Check out this video

7 foot antique bed and how to move it to your second floor of house

Had to share because the little dance Victoria and her husband do is awesome!

New Collage With Mudroom/Entryway Addition

I dream some day of a mudroom. If you live in a split-level you feel my pain. That's the pain of a very small entryway that immediately says you have to make a choice up or down. One solution would be to add additional space on the front of that entry and make room for a small mudroom in the entry.

So tonight that's the theme:

I have all of this extra room around the edge because this is also my first collage done in photoshop instead of paint. Pat's been telling me forever I should switch to photoshop so I did. I still have long way to go to get comfortable.

Inside would be something like this...

 

Or this on each side?

You get the idea. You would enter and immediately know this house is super organized. That's what I want my entry to say. Not like it does now. Now it says "Danger, Danger, Will Roberts!" But instead let's see some more happy, organized entryways!

This last picture is just what I'd like to do to the big wall that is on your left when you come in. It spans from the steps up from basement to the ceiling. Then I'd hang our PortraitLife pictures from our engagement session and the one in my office of Rylie on that wall. 

Can't you just imagine how great these pictures would look up on that wall. Me too!!!!

Virtual Remodeling

Since we're currently stalled with our remodeling, I did some more virtual remodeling via collage. Took me all day and not really happy with it. But it serves the purpose of trying to envision what Pat is talking about and then he can look at it and say you have it all wrong!

Can't stand it, must do something! Sugarplum to the rescue!

Since our house remodeling has slowed down to a snail's pace and I need to organize two areas desperately, I'm thinking I'm going to just do it and if they get completely changed later than this will count as a practice run. The two areas I need to address are an entryway/drop-zone/family organization center and a bedside table/knitting storage/bookshelf area. Because fixing these two issues would go a long way to a more organized house. But trust me still long way to go before then. So if there is anyone else out there that was remodeling then had to put on hold for awhile so lives without interior walls or stair railings this is for you!

Current State of Kitchen/Dining/Living Room and Entryway:

Current State of my bedside area (warning the following pictures could be disturbing):

Clearly I need help and a system and a housekeeper but who's going to hire a housekeeper when they don't even have walls?

So here's some preliminary sketches....

For the Entryway:

For my bedroom disaster:

Now I'm not going to get underbed storage at this time but I can at least work on the other area. Probably should start with how to find or make a bookshelf to put on wall next to bed. And then make or find bench for entryway. I already have Mirror with Hooks under it for other wall. Ok and I'll make some collages of how it'd look if it could be done nice and pretty including the walls and new door etc. That'll keep me busy until I have some moolah for this project. But whole idea is project needs to cost $200 or less. Preferably much less. 

Oh and this is the blog spot I saw that made me think surely I can do something in the meantime to organize a couple small areas of the house-->


Hi Sugarplum!: Updated Family Command Center with Martha Stewart's New Wall Manager

PS the giveaway is already over and I didn't participate so don't mistake me from gaining from this link! lol

12DaysOfHGTV and Further Work on "My" Craft Room Across the Street!

As I've told a few people, I just can't take the chaos of my house sometimes plus I thought I should spend more time with my mom. So for not really unselfish reasons I asked my mom for a room of her house. She freaked when I moved out most of the furnishings but she's coming around. So I decided to start small and cover the throw pillows on the couch. I also covered a bulletin board with burlap. Although it's just temporarily tacked on at moment I think I'm going to dress it up a bit...

But here's my progress so far. And I saw that HGTV was encouraging people to go to Joann's and buy some fabric to do some quick decorating around the holidays and it was called 12DaysOfHGTV or 12DaysofHome? Let me check again....

Actually it's both #12DaysofHGTVHOME oki doki. So keeping that in mind I bought these 4 peices of fabric at Joann's last week up in Chicago.

Aren't these beautiful? But they were kind of expensive. So I found these other fabrics that were more in line with the colors I wanted that were reduced from $9.99 to $5.99 a yard and now I can't honestly say if they're HGTV or not? So ADHD of me I got distracted by them and lost sight of the goal. But I'm happy with so there! So I made this pin for Pinterest and for their contest and for Ame who asked me to collaborate on a Sewing Projects board with her. Ame is just starting to sew.

So this is how I spent an hour or so to stay awake between 10:30 and New Years. Happy New Years everybody!

Maybe tomorrow I'll paint room and finish the bulletin board.

New Collage of Craft Room

So last night I looked through Houzz.com for pictures to inspire the new space. And I made this "mood board" or idea board.

Then today after seeing my hospital patients, I moved a desk, couple bulletin boards, deep freeze and 10 foot length of shelving out of the office. Came home and Pat and Joe were taking a break from working on his room to allow stuff to dry* (more on that later). So I got them to move the huge broken console TV out to the curb. Moved the couch over to the other wall and then things went downhill. Apparently when I asked my mom for a room she didn't exactly know what that meant. She was fine when I moved out stuff we discussed was garbage. But then when I wanted to move her file cabinets to another part of the house she had a fit. So they went in Rylie's room. Proving once again that s#$@ really does roll down hill. Meanwhile I went through every closet, every box in the garage and threw out tons of Dad's figuring. He liked to sit and "figure" for hours on end. Now that I have seen what he was figuring all those years. I'm a little nervous. He apparently went over and over every dollar he ever earned, ever paid and ever leant. And then he did it again. And again. I mean to the nth degree. WOW!!!! I always said he wasn't any fancy crazy, just plain crazy.

I also found his dog tags which are pretty cool so I'm wearing them. I found his little black book and yes I threw it away. Found more genealogy stuff that is probably in the collection I already have but I set it aside to be sure. Found boxes and boxes of mouse eaten papers and even a box of blank paper. More boxes of nuts and bolts and 2 slide rules. I EVEN FOUND THE PEDAL TO THE SERGER I APPARENTLY NO LONGER HAVE. BUT NO not the cord and pedal to the sewing machine I do have. How does that happen? I am thinking that those stupid people I lived with gave away my serger and the wrong pedal. That figures. Here I looked in the storage unit, the attic, every closet in both houses, both garages...even the office and now I vaguely remember those idiots giving it away. Oh well rather be without a pedal then have them back around. So I hope I get one on ebay. Or I can buy one for $80 or more.

Back to the collage and our misunderstanding. So I had to explain that I can't set up a craft room with filing cabinets, coffee table and end tables in the room. All I was keeping was the couch for now and it happens to be my couch anyway. I moved a whole bunch of furniture into their house when I moved in and now that I moved out everytime I try and claim a peice of furniture she doesn't want to part with it. She has my entryway console table, a double bed of cherry wood, double mattress, sofa bed and hope chest. So she eventually decided I guess to let me proceed or at least stopped complaining. So here's my plan. It's pretty rough but you get the idea.

Needs work but you get the idea.

This HOUZZ Picture Made Me Feel

So much better about the state of our kitchen...

Other by Other Metro Media & Bloggers Roots and Rafters