that interesting, but it’s got a story, so that’s something.
Remember last week when I showed you our empty humidifier? We finally remedied that situation, but it took more work than just replacing a few parts.
 Replacing the guts was fairly easy, even though nothing was labeled. But, when we turned the water (and everything else) on, nothing happened.
 figured out that the humidistat upstairs was not communicating with downstairs stuff. In the end, after lots of pulling on wires and looking inside the walls and thinking, he decided to run new wiring from the thermostat and humidistat down to the furnace and humidifier. Guess what happened after that?
 It worked! I don't know if you can tell, but there's water coming out of that spout.
That was Sunday night, and of course by Monday morning it wasn’t working again. replaced the valve (the only part not already replaced, other than the big plastic box it all sits in), and we were in business again. Hopefully the floors and the piano will once again be happy (and then I can call a piano tuner, because right now my beautiful upright grand sounds like a high school choir room junker).
It has been quite warm here the last few days, and will supposedly continue on through the weekend (though snow is predicted for next Monday). Of course, by warm, I mean mid to upper 30s, and supposedly we’ll hit 40* today or tomorrow.
All that said, it doesn’t exactly look like Spring around here. I took these this morning before leaving for work (since someone on Facebook had asked me if it was Spring-like here).
 The deck. It's an eastern exposure and boxed in on all four sides, so the snow doesn't have anywhere to go. We just shovel/sweep the part between the door and the grill (which has two new knobs, all shiny!) and call it good.
 This is the roof that we never see, at least not in the winter. It's over the backyard, which is a northern exposure, with big trees back there, so it never gets any sun. Most of ice has melted off the rest of the roof, but this corner is staying strong.
We’ve been having enough sunlight lately to warrant opening the blinds in the bedroom before I leave for work, which is a wonderful thing. I’m hoping to take the plastic off the windows in there before we paint next weekend (for a window that was painted shut and the crank stripped, one of the windows in our bedroom is quite leaky; the one that is nailed shut from the outside, however, is quite well sealed, go figure). Spring will come soon enough! We really need some fresh air in the house.
Happy Wednesday!
Last week I mentioned that we were getting ready to paint ’s office. Well, here’s the photo update on that project (and a separate project at the very end). The captions tell the story – if you’re using a reader, the captions are the text below each picture (I know it shows up differently depending on the service you’re using).
 Here's how it looked on Wednesday before we primed. We got one coat of primer done on Wednesday night, and a second coat just on the edges (brushwork) on Thursday night. One of the best things about this particular painting project is that there is no trim, so no taping, and there's no ceiling, so the only place you can't get paint is on the carpeting.
 About 5 minutes after we started painting on Friday night, we remembered to take shots of the room all primed.
 See? We'd already started. Crummy light, but that will be fixed eventually (need a ceiling first).
 Two coats of paint later, and here's the room. (Surprisingly, it's about the same color as the kitchen, which was completely unintentional. Prince Charming noted that I probably wanted to repaint the kitchen anyway, and he was right. That's a project that will have to wait until we refinish the cabinets, though.)
 Prince Charming spent most of Sunday re-installing the electrical outlets and working on the wall mounts for the monitors. Of course, nothing can get tightened down until the paint cures (4 weeks!), but progress is being made. There are a lot of other wires to run, which will keep him busy for a while.
If you want to see the whole remodeling set, here it is.
When we moved into this house, we knew that the humidifier was not working. This was mainly due to the fact that there were no internal parts for the humidifier.
 The appliance repair store didn't believe me when I said it was empty. All I did for this photo was remove the cover.
What I wanted to be able to show you next was a picture of the humidifier with all its parts, in working order. We got a replacement kit that had everything we needed to re-create the inner workings, and managed to figure out how it all goes together. Unfortunately, after turning the power on, the water on, and playing around with the humidistat and thermostat, we still can’t get it working. has a few more ideas to try before we have to call in some help.
