If anything, we are learning that expanding to a full sized home from a one bedroom apartment is an ‘adventure’. While customizing things to our own needs and preferences is fun, it is a lot of work and takes a great deal of time.
Yesterday we decided to take off to New Minas – a town that is about two hours away – as that is where the nearest Home Depot store is located. I mentioned before that I had not finished with my scroll saw room and one of the things that still needed to be done was to add in the shelving and some storage boxes to hold the pre-cut wood pieces for the kits that I am selling. Up until now, I have had three small(ish) Rubbermaid boxes that were about all I could handle in my little place. While they were sufficient for the most part, they didn’t allow room for expansion or for me to really make things ahead of time. There just wasn’t room to store them.
I find it easy to cut a couple of extra pieces when filling an order. Sometimes there is just enough extra wood to accommodate an ornament or two and instead of either throwing the pieces out of having to store small scraps, I just keep cutting. This is especially true with my most popular kits, and it is a nice 'surprise’ to have the wood pieces ready to go when I receive an order for them. It makes things so much more efficient.
But that was a luxury that I couldn’t really afford all the time, as space was so precious. One of the best things of having this new work area is that there is plenty of room for some extra 'stock’ for order. That will make things so much easier.
So I wanted to make a 'quick trip’ to New Minas to both Michael’s and Home Depot, which are located in the same shopping area. Michael’s had some great containers in a good size for my purpose and Home Depot had some large bins for my basement storage place that I will show in a minute. There was no time like the present, so off we went.
We did well and filled the car to its limit with containers. The day was beautiful and warm and sunny and we were back here by about 2pm. However, the move has taken its toll on both Keith and I and we were so tired that we needed to take a nap for an hour or two. Between the constant work and the sleepless nights planning everything, we have both been pretty exhausted. But the mission was accomplished and now I can spend the weekend staying close to home and continuing the organizational project.
The day before was a good one, although I had a couple of “hiccups” in the process. Keith’s mom came over for a visit and that was nice, and I tried to do some odds and ends that I was meaning to get to. Our new furniture in the dining room would be arriving any day now and I had patched a couple of places in the wall where there were nail holes and so forth. The owners left the touch up paint for all the rooms, but there were several shades of grey paint to choose from. Last week I did similar touch-ups in the living room with excellent results. Keith was amazed at how the filled holes disappeared and how well the paint blended. You couldn’t even tell that I did anything and the room looked great. But after a week or more of looking at spackled holes in the dining room, I though it was time to paint over them before the new pieces arrived.
I started painting and noticed the grey seemed a bit darker than before. For the life of me, I couldn’t remember if paint dried DARKER or LIGHTER than it was when it was wet. The color was close enough that I thought I was doing OK, but as it dried, I got this sense of dread as the new paint looked quite dark and obviously didn’t match what was on the wall. (sigh!)
Me being me – I worked fast and not only did this to ONE wall, but all THREE. What I had on my hands was a MESS!
Genius that I am, I decided to allow it to dry and picked one of the lighter greys in color. Instead of testing the wall in a small area, I once again painted the entire wall over. But alas – this time the grey was TOO LIGHT:
Now I was getting sad. The last thing I needed to do was paint the entire living room and dining room. I would have to do them both because they are in essence, the same room and there would be no good stopping point.
Keith mentioned that he had taken some old paint to the depot to get rid of it that very morning. He said there was a shade of grey in the mix, but he thought it was an old and obsolete one. So off I went to the dump to pick up the paint.
I successfully retreived the paint, but alas, it didn’t match either. There was one more candidate that I had but I didn’t recall the label, as it was a different brand than all of the rest of the paint. However, there was no other choice but to give it a try and I did that in a tiny coner.
It MATCHED!! I can’t tell you how relieved I was. Within about 10 minutes, I was able to cover the mess on all the walls beautifully!
Life was good again! Now on to the next project …
I wanted to show you all Keith’s progress in his basement shop. After cleaning the basement, power washing it and painting the floors, he is building a large workbench for himself. It is quite an undertaking but he is doing a great job at it.
He framed everything out to make it level:
And then he began adding framing for the work table:
He got further last night than the photos show, but I haven’t been down there yet to get photos. I promise them for next time. :)
His workshop will be very nice and roomy and I am amazed at how he turned unused space into something so functional.
On the other side of the basement, I have my corner for all my seasonal decorations and painting surfaces. These are the bins that we needed more of. It is great to have them all the same, as they stack so nicely. Each bin is labeled on two sides with the season of what is inside. Most of them are only partially full, allowing room for expansion. This way, all I need to do is grab the appropriate 'season’ and all my decorations for that season are right at hand. What could be easier??
In the meantime, the kitties are all settling in nicely. After Coco’s trip to “Narnia” last week when she crawled into a vent, she has been pretty good about not wanting to travel to new places. They have all loved the many windows and the many rooms to relax and explore in. I received and put together my printer cart a couple of days ago and they were all very 'helpful’ in the process. I think everyone is settling in nicely.
So that is it for today. I have loads of projects to work on this weekend. I will keep showing you all of our organizations stuff as we get them done, as we hope this will inspire you in your own shop and home.
There is still so much to do, but it is all fun and good and I am starting to feel less achy and more energetic. The hard part is over and accomplishing things one by one is really rewarding. It is all good.
It rained hard last night and the wind was howling. We have a large valley behind us and the wind seems to follow up it to the house. It offers great breezes on those hot days though and for the most part is a good thing. It is something that we need to get used to though.
I wish you all a wonderful and creative weekend. I know I will be busy here and I hope that I have a lot to show you on Monday.
Be safe and have fun! Happy Friday to you all!
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