We've been living in our home for almost a year, and we've spent the winter figuring out what renovations are needed and prioritizing what needs to be done this spring and summer.
Showing posts with label Home. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Home. Show all posts
Planning For Spring; Celebrating New Life
Are you looking forward to spring as much as I am?
Most years, March is a bit of a blah month here and we're more than ready for winter to be over! The official date for spring falls on March 19st, but some years it seems that winter didn't get the memo. The odd year, spring comes early, but more often than not, the snow lingers or winter gives us one more snowstorm. There have been years I felt like we were living in Narnia where it's "Always winter, but never Christmas!"
But no matter how barren our surroundings, new life is waiting to appear.
Beyond Decluttering, Does It Ever End?
So, you've spent a few months, or maybe a year, decluttering your home.
You've dumped all your clothes on the bed and only kept what you love...folding them neatly Marie Kondo style, you've pared down your bookshelves to only your favourite authors, you've given away all your nicknacks, emptied the basement and garage...you've even tossed all of the expired medication! You can finally breathe a sigh of relief...it's done! Until you open a closet or cabinet and aaaarrgh it's overflowing again! Or the junk mail and flyers have once again piled up on the kitchen counter! Picnic plates in the winter? And what are those tools doing in here? Please tell me I'm not the only one who's had this problem!
My Top 5 Posts of 2019
It seems we're not the only ones trying to simplify our lives. Four of my top five posts are from my Decluttering and Downsizing series. In fact, the top post of all time is the first I wrote in the series. Part 1 of our Foster-Adoption story made it into the top 5 as well!
Our Traditions of Christmas
Welcome to our Traditions of Christmas series. We had fun putting it together, reminiscing about Christmas seasons past and creating new memories. You can find links to all of the posts here.
Traditions of Christmas ~ Our Nativity Scene
"Gingerbread and candy canes, cookies baked to give away;
singing carols, Christmas plays, gifts and going to Grandma's place."
All of these have been a big part of our family's celebrations, but the most important thing to us has been to instill in our children and grandchildren the true meaning of Christmas.
"While some traditions come and go, others we hold dear"
For the past 25 years or so, the center of our decorations has been our manger scene, depicting the birth of Christ.
Traditions of Christmas ~ A Pinate
Are you looking for something different to do this Christmas? One of our many Christmas activities from years gone by has been making a pinate.
Traditions of Christmas ~ Home Made Gift Wrap and Tags
When our older kids were growing up, there were many years that we had to find ways to save money. Making our own wrapping paper was one of them.
Traditions of Christmas ~ Gift Jars
Are you looking for a simple gift for a friend, teacher, or co-worker? Maybe you want a project that you can do with the kids. Gift jars are a great gift for anyone, and easy enough for kids to make with a little help from an adult.
Traditions of Christmas ~ Gift Trays
This is one of my favourite gift ideas and one that we've done many times over the years. Some years have been quiet, with just my daughter Nicole and I getting together, while other years the whole family has been home to take part. No matter who is there, it's always a fun time of making memories.
Traditions of Christmas ~ Mini Gingerbread Houses
Traditions of Christmas ~ Button Wreath
When I was a child, I loved playing with my mom's collection of buttons. Like many ladies of her day, Mom kept the buttons in an old cookie tin. Years later, when my parents were moving from the farm, among their possessions was a huge cookie tin full of buttons. Not the small tin from my childhood, but one that belonged to my great aunt. I'm sure that tin held not only Auntie Bene's button collection, but my grandma's and my mom's as well. I had no idea what I'd do with all those buttons, but I brought the cookie tin home, not willing to leave it behind for someone else to throw away.
Clutter Or Keepsakes?
In a previous post, I posed the question,
"But does decluttering mean we're becoming minimalists?"
For the most part, I'm a very practical person and a messy house stresses me out, so minimalism does have an appeal. But I'm also sentimental about some things. What I consider clutter is stuff that once had a practical purpose, but is no longer needed...clothing that doesn't fit, extra dishes, miscellaneous containers, old financial papers, pamphlets or magazines. The impractical items like mementos, gifts and ornaments aren't clutter to me.
If you too enjoy being surrounded by mementos and collectibles, this little peek into our new home is for you.
Our House Tour; Downsizing & Moving On
I know I promised a house tour months ago, but life just got a little hectic and we never did find time to do a video before moving out of our Hoops Loop house. We did, however, manage to get one done when we went back to do a final cleaning.