Aren’t old houses fun? (Answer: yes, yes they are. I am, however, quite glad that there were only two previous owners. I can only imagine if there had been five families who had lived here for ten years each, instead of one family for 50 years. The horror.)
I have more inspiration to share with you today. I think my brain goes into a “find pretty colors” phase mid-February, surrounded by all the grey and dullness (though it’s been surprisingly sunny here this week). It never fails, ever time I read someone’s blog post about Anthropologie, I have to go visit their site (and I forget that they exist the rest of the time). And I always find things that I love, but would never own. Does that make sense? It’s not just the price tag, but… something. That would be true for most of the things in this mosaic – love, don’t want to own. My only rule was that when I looked at the pictures, they had to make me smile.
 First row: Sheets, Drawer Pull, Felt Tulip Pendant Light, Kitchen towel. Second row: Chair, Rug, Apron, Bench. Third row: Doorknob, Kitchen Towels, Rug, Drawer Pull. Fourth row: Napkins, Shelf Bracket, Bird Cage, Sheets. (The exceptions to the "I wouldn't own" rule are the sheets, and maybe that pretty shelf bracket.) And this one I found,via ApartmentTherapy, at Dabney Lee.
 I'm trying to picture how to make this work with our monogram (the one we used on our wedding stuff), and where. But very cool idea!
So, there you have it. Nothing worth talking about in my life, so some pretty pictures to help you make it through a Thursday.
If you remember that angsty post from last week, I’ve been re-thinking my decorating thoughts in regards to my office. Since then, I have had several clear, helpful thoughts about decorating.
First of all, were I decorating our house only for myself and not taking into account anyone else’s opinion (which is definitely not the case, but it’s good to know regardless), the two words that I would want to describe it would be: warm, and happy. If those two words were nixed, my second choices are: peaceful, and cozy.
My office is none of those things.
I thought I would be happy with neutrals. After all, aren’t they kind of peaceful and cozy? Alas, as I was perusing the Better Homes & Gardens website this morning, looking through an article on neutral decorating schemes, I was completely bored by every picture. That is how I feel about neutrals. They have a time and a place, and can be a very smart choice, but, to be honest, they’re boring. (Khaki pants, while a great wardrobe staple, are really nothing to talk about.)
When I wrote that post last week, I got started thinking about how you should really have a point of inspiration to pick paint colors from, and I had been dwelling on fabric. My thinking was that if I could pick out a piece of fabric that I love (from my stash, which holds many patterns that fit the bill, and quite a few in the color scheme I’m thinking of), I could pick out paint from that. But I haven’t really had the time to look at fabric, and then there was the probability that I wouldn’t end up using said fabric in room (where? couldn’t come up with anything – I want the window treatments to be solid, not print, as I have discovered since making the current ones)….
This afternoon at work I was talking with a co-worker, and she liked my earrings. I said they make me happy.
 They're a bit more aqua (greener) in real life, but not much. And I heart them.
Lightbulb!
My earrings make me happy. Couldn’t I use them as the inspiration for decorating my office? These earrings, plus the little statue (which I may just have to buy myself as a “you made it to Spring Break!” reward), start to form an idea of what to do.
 Those birds just shout "happy" ! And the blue, in both the birds and the earrings above, can be classified as "warm." See, now, if I put my mind to it, I bet I could figure this one out.
I just knew you were waiting for a peaceful resolution to all that angst. Of course, I don’t actually have the time to re-paint right now. We’re priming ’s office tonight, and hopefully painting this weekend (at least, I think that’s the plan). But maybe I could squeeze in painting over Spring Break? I’d be down to two classes by then….
And just to throw more wood on the fire, I thought I’d share with you some pictures I’ve collected for my inspiration file for other parts of our house. You know, parts that we don’t plan on updating for months, years, “sometime.” I’m pretty sure that they’re all from the Better Homes & Gardens website.
