The Master To-Do List

I have so many ideas for this house! Time and money lag behind, unfortunately, but I have plenty of time to work on this house.  Here's the master list of things I currently want to accomplish in this house.  (Subject to changing and evolving needs, as always.) Please remember that this is a five year (or longer) plan.

The Exterior (Front)

-take out rose bushes and replant in out-of-the-way corner in the backyard, as one child has repeatedly dragged another child through the rosebushes, to the scratchy detriment of said second child
-paint trim a different color, possibly a charcoal gray?
-paint front doors a bright, happy color (leaning towards yellow, but this is subject to HOA approval, as is repainting the trim)

The Foyer

-paint the interior of the front doors (navy blue?)
-art or a mirror to the side of the doors (not pictured)
-paint the lionhead dresser (red?)

Downstairs Hallway

-Art!  I have an idea for a gallery wall that is not messy and jumbly. I hope. Will report back soon.
-a kilim rug-type runner

Stairwell

-this is the view from the front door.  That upper wall going up the staircase needs a statement SOMETHING.  Not sure what. I think it might be our collection of vintage art posters.
-I am not offended by the lantern light fixture, although it wouldn't be my first choice.  Changing it out is wayyyy down on my list of priorities, but it will probably be changed eventually.
-Raise the step-down floor into the living room.  I hate this.  I really want the floor to be one level all the way around, so that there is no separation between the dining room and living room and foyer.  This step-down is also severely curtailing our furniture arranging options in the living room and wasting a ton of space in the foyer.
-extend the wood flooring into the living room and dining room
-paint the banister black
-repaint the spindles white (they are a very yellowy off-white at the moment)

Living Room/Playroom

-ugh, where to start?
-raise the floor (see above), add wood flooring.  Problem--the previous owner put in $14/sq ft hand-scraped french-bleed hickory flooring in HALF the house.  That flooring has been discontinued, of course.  If I raise the floor we will need to match the wood, which seems impossible. I have done some investigation and have not found anything that matches well enough, and $14/sq ft is EXPENSIVE.  Of course, getting rid of the old, perfectly good yet non-matchable flooring and reflooring the ENTIRE HOUSE is also EXPENSIVE.  We will be exploring solutions in the next year or two.
-resurface the fireplace with tile (get rid of the brick)
-art over the fireplace, or wire it for tv when refacing?
-fabric window treatments
-lined bamboo blinds
-this is currently the playroom. I have no idea what purpose I will want this room to serve in three or four years, which is when I think I will have enough money to actually decorate this room with new furniture.  Lets revisit this then.

Dining Room

-art canvas of Italian vacation for long wall
-paint chairs
-new sliding doors
-raise floor/add wood flooring
-once floor is raised, add second table leaf and chairs so table seats 10
-I sold that oak buffet. Not sure if I'll replace it, I'm liking the spaciousness.
-art
-new light fixture

Kitchen

-ignore the mess
-new cabinet under cooktop (not pictured), put microwave under cooktop
-replace insanely loud double oven (not high on list, priority wise, but it is unbelievably loud)
-paint lower cabinets darker (greenish-beige) and upper cabinets white (they are white, but they need a touch-up)
-paint windows black, like casement windows
-replace countertops (quartzite? or something that looks like marble but isn't)
-tile backsplash
-brass hardware for cabinets
-small antique-type butcher block island
-new fridge that doesn't need to be taped shut to stop it from beeping
-bar stools for counter

Eat-in Area

-lengthen curtains
-replace sliding doors
-replace missing cable wall plate
-maybe put a window where the painting is? The family room has an off-center window at the other end of the room. Putting a window at this end would balance things out and bring more light into this rather dark side of the house.
-art between the large painting and the curtains in the family room

Family Room

-lengthen curtains
-add another children's chair or beanbag to reading area
-add narrow Billy bookcase between bookcases at end of room
-find different end table for far end
-add small Italian ceramic triptych
-find homes for remaining tchotchkes
-replace sofa with sectional
-continue to rebuild Young Adult lit collection
-move green lamps upstairs and find smaller lamps for living room