For those of you who haven't been here before, I'll give a little intro. As my husband nears retirement age, we realized we hadn't really planned for this stage of life. Most of our family has grown up and left home, and we've retired from 30 years as foster parents, leaving us and just 2 kids in a very large house. We had started a decluttering and downsizing process about 2 years ago, and in June 2019, we moved into what we hope and expect to be our retirement house. I'll be sharing more about that in the future but for now, I hope you'll enjoy taking a walk through our previous house.
For those of you who haven't been here before, I'll give a little intro. As my husband nears retirement age, we realized we hadn't really planned for this stage of life. Most of our family has grown up and left home, and we've retired from 30 years as foster parents, leaving us and just 2 kids in a very large house. We had started a decluttering and downsizing process about 2 years ago, and in June 2019, we moved into what we hope and expect to be our retirement house. I'll be sharing more about that in the future but for now, I hope you'll enjoy taking a walk through our previous house.
Living Simply; Going Minimalist?
Having just gone through a major decluttering of our house, I've spent some time watching various videos to get myself organized and motivated. Whether it's the tiny house movement, capsule wardrobes or downsizing, everyone seems to be talking about minimalism.
But does decluttering mean we're becoming minimalists?
Just Put One Foot In Front Of the Other
Having come to the end of the monumental task of decluttering our home, I thought it fitting to share this story...
My dad grew up near Miami, Manitoba, at the foot of a huge hill, called Mount Nebo. One day a neighbour commented that he was so tired, he felt like he had just moved Mount Nebo with a wheelbarrow. That statement somehow grew into a favourite saying of my mom’s, and one that my husband quotes quite frequently,
“You can move a mountain with a wheelbarrow, just put one foot in front of the other.”
Decluttering; Laying Aside Every Weight
My parents lived on the same property for 61 years; first a small house, then one they had built. I can't imagine how much stuff I could have accumulated if we`d stayed in one place that long! My kids should be thankful that we've moved 18 times in 38 years! And even more thankful that I'm not leaving all of our stuff for them to clean up.
Knowing that we would be downsizing in the near future, I started decluttering.
It wasn't until pictures started coming up in FB memories that I realized just how long I'd been at it! Here I am a year later, finally at the end of what has been a very long but satisfying journey. I thought I'd share a little of the process here.
Decorating Kids' Rooms
I come from a family with eight kids. When I was a girl, all I wanted was a pink bedroom. My parents weren't crazy about bright colors, so what I ended up with was more like white with a pink tinge. We didn't have much money either, so I didn't even have flooring...just bare plywood, but I did have a little purple rug beside my bed!
When our older kids were growing up, Brian and I didn't have much money either, so their rooms weren't much better than what I grew up with. In fact we often joked about our decorating scheme being stripes and polka dots....meaning we had mudded the joints and screws in the drywall, but there was no paint. I guess that's why I got a little carried away with decorating our kids' rooms in later years!
When we built our house on my parents' farm, the boys' bedrooms were in the basement with very high ceilings. In Justin and Jeremy's room, we gave them a 'Swiss Family Robinson' theme. Brian built them loft beds and I painted a blue ceiling and added clouds to the sky. I then painted huge trees on the walls. We even made some 'real' trees. Brian took the hard cardboard tube that comes inside carpet, cut it in half and put it on an outside corner. I used drywall compound to create a rough surface and painted it to look like a poplar tree trunk. I them added some fake branches. What I didn't think about was just how much dust those branches would collect! The decorating shows never told me that part!
Danny wanted an 'under the sea' theme, so Brian built his bed to look like a sunken ship. I sponge painted the room in a turquoise color and added plants and some coral to the lower walls. Justin drew some sharks and fish on the walls, but before we could finish painting them, disaster struck....our basement flooded, and soon the under the sea room had a stream flowing through it! When we finally gave up on fighting the never ending flood, and decided to move, all of my hard work was ripped down! Unfortunately I don't have any pictures available. I don't think I'll be talked into doing another under the sea theme again!
Once we got moved to our next home, and construction was complete, it wasn't long before the boys put in a new request....a castle theme!
This was many years ago, and this room eventually became Danica's room.
Later, I painted a Mario themed room for Justin. I'm not sure it actually looks like the game, but if nothing else it was bright and colourful!
We built our new house almost 5 years ago, and again I asked the kids for ideas for their bedrooms.
Jeremy chose a teal colour, but he also likes camo, so I decided to try something new. I painted a base coat teal, then used a plastic garbage bag to apply some brown. I started in the closet....thankfully, because it's much harder than it looks, and didn't turn out quite the way I had hoped!
This is how the closet walls look.
When I finished the closet and started on the bedroom walls, I somehow forgot to paint the teal base coat, and started applying the brown with the bag. So, I made the best of my mistake and applied the teal in the same way, and then went back with a sponge to touch up any areas that were missed.