 Potential color scheme for the master bedroom. What do you think?  I've got nine-ish months to figure out a plan for built-in bookcases in the family room (the current plan is to drywall that room next winter). I'd been thinking about using beadboard for the backdrop, and here's an excellent picture of that (not the green, though - no avocado green in a basement that we're trying to get *out* of the 70s). I have another picture where the beadboard motif is repeated on the cabinet doors, and it looks quite smart.  Not much inspiring here, but the ceiling looks just like our living room ceiling, and this picture is a nice blank slate.  I found this one just today, and saved it because you can clearly see the trim, painted white, right up next to the hardwood floor (you can in the above picture too, I just realized). My mind has been stuck on the idea, but couldn't figure out if it would look OK or not. I'm going to go ahead and say Yes to that idea. Where have you found inspiration to decorate your home? Or inspiration for anything?
I am experiencing regret, and I really try to live without any of that (it’s totally not helpful, you know). Fortunately, this regret is based on… paint color. See, it could totally be worse.
If you remember, back in June, I painted my office. How I ended up at these color selections was a very logical process. (Bear with me.) I knew I wanted blue and brown, and then somehow decided that it would look best if it were a darker blue and a pale brown (also known as beige). So I took my paint samples and figured out which beige ones didn’t look horrible with the wood trim and the wooden furniture. And then I figured out which blue looked best with that. And this is what I ended up with:
 Beige, chocolate, blue....
And it was… OK. I mean, I’d already painted it, so I just went with it. Mistake #1. I even made curtains (which are… 80% finished – just need to seam up the two for the other window).
 Do you know how hard I worked to find fabric that I liked and matched the paint? That is not how you're supposed to do it. Paint comes in every color imaginable - fabric, not so much. Mistake #2. Mistake #3 may very well be that the curtains should be a solid color so that I could decorate the walls and not have it feel so... busy.
Since the painting, furniture has been moved about twice, and built an epically awesome collapsible cutting table.
 It fits my 36" x 72" cutting mat perfectly (rounded corners and everything!), and collapses against the wall so that it only takes up 1" of square footage when not in use, which has been... never. But the point is that it could collapse. This will never be considered a mistake.
[Yes, my office is also home to the antenna for all the television in the house. Before the switch to digital, we got reception just fine in the basement, but no longer. My office is on the correct end of the house. Maybe some day we'll get an outside mount. Some day when there's no longer several feet of snow and below freezing temps to deal with.]
Here’s the problem: I don’t actually like it. I know, I know, I should have listened to that nagging voice in my head, and I didn’t. Back in May, I even blogged about the color scheme I did want. And then, a few months after finishing all the painting, I found this blog post by nannygoat and realized that’s what I wanted to do. Well, not exactly. Not with the crib, and not the green (robin’s egg blue or turquoise, please), but you get the drift. How gorgeous is her room?
I’ve had that post bookmarked ever since I found it, and every once in a while I pull it up and wish that I’d done things differently (you might consider that mistake #4, hanging on to that link and dwelling on the situation). Boo hoo hoo, poor me.
So… do I just keep on living with it and make the best out of it? Do I re-paint? If I do, there are logistics to figure out. I’ve been wanting to do a shelf like nannygoat did, but haven’t been able to figure out where in my tiny office I could do that and still make the furniture work (I like the bridge it makes between the two windows, and I could very well do that, keeping in mind that the cutting table is not going anywhere, because it was made for that space). I have a closet, two windows, and a door that take up wall space, and then I have a desk and two large Ikea shelving units that are very, very full of stuff. Non-negotiable that they stay. One is quite tall. And… exactly what colors would I put where? Do I leave the beige (I really do like it) and find a blue I actually like as the accent color on two walls? Because I think that might be genius. But would it work? I’m sure I could figure out new curtains and would only cry a little bit about the fabric that I’ve already used on the current ones.