Back Hallway

-the problem child of our home (the former laundry area)
-I'm fairly positive we have a slab leak underneath that  wood flooring right there. Since it only leaks when we use the master shower, we are not using the master shower. (The master shower is about 18 inches wide, so its not a hardship to give it up.)
-rip up the wood floor, fix the leak
-replace that ugly tile--maybe extend the wood flooring into that area?
-you all want me to make this a mudroom.  But--don't hate me--we don't need a mudroom.  Because it is warm here and we have no need of storing large puffy coats in the winter.  We already have a coat closet and a mudroom area in the garage.  We do need an office area, though, and this will probably become an office.
-patch drywall
-paint or wallpaper walls
-paint cabinets

Downstairs Bathroom

-this bathroom is to the immediate left of the back hallway and directly under the master bathroom. I am reluctant to do much in this room until the leak is fixed, as I fear that there might some tearing down of patches of wall in looking for the source of the leak.
-I discussed the possible plans for this bathroom with this wallpaper here
-repaint the ugly beige to a beautiful pink, including the ceiling
-paint the vanity
-replace light fixture (eventually)
-replace brass shower surround (eventually)
-replace tile floor (sooner rather than later)
-replace mirror
-wallpaper one wall

Upstairs hallway

-Finish painting the trim, doors and banister black
-give closet a fresh coat of paint
-Art.  This is visible from the front door, so I'd like something pretty.  This might be the spot where I put the picture ledges.

Princess's Room

-Princess's room is nearly done.
-replace the carpet
-roman shade for the window
-art near window
-art on wall by the door
-replace chair cover

Boys' Room

-In contrast to Princess's room, this room is barely started.
-the layout in this room is terrible.  I can either take out all furniture but the beds, or buy bunk beds.
-replace the carpet
-you can see the previous moodboard here. I am still thinking about how to decorate this room, and haven't made any decisions.  Probably there will be bunk beds, new curtains, new bedding, and some superhero art....but I haven't decided.
-fix electrical so that light switch is not controlled by light switch in fourth bedroom

Fourth bedroom (aka The Room of Requirement)

-the boys are sharing the other room, but eventually one of them will move in here. Right now the room is stuffed with furniture that doesn't have a home and various junk.
-I am debating moving the boys into this room, instead of the room they are in now, as I could get both beds on either side of the window, with a small cube unit between the beds for books and toys.  This would mean losing the Expedit that is in the other room, but I could bring back the orange trellis curtains.  The room needs to be painted first, however.
-paint over the band-aid beige
-replace carpet

Upstairs Bathroom

-replace tile floor
-replace mirror with two mirrors
-replace single sink vanity with two sink vanity (there is enough space, although we'll have to redo the plumbing)
-the bathtub and tile are in decent shape, so they will probably stay as is
-this will be repainted eventually
-find bath rugs
-replace 80's hollywood dressing room light fixture

Master Bedroom

-replace carpet (more carpet, or extend wood flooring from hallway?)
-upholstered bed that is one piece. The current headboard is hung on the wall; I'd like something where the bed is not a foot away from the headboard.
-roman shades
-new dressers
-mirror and art
-take out home alarm box and patch/paint hole
-fainting couch or settee or comfy upholstered chair
-valet (the wooden kind, not Mr. Bates)

Master Bath

-I'd like to gut this room and redraw the entire floor plan, but that is a few years off.
-move the far left wall (which doesn't reach the ceiling) further into the bedroom to create another closet
-move the toilet. The toilet room (which is way in the back, to the left of the towels in the photo, and it has a door) is just a weeeee bit too small; one cannot walk into the toilet room and close the door without leaning way over the toilet.
-The shower (opposite the toilet room, to the right of the towels) is about a foot square.  There is no way to take a shower without one's nose plastered to the tile. Also, it causes the leak under the floor in the back hallway downstairs, so we never use it.  We have three showers in this house and all five of us use the kids bathroom.
-create an upstairs laundry with a door onto the hallway outside the master bedroom (after the multiple laundry floods over the last few weeks I am having second thoughts on putting the laundry upstairs)
-replace the vanity and light fixtures
-add toiletry and towel storage, of which there is currently very little
-add door so that room is completely separate from bedroom
-replace the grody carpet with tile (why does anyone put carpet in a bathroom??)
-for now, just paint the walls and the bathroom

