Month 2 . Here are the before pics

We are starting our 2nd month of our project. Actually it started last week so I am behind now, Dang! I hate starting out behind on things. So I better get a move on, and I am sure posting this post alone will take as long as doing the projects. I don't know why posting is sooo hard. I have to be doing something wrong. Anyway......

I picked projects for this month that will require very little money to complete.

Project 1 painting the laundry room and sunroom. It was started and then abandoned when we had a family emergency and never was picked up again.

These two pictures show the contrast of the before and after. We are covering up the green and painting yellow. We already have the paint bought for this project.

Project 2

redoing the kitchen backsplash...... again!!

It was a single row of tile with green painted wall. I did not like it at all. So we put in the beadboard. I think it was in Sept. So it was painted a lovely shade of gray and lots of poly that as time went on got more and more yellow and looked terrible!! If just keeps getting worse. So I need to sand, prime and repaint and then get the right poly so it doesn't turn yellow.

You can see on the two following pictures the difference from what it is suppose to be to the terrible smokers house for 50 years color it turned. The light spots are where my hubby touched it up before it started turning yellow, and that paint didn't have poly on it.

So I already have the primer , and paint for this. I will need to buy a different poly a water based one this time. Live an learn.

Project #3

Magazines

I have a love hate relationship with them. I love looking at a magazine it is my sanctuary to immerse myself in one. However they multiply I have a hard time parting with them. so I have to continually sort, and purge them.

I have not done anything with the ones I kept when we moved, except add to them in the two baskets that you see, and the box is full of the ones I moved with . This takes up the whole floor on my side of the bed.

I need to purge, and sort , and come up with a storage plan.

I do find I buy allot less since I read blogs now as my inspiration.

yes, I was sorting socks right before taking pictures so those are matched clean socks in the pic waiting to be put away.... sorry about that.

And Project #4 This was was in the after pictures of last month. We will see this corner a couple more times before it is all said and done. This month I want hooks installed on this wall. This should be easy. I felt like I needed an easy one considering the first 3.

So there is my 4 projects for this month. It will be a relief when I can check these things off the never ending list. I am ready for a project that is a little more creative then what I have done so far......

The Afters of Month one of Our new year new sister project.

I have had these projects done before our deadline , which was Feb 14th but have had a problem getting the picture posted. So my sister has had no proof that I actually did them all. I have to get better at the posting part. She has her before and afters posted so check them out and see what she has been busy doing. If you missed what we are doing check here. And better descriptions of my before are here

PROJECT 1

Here is the before of the table in the library

Unusable and made me crazy

Here is the after . We can actually use the table. We hung up the shelf to clear more space on the table, and I wanted space for the art caddy I made. I was going to throw the file bag hanging on the door away since I had no use for it. But as I was looking for a good place to put color books close to the art supplies, this is what came about, the color books fit perfectly on there side, and stay hidden.

Here is a close up of the art caddy, I got the two pieces at a thrift shop, one was a ugly brown lazy susan, and the other I think was a condiment holder but no longer had the cups in them. I painted them and glued them together. I finally found cups that would fit in the holes. and the little buckets fit perfectly beside them. It holds skinny markers , fat markers, color pencils, crayons, and scissors. and the the whole thing spins and fits nicely under the shelf to make more table space. I am thrilled with it.

This is a close up of the shelf. I have had it forever, picked it up at a garage sale for a couple bucks it has been sitting on a bench just as a display shelf ever since I bought it. I decided it needed to be more useful now. I picked up the buckets at thrift stores and target dollar spot, I lined the back with wrapping paper to liven it up, I like the floral ( bottom middle slot). However until the wild wallpaper in the room goes away I can't add too much color or pattern in this room. the buckets hold glue, twist up crayons, pencils, small markers, erasers and small stapler. The two baskets on top hold some sewing items. Yes the clock is hanging on the wall not leaning. It needs raised or moved. It no longer works there since we hung the shelf. All and all it has worked out great.


PROJECT 2

This the before on the closet we have been building out of a side porch on our home. During Christmas it had turned into a dumping ground for all stuff with no place to go and decoration boxes.

This picture is standing at one end looking down. That is the door into our room on the left, and the box on the end is a closet in a closet we built using the other door that came off onto the porch. I will have to show that more latter.

Standing at the other end looking the opposite direction.

Here is the after, I am thrilled, to have a closet again. Our clothes have been hanging on a rack in our room since we moved in 9 months ago. It is not done But we got more done this month then I had even hoped. We got it all painted, trim painted, ceiling painted, carpet laid, rods hung and about half the shelves put in. We

Painted it a light blue gray, with white trim

and a white beadboard ceiling . I love it ! it is

so calming. Who doesn't need a calm closet, If I shown you the wallpaper in the bedroom you would understand.

this is standing at one end looking to the back, this is the ironing board space my hubby has forever. It was built to hold this ironing board, a iron hanger, and an outlet for an iron and enough floor space to iron.

this is standing at the back looking toward the door, there are a couple more projects that will be happening in this space. , But look at that mirror on the brick wall.... swoon. luv it.