And then someone please tell me where to hang all my gorgeous mini quilts from swaps (that don’t match any of the decorating schemes anywhere in the house), because the walls in this office are boringly undecorated but I haven’t been able to commit to anything. Everything I think of seems to make the room feel busier and more cluttered, and that is not the way I want to go. I do have some bird decorations that are unpainted and could be used in any variety of ways (hanging from the ceiling, mounted on the wall – they’re these MDF cutouts from popalicioustoo on Etsy). One silver lining is that I never got around to painting the mural (silhouette of birds on a branch around the window with my sewing machine) in chocolate like I planned. That would have only further complicated things.
If you think I should live with it, and make do, some suggestions would be nice. I have come to an impasse with this room. Also, it barely needs repeating that I don’t actually have the time to do anything with this room right now, which might be why it is bothering me so much. Also, it’s dark outside a lot still, and I’d rather have a cheerful room, and the existing color scheme is not cheerful or warm in the slightest.
Should I also mention that were we to decide that we were ready to have kids, this is the room that goes first? It’s the only upstairs bedroom besides the master. That’s certainly a ways down the road (we’re finishing grad school before we even think about it, except for all the times everyone asks when we’re having kids), but I don’t want to have to completely 100% remodel a room again in a few (several? many? who knows?) years.
 Just to prove that we do have home improvement projects that are making headway and are going quite well, I present to you this month-old picture of Prince Charming's office.
I know I’m over-thinking it. But my poor choices the first time around are making me doubt myself. Which is also delaying picking a color for the master bedroom. Apple green (cute, but that’s the direction I was leaning in for the kitchen)? Orange (too bright for a bedroom perhaps)? White/cream (the room is huge, as some people have pointed out – possibly too big to be painted white)? I refuse to do mid-tone brown in the master bedroom – that’s my only stipulation. Our last bedroom was that color, and while it was nice, I’d like something different this time.
If I say I want the room to be bright, cheery, warm, comfortable, and not super-cluttered, my current office is not what I picture. It is, however, cozy, not too girly, and calm. See, I can find good things about it!
 Weigh in, or not. Either way, the cats won't lose any sleep over it.
Last night, I threw out a container of cornmeal that expired in 2008, some vinegar that expired in 2006, and a partial bag of shredded coconut that had been opened probably two years ago. I also moved some things around in the kitchen, part of the eternal quest to 1) fit everything into the kitchen, and 2) be able to easily access it when I need it. Now, I really shouldn’t complain, because the cabinet space in our kitchen is beyond generous.
 The previous owner actually removed a set of lower cabinets and the kitchen doesn't suffer at all. I counted up how many hinges and handles we'd have to buy when we re-finish the cabinets, and it's a disgustingly high number. 38 hinges, and 34 drawer pulls, give or take a few. Oh, and that cabinet above the refrigerator? Completely empty. It was always going to be blocked off by stuff sitting on top of the fridge, and it seemed smarter to just leave it empty.
 Pardon the mess. This was taken the second or third week after moving. See all those cabinets against the far wall, and the countertop? And next to it on the right, the closet? Further on the right there's a pantry. That's a ridiculous quantity of storage space.
(I should note that the sacrifice is that there is absolutely no wall space anywhere. The quantity of paint required to re-paint this room would be so minimal. That means that the only way to decorate the kitchen, aside from paint, is with towels. Or we’d have to replace the tile and the countertops. Ouch, that’d be pricey.)
But, I can honestly tell you that all of the cabinets you see here, with the exception of the lower one under the TV in the second picture and the one above the refrigerator in the first picture, are full. Maxed out. I’m debating moving some things into storage in the basement, or giving some things away to Goodwill. We never use the Panini press. I think the rule is that if you don’t care about it, and you can’t remember who gave it to you (wedding present from Great Aunt So-and-So? have to keep it), then it’s fair to give away.
Last night, in an effort to find more room for coffee mugs (tea mugs? hot cocoa mugs? are they still coffee mugs if they haven’t held coffee in years? discuss), all sorts of things got moved around, which thankfully included remembering to look at the dates on some things.