The Exterior (Backyard)

-the backyard is a barren, dry, dirt-filled patch that is sloped towards the house with a termite-riddled pergola attached to the length of the house.  There is a curvy concrete patio that runs the length of the yard, and a dead grass/dirt area that runs from the patio to the fence.  It is not a great area for playing in, although there is enough square footage that it could be, with a fair amount of work.
-replace the termite-riddled pergola
-rip up the concrete patio, put down pavers
-provide appropriate drainage to yard and patio
-grade the yard so that the yard slopes away from the house, not towards it

And there you have it.  I actually knocked a couple items off the list this weekend :-)

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versatile ottoman

I had planned on putting up the Master To Do List today, but I've been working on it for hours and I haven't even gotten to the upstairs yet.  So I leave you for the weekend with some pictures of my children.

This ottoman is a trampoline, a rolling Indiana Jones-style Rock of Doom, and a carnival ride.

Have a good weekend, y'all. We'll be at our home away from home (Ikea).  

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Blogiversary, dishwashers and lice

My three year blogging anniversary was last week.

I thought about polling you about what you would like to read here--more decor, more life, more mood boards?  But I decided this space is purely my own.  I enjoy your presence and your comments, but I'm going to keep writing about whatever I please.  Which is pretty much the opposite of what I used to teach ("remember your audience!"). I haven't even checked my stats in the last few months.  Its freeing, actually.

One thing I would like to do with this blog, though, is figure out threaded commenting.  Blogger has threaded commenting, but of course, I can't get it to work.  I want to be more active in replying to comments.  I do currently reply to comments if your email is attached to your username, but that's only about two of you, so....yes, I need to get over my Luddite fears and get all technologyfied up in here.

I also need to figure out a new blog name.  Clearly I am no longer trapped anywhere.  Suggestions welcome.

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The dishes were washed, yet not by my dishpan hands, and lo, there was rejoicing in the land.

The Lowe's installation guys installed our dishwasher this afternoon.  While they were installing our dishwasher, the five of us were sitting a few feet away at the eat-in kitchen table, having the Lice Lady search our hair for lice.  Because getting de-loused is not embarrassing enough. No, we need an audience of paid strangers.  ("Honey, you wouldn't believe this house I did an install at today, you gotta check my head...")

I am happy to report that the supposed nit found in Princess's hair by her preschool teacher was actually an overzealous interpretation of glitter.  Because I would lose my mind if we had lice again. 

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State of the Union: food allergies

A few weeks ago Peter had an allergic reaction while I was driving on the 405 freeway. In case you are wondering, the freeway is NOT a good place to have an allergic reaction. I pulled off at the nearest exit, hyperventilated through a traffic light while my child was screaming "MY LIPS MY LIPS MY LIPS ARE ALL WRONG MOMMY MOMMY MOMMY MAKE IT STOP."  I pulled into a parking lot, pulled out the Epi Pen, but Peter got even more wound up at the sight of the EpiPen and we were engaged in hand to hand combat, so I gave him Benadryl.  Luckily, within a few minutes the swelling went down, we turned around and drove to our pediatrician, and everything was fine.

I was an idiot.  A fracking idiot, and I am lucky my child is still alive.  What I should have done was pull over on the side of the freeway and jammed the EpiPen in my kid's leg, regardless of his feelings on the matter.  

I didn't use the EpiPen because I was scared, and I don't want this to be a part of my life. I don't want my child to have a life-threatening medical condition. I don't want to deal with this three times a day.  I have EpiPens planted strategically all over the house and my purse and my first thought in a situation where it was needed was "NO NO NO."  I didn't use it because if I did use then I have to call 911 and that means shit is serious.  And I don't want serious shit to be happening to MY KID.