PROJECT 3

Before: the Library shelves

The original after of the shelves

and a picture I took today a month latter with out me having to do anything to them

Yippee!!!!!

See you can tell its a new picture, the book in the basket is a book about spring. That basket is for our books for that season or holiday so they don't get lost in the shuffle and miss getting read.

PROJECT NUMBER 4

Before: under the kitchen sink. ( those dishes are clean, they are on the clean side )

Here's is a close up of the wrapping paper I modpodged to the bottom, and then

I put clear contact paper over it. It is so happy

Ya!! Doors and painted a lovely white.

Here is how the cabinet looks now, I also painted

the inside of the cabinet yellow to help brighten it

so it wasn't such a dark hole . That really helped

allot. I Love how clean and organized it is.

That is my 4 projects all done, everyone one of them has made a big difference in the living in the house. I didn't no any staging for any of these pictures as you can tell. Just keeping it real. I mean 8 of us do live here.

Now to post the next 4 projects for this month. I have one of them done already ya!!! This month I am picking projects that aren't going to cost me money as it is real tight around here this month. So Check back in soon to see what I am working on this month.

4 weeks of Before projects for the month.

Here is a list of the Before pictures of my projects for the next 4 weeks. In our New year New Sister project.


First up is the table in the Library. This Table is the kids Art and craft table, homework, and I sew at this table when I sew. It usually is bad but not quite this bad, It does have a stack of puzzles and games on it that were just added to it. It does accumulate allot of stuff on it, and the supplies are a mess. I want to clear it and come up with a good system for the supplies that need to go here.

Next is a Big, Huge , Giant project. It is finishing the inside of this closet. We started this closet in Oct. Our room did not have a closet, but it did have a side porch on it , so we enclosed it. We got as far as drywall mudding and taping, and we are terrible at it. So it was slow process. The holidays came and we started stacking all kinds of holiday boxes in here, everything that needed to be out of sight, so it became a storage bin. It is time to get this done so I can have a closet. The top picture is standing at one end , and the bottom picture is standing at the other end. ( see the art work on the wall, Em was excited that she had permission to draw on the wall.)

For this project We need to finish sanding, scrape ceiling, prime ceiling, paint ceiling, paint trim, paint walls, paint the bead board wall, paint moulding, lay carpet, install shelves and rods, build shoe storage, put in moulding. Add hooks to beadboard wall. That is a long list! I don't know if we can get this done in 4 weeks.

( those are clean dishes in the sink)

Last of the 4 projects, my under the sink cabinet. This has looked like this since Sept I believe. We had to replace the cabinet due to a leak, from before we bought the house. So we put in a new cabinet, and new sink, and faucet, and garbage disposer. I painted the cabinet and primed the doors and there it has sat. without doors, unorganized. So it is time to finish the doors, paint the inside of cab to brighten it up, cover the bottom of the cab, and organize it. So it is usable space that looks better. This cabinet replacement of course lead to redoing the back splash right then and that will be an upcoming project to fix that issue. (GRRR)

Below is just a little project , because I was on a roll this weekend. I was trying to find a good place for gloves by the back door, that the dog couldn't get. I have this little dresser by the back door, and the top drawer were still full of summer stuff, sunblock, bug spray , little fans, bubbles, sidewalk chalk. All the stuff we used all the time this summer, and I guess once we stopped using those items I just gave up the drawer. So I cleared it out to another storage space for off season and moved winter in to the drawer. In it is garage opener, shopping bags, and gloves. Perfect.

I think I have enough to keep me busy for a few weeks. I really want to get it all done. My list of upcoming projects is soooo long.

Week one of the New year Sister Project

My sister and I have started a new thing for the new year. We will have 4 projects to get done in a month, or 1 a week. We should do one a week , some will take longer then a week so 4 in a month. And when we get them done , we will make each other have a "good mail day" just for fun. But being accountable is the biggest motivator and having someone care about what and how you are doing on these mundane tasks that WILL make life easier, Is a Great Bonus. Us moms and housewives do allot of projects and are proud of ourselves but don't really have anyone to share it with that will care about it. So its is nice to have someone to show.

So for the first of my 4 weeks projects

The kid part of the library shelves. They are out of control, and it makes me nuts.

this is part of the library shelves, this shelf holds the little kid book, and a few educational toys on the bottom.

another picture of the same shelves

Here is the after of the same shelves

Another After shot of the shelves because they are soo pretty. We did organize the books by color and it looks very pretty. An added Bonus the girls like putting the books back away in the color order, to keep the rainbow.

It did inspire me work on more of the shelves so here is a picture of more of the shelves, This is only half of the book shelves. The rest will have to be another project, they include allot more office supply stuff, which I do not have a system that works yet for the office yet.

So that is the first of my projects , It does make me happy to walk past those shelves now.