I was going to continue the madness after dinner, and sort the spices (I know that we have 3 Cream of Tartar containers and it’s driving me crazy!), but we went to the MOA instead, and were exhausted when we returned. now owns several casual long-sleeved shirts, but we didn’t find a little black dress for me (for  ’s wedding in June). I won’t do the spices tonight, because I leave work early to go to a 3-hour class in Minneapolis, which involves a whole lot of bus/train time (I really should have brought some embroidery – thank goodness I have a book and an iPhone!), and a very tired me by the time I get home around 8 pm. Still, the class only meets 4 times, and is much better than a Saturday morning class. Then, I get to sleep in for three whole days. 3! I am so very tired right now. Were this not a post about the house, I’d babble on about school, but I’m trying to keep it focused. Maybe later.
House-related questions: anyone have a good solution to the pile of papers that inevitably shows up on the kitchen counter? thoughts on paint color (a project that is quite a ways off, but I don’t care for the blue – it’s very high gloss and was done very poorly)? curtain ideas? ways to keep a black stovetop clean? kitchen item that I absolutely shouldn’t throw/give away?
We built a mudroom. Don’t believe me? Photographic proof:
 OK, so it's really just a $40 utility rug, but Prince Charming custom-cut it for the space, including a cutout for the vent. Perhaps it's more of a "nook" than a "room," but "mudnook" sounds weird. Bonus points to any commenter who comes up with a good fake definition for "mudnook."
All day Saturday was spent babysitting these guys:
 Grant was a ring bearer in his aunt's wedding this weekend, though he and his cousin (with whom he shared the responsibility) were only in the service long enough to walk down the aisle and then back out (bribed by promises of PEZ from Grandma). Note: babysitting in a skirt is not all that fun. I should have worn pants (but felt uncomfortable wearing pants to a wedding).
And at some point, I cleaned out the closet in the dining room.
 There are nearly three shelves available to store stuff here now. I think all of our shared office supplies, as well as the art supplies, will go in here. Right now it's housing light bulbs and the folding chairs. It helped that we moved the free roaming wreaths into plastic containers and put them in the basement storage.
All I’ve got to say is that it’s a good thing we’ve been so productive lately, because classes start on Monday, and I am officially registered! Full time graduate classes – it’s been a while since I’ve taken 3 classes, so I’m actually feeling a bit nervous. But, I know from experience that all I need is the syllabi and an hour with my planner (which I will have to purchase, because I don’t have a 2010 one) to feel better about all the “stuff” that needs to happen.
It’s also a good thing that I’ve still got the rest of the nights this week free, as well as the weekend, because there are some projects I should wrap up before the craziness begins.
You cannot imagine (well, maybe you can) how happy I was to get the email that I was registered (especially when I went to check in the system and it was true!).
This is an update on… last weekend. I know, I know, it’s Friday afternoon. To make up for my delinquency, I have lots of pictures. That makes it better, right?
I really wanted to wait and show you the completed project, but I've been too busy to paint the table, so this is what you get. Prince Charming and I built a table for my cutting mat (which is 3' x 6'). You can't really tell in this picture, but it collapses down against the wall and only takes up about 3 inches of floor space (depth-wise). Of course, it's not getting collapsed anytime soon (as evidenced by the boxes stacked under it, the projects on top, and, oh yes, the TV antenna).
You can see some before shots here and here.
 I spent some serious time cleaning and reorganizing my office. One result was that the closet door now comfortably opens and closes, so I could hang my clock up.
 This big guy used to be where the new table is, but had to move. (To the right, just out of the picture, is my sewing machine and the window to the front yard, for perspective). It is much more organized than it used to be. Still not gorgeous to look at, but it is a workspace, after all.
 But, as you can see in this picture, I still have a ways to go. I did get those shelves mostly organized (except for those bottom two on the right), but managed to dump a whole bunch of misfit stuff on top. Just being real.
