House & Home – Page 12 – Not Content to Crawl

My Brother’s Birthday & New Planter

Posted onApril 27, 2015

Saturday we went to my parents to celebrate Brother #1’s birthday and play Cards Against Humanity. Brother #2 and his girlfriend were also there. I hadn’t seen either since Christmas. I’m really not sure what’s going on with Brother #2 because he hasn’t been keeping in touch. I’ve tried reaching out a few times only to be ignored so I’m done. He’s either angry at me over an imagined slight or he’s too caught up in his own shit. Either way I’m not going to keep trying. It’s too frustrating.

Anyway, these are the presents I gave my brother.

He likes goofy shit, I like buying presents, and it was all less than $20 so that’s a win win win.

My mom made him an orange-flavored cake which was better than it sounds. With vanilla ice cream it was like eating a dreamsicle.

We stayed until just before midnight so we didn’t get to bed until late even though we had errands I wanted to run in the morning. I finally dragged my butt out of bed around 8 am on Sunday and we ran to Walmart to get that out of the way early. I hate grocery shopping on the weekends unless we can beat the crowds.

Sunday afternoon I cleaned the rat cages and the rest of the house while Joe built a planter for our patio.

I love how it came out. It’s a Pinterest un-ironic nailed it!

Next weekend we plan to buy flowers and more soil to set it up. Plus we will be transplanting that bush to the right to a newer, nicer planter we picked up a few weeks ago. Coupled with the umbrella my mom gave us, our patio will be a tranquil place to relax once it warms up. I’m looking forward to it!

Spring Organizing

Posted onMarch 30, 2015September 21, 2020

Got the spring ~~cleaning~~ organizing bug this weekend and purchased a ClosetMaid 9 cube organizer at Target which we put in the loft. It was a little pricey at $60 but nicer looking than the $40 version Walmart sells. So far I’ve got a bunch of purses and other stuff in there which really cleaned up the area around my desk.

We also bought some storage totes and tackled organizing E’s closet. Joe has a bunch of his old Star Wars toys in there, plus we were using his closet to store old video game systems and electronics, etc. We made it more organized so I could move some stuff out of the rat room closet which was getting to be a mess. Plus I organized our master closet better by throwing all my Cure vinyl and other memorabilia in the remaining storage tote so I could stack items on top of it (whereas it was in a heavy black milk crate before).

The next thing I’d like to tackle is all the damn paperwork we have. I have three plastic file totes as well as a locking fireproof safe with paperwork in it. That just seems like way too much stuff even though we clean it out annually. I started going through it this morning but got fatigued. I was able to discard a decent pile of stuff before I lost my energy, though!

Trying to organize everything is a double-edged sword for me because on one hand it helps me feel less anxious when I feel like things are in order. On the other hand, I start to feel anxious when I realize we have too much stuff! But that is why we started a box for stuff we want to donate or sell to Half Price Books. We’re getting rid of most of the books we own, which admittedly, isn’t a lot to begin with. But who needs a book on cat behavior when we can’t have one? Or one on the proper care of a Betta fish when we can look that up online? Might as well free up some space even if that space isn’t huge.

I pulled a TON of burned CDs out of a cabinet that were just thrown in there and my grand plan is to go through them so I can throw most of them away. They weren’t all labeled, though, so I don’t want to chuck them until I’m sure there’s nothing on them I want to keep. The task seems daunting, however, so that will have to wait for another day.

Rug Shopping

Posted onSeptember 2, 2014September 2, 2014

About five years ago my mom gave us some brand new throw rugs she had purchased that she decided she didn’t like. Unfortunately the rubber backing on them has started to fall apart and we need to replace them soon. The problem is no one has any rugs We like! We’ve looked at Kohls, Meijer, Walmart, Target, TheDump, Bed Bath and Beyond, Home Goods, and even Kmart to no avail! I don’t know why all the rugs out there are so damn fugly but this is getting ridiculous. I might just have to shop online to find something decent. At this point I don’t even care so much about the money (although if they weren’t falling apart I’d gladly use them another five years), but I can’t find a pattern I like. Plus I need a total of four rugs in two different sizes which makes things a little more difficult. Ugh, I hate shopping for home decor sometimes!

Master Bathroom Remodel

Posted onJune 13, 2014

So the remodel has been complete for awhile, and we even re-did the color scheme. I was just too lazy to get the necessary photos.

Here’s the before and after with the new floor tile (click to make larger):

Here’s the after with the new green theme we decided to go with (click to make larger):

Milwaukee Brewers & Master Bath Reno

Posted onSeptember 8, 2013

Last Saturday (August 31st) we went to a Milwaukee Brewers game with my stepson and sister in law. We got seats only one section from where we sat last time we attended a game, in the same row. We’re creatures of habit, I guess. Between the tickets and parking the outing was $58, not including food. The Brewers were giving out $10 food vouchers to every fan, however, so we didn’t spend much out of pocket after using them. One of the things I look forward to most there is the vanilla and sugar-covered roasted nuts they sell. It’s $7 for a large combo (cashews, pecans, and almonds), but they are well worth it. I also had a cheddar burger which, while not really worth the $6.50 price tag, was pretty decent. This couple accused us of being in their seats shortly after we first sat down, which was funny. They were very nice about it, but they insisted that we had all been sold duplicate tickets until I spotted the section # on their tickets and pointed out it was 425, not 426 like they insisted. I even asked them if they were sure and the lady glanced at her ticket and pointed to the section and said, “it says 426” to which I replied, “actually, it says 425”. They were pretty embarrassed. I would be too! Then again, I’d probably check my own ticket ten times and make sure I was in the section mentioned on the ticket before I told some people they were in my seat.

Sunday we visited my parents to celebrate Labor Day since on the actual day we started a mini renovation of the master bathroom. To save money we’re using leftover tile from the kids’ bathroom renovation for our floor and a new lighting fixture and towel bars we had purchased years ago. We’re not replacing the tub, sink, or counter for now. The only thing we had to buy was paint and it was an ordeal like always. I really hate picking out paint colors because whenever I try to get something light beige I end up with some barbie-doll-looking color. The color itself looks ok in natural light, but not under the lighting in the actual bathroom! It has a pink hue to it which I hate, but we don’t want to spend any more money right now so we will have to adjust to it for the time-being. The grout on the floor is currently drying, then Joe has to install the towel bars and reinstall the toilet. Once done I will post pictures. I’m just happy this renovation is taking less than two weeks unlike the previous bathroom re-hauls!