Still not quite the way I had planned, but I think it's better than the closet!...and Jeremy liked it, so that's what matters!
For the rest of the walls, I painted a base coat of ivory at the top, and teal on the bottom half of the wall. I then sponged on a camo pattern in a band between the two colours. I like the sponge technique much better than the garbage bag!
It's hard to get a picture of the whole room, but this is how it turned out.
The inspiration for Danica's new room came from a purple bed spread that we gave her for Christmas. We bought two shades of purple paint, and did a base coat in the lighter shade, then a dark purple band around the room, about the halfway mark. Then I mixed the two paint colours to make a third shade. I used this new colour and the darker shade to sponge paint the bottom half of the walls. It doesn't really show in the pictures, but the sponge painting looks like lilacs.
Later, we painted the bed white to match the rest of the furniture, and added white baseboards and trim.
We decorated the room with a 'frozen' theme, using a shower curtain on her closet, and large stickers on the wall.
It's surprising what you can do with a little bit of paint, to create a special room for your kids....and hopefully some special memories!
Faux Painting A Concrete Floor
If you're looking for an inexpensive way to finish your basement floor, why not paint it? This is a project that we did a few years ago, and it has held up quite well, with just a few scratches. We've done a lot of painting projects, but we'd never painted a concrete floor before. We have, however, spilled enough latex paint on concrete to know it doesn't come off easily, so we knew latex paint would work well for this job. It's also the easiest to work with.
We decided to start painting in a bedroom. I figured by the time I finished the bedrooms, bathroom and hallway, I should be a pro, and ready to take on the family room.
We painted the floor with a base coat. We had a big pail of ivory paint left over from painting our walls upstairs, so we used that. We added some dark brown paint just to give it a little more colour. The nice thing about painting a floor is that you don't need a paint tray....Brian just sloshed some paint on the floor and I rolled it on...a little smaller slosh might have been better, as the paint in that area is pretty thick
Just having the base coat on made such a difference, I could have just left it like that! You'll notice in this picture that the walls are just primed. We decided to do the floor first and then the walls...for a couple of reasons....one, I'm impatient, and wanted to get at the floors! And the other...I planned to do faux painting on the walls too, and figured it would be easier to wipe spatters off a painted floor than bare cement.
Brian got the fun job of crawling around the floor marking off the squares. I taped the lines with 6mm paint tape...just wide enough to create the look of a grout line.
I asked Brian to pick up three shades of brown paint. The original three colors were too close, so we took the middle one and added some ivory. This gave us the contrast we needed.
I applied the paint to a large sponge with a paint brush, creating a pattern on the sponge.
Dabbing the sponge on the floor, I painted one square at a time. It's important to change the position of the sponge, giving a little turn here and there, to create variations in the pattern. Once I'd covered the entire square, I'd go back and dab more paint on to add more of a pattern, then moved on to the next square. By doing each square separately, the pattern is somewhat different; more like real tiles would be.
This is a short video showing how I used the brush and sponge.
Painting the floor took less than two hours...not bad, for a first try!
After about two more hours, the floor was dry enough for me to remove the tape. It came up very easily.
It turned out even better than I had hoped!
Once the first bedroom was done, we did the hall closet, and then I started working my way from the bedroom door, down the hallway.
I also found a faster way to apply the paint. I dabbed it directly onto the floor with a paintbrush, then sponged it around, until the square was covered, overlapping the tape just a little. Either method works well, and the pattern looks the same.
I worked my way down the hall, until I came to the bathroom, and did that first.
Once the bathroom was done, I continued down the hallway toward the family room. The two other bedrooms were next.
This is the view from the stairway, looking toward the family room...the next stage of the project!
The family room, all prepped and painted, and Brian is marking the lines.
As I went along, I got brave and started to do a few squares at a time!
All done, and tape removed.
Three coats of Varathane clear coat over the entire floor gave it a nice finish!
The entire project, 3 bedrooms, a bathroom, hallway, and family room, was spread out over about 6 weeks, with some walls painted during that time too. It was a huge job, but it was definitely worth the effort. It's such an easy to clean floor; just a damp mop is all that's needed.
I've seen this same method used on a porch floor, but I think in an unheated area it might be better to not apply the clear coat over top. We tried painting a storage room in our garage, and the varathane seemed to lift the paint. In a warmer climate, this probably wouldn't be an issue so it would work fine on a porch floor or even a covered patio.
I also did some faux painting on the bathroom walls, that I think turned out even better. You can see that post HERE.
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