 When Mom was over, she helped me find some wall space to hang a few things. Here's the updated corner in our living room. (Those ugly lamps - I still need to fix them somehow.) Oh, and she cleaned that window, inside and out, and now it kind of freaks us out how much we can see through it. It's like it's not even there, it's so clean.
 I bought that cute Berggen rooster trivet on Etsy a while back and got around to hanging it, while I had the drill out (plaster walls = pre-drilling).
 Mom and I started on this project, but only got about 1/3 done and then Prince Charming returned with the freezer and food.
I don’t really have any before pictures of the closet, just this one from when we first moved in. We promptly filled it with boxes and other stuff and I never did clean the shelf that was in there (there were also some rods for hangers, and hooks on the walls). And then we closed the doors. So, we took the doors off, pulled all the stuff out (moved it into appropriate places), and then Saturday night I spent some time removing the shelf and rods and anything else that I could. So it’s not pretty, but it does make the space feel more open.
When we drywall this room, the closet is coming out. As I realized the other day, unfortunately there will be some spots there on the floor where there is no carpeting. We will need to do some magic to work with that, but for now the walls are staying. (Doesn’t it make you want to find a hair metal band poster or three and use some Plastic-Tac to decorate?)
 Here's our gorgeous new freezer. Not terribly exciting, but it works, and is such an improvement on the kitchen fridge/freezer situation.
 Gorgeous! (On the door there are tomatoes from our garden and apples from the orchard, and on that middle shelf are some of the potstickers we made a while back.) Hopefully we'll slowly add more to our new arsenal.
 Later on Saturday night, I did some demo work. I have no before pictures, but see that light bulb at the top? There was an old kitchen cabinet (the rest are scattered in some other rooms in the basement) hanging right there. I mean, the lightbulb had about a centimeter of air space. And the cabinet was basically useless. Where you see black adhesive is where there was a piece of paneling. The rest of the paneling (marked by the brown adhesive) had been removed before we bought the house. Not an aesthetic improvement, but a functional one. I've been wanting to remove that thing for months (and we've only lived here seven months).
 Monday night, my Decalgirl order came, and I made my iPhone, Nintendo DS, and HP Mini pretty (they don't match, in case you were wondering). I love the way my netbook looks, but I think I need to make a new case. The brown/cream/orange doesn't really work with the black/white swirlies.
Lastly,  wanted to leave a gift for you all.
 She really treasures those pom poms. You should feel very special.
I fortuitously took tomorrow off (did I use that word correctly?), in less than 2 hours my 5-day weekend starts. Yay! I doubt I’ll post much, but you never know. Hopefully it won’t be too much longer until I can show you pictures from our projects that we’re still wrapping up. How about some hints? We’ve used all of these things (pictures from other Flickr members, so I’m not giving away anything):
 Looks fun, no?
Some more work to do tonight. I still haven’t decided what project and I will be working on on Saturday – paint the bedroom? the mural in my office? my bathroom? Demo the bookshelves in the basement? Oh, the possibilities!
One of my aunts was in town last week, and so she came over with to see our new house. As a housewarming gift, she gave us a color-changing hydrangea (they’re so cool – check out this website for info), which would live best on the south side of the house (full sun and all). pointed out that it would look best right where the hideously ugly rose bushes (that were slated to be removed next year) reside. And thus, yard work was created.
 If you'll remember, this is what the rose bushes (and lilac bushes) looked like.
So on Saturday, while started pruning the lilac bushes (more on that later in the week), I trimmed the roses back to stumps. These were particularly nasty roses, as they were super-thorny and couldn’t be touched anywhere but on the leaves.
 Rose bushes cut down to stumps.
Sunday, we dug out those stumps. To be fair, dug out the left two, and I can only take credit for the one on the right.
 Rose bush stumps removed.
And that’s where I’ll have to end this story today (because that’s where my pictures end). Be assured, we have more plans, and I’ll have a picture of our new hydrangea bush soon.
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thankful
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