That was dumb.  Next time I will use the EpiPen.  This time I realized that serious shit can and will happen to my kid and it is my job to stop it from happening or getting worse, not give it leeway with my dumb-assery.

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It is scary to think that whatever you food you allow your child to eat might kill them.  Eating is a thrice-daily Russian roulette.  I try very hard not to communicate that thought to my child.

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As a result of that incident, we discovered that Peter has developed a few new allergies.  Oranges and food dye.

Food dye.

Do you know what food dye is in?

EVERYTHING.

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I may have said this before, but I recently re-read the Little House on the Prairie series, and my impression was that it was seven books of They Make The Food.  Ninety five percent of the books is about caring for the animals about to be food, slaughtering the animals for the food, skinning and curing and preparing the food for long-term storage, getting up a 4 am to put the bread on, soaking beans overnight, and so on and so forth.  I guess that's what you have to do when you can't go to the grocery and buy food out of a box.

Guess what I do with my days now?  That's right, I Make The Food.  We never take Peter out to eat.   Peter does not eat any commercially prepared sweets, ice cream, or bakery-fresh bread.  The new rule is that if it comes out of a box or plastic container, Peter probably can't have it.

Peter and I were discussing this tonight, and Peter came to the horrible realization that Halloween is going to suck this year.  OMG this broke my heart.  In previous years I have operated a trade-in program, so that everything he gets he can trade in for safe nut-free candy, but since he can no longer have food dye, nearly all candy will be off limits.  I promised that we would get a cookbook for making our own candy this week. What did Laura Ingalls eat? Hoarhound candy? If it was good in 1896, we'll probably give it a try.

I just bought canning supplies.

Making The Food is how I spend a really large portion of my day.

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This food dye allergy has really been a kick in the teeth for me.  It seems like for the past few years, every few months we get some bad news about some special need for one of my kids (not just Peter), and then I wig out and cry and then we adjust and then that bad news is our new normal.  We learn to live without whatever item and we learn to deal, and then something else happens, and the circle of acceptable food gets smaller, and then we learn to do without that, and then we start this all over again.

The food dye allergy skipped a few rungs on that circle.  It is now easier to put in a box what Peter can eat rather than what he can't.

I kind of lost my mind over this one.  Just a little bit. I hesitate to say my fears aloud, as if I am daring the universe to make them come true.

I will stop crying, dust myself off, adjust to the new normal, and carry on.  I will be a card-carrying hippie who ferments her own kombucha and raises chickens in the backyard (technically against our HOA but you get the idea).  I try to make Peter's life as normal as possible with as wide a variety of food as possible, all of it made with my own two hands. Soon I will be slaughtering my own goats and curing my own sausages.

Side benefit: we eat crazy healthy! Tons of vegetables! We should be way skinnier.

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My sister sent this to me a while back, and it made me laugh.  This is us, pretty much.  Between Peter's food allergies and my own food allergies, we need a Venn diagram to make dinner.  Invite us over!

image via Huffington Post

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verrrrry blue bathroom

A few weeks ago I posted about shower curtains for our upstairs bathroom, because I was going to have the painter repaint that bathroom.  It turned out that I didn't have the painter do the bathroom at that time, and I didn't end up going with any of the shower curtains in that post, either. I painted the bathroom myself, and I ended up with a simple white shower curtain with turquoise/green/blue trim stripes on it from Target.  

I painted it Behr's Havasu. You can see in the image below that it is a peacock-turquoise-greeny-blue.

It appeared wayyyyyy bluer than peacock when I opened the gallon, despite having tested a sample in the bathroom prior to starting.

Sadly, in the pictures below it appears to be a painter's tape royal blue, but I assure you that in person it has a strong green undertone.  

The Botero (or "the butt painting" as the kids call it) has taken up residence in the bathroom.

 

The blue actually coordinates quite nicely with the Sophia Loren poster that is right outside the bathroom door.

The dark peacock color is very close to what I was hoping for....but....I am not 100% on board with this color.  More like 85%.  I don't hate it, but I don't love it like I thought I would.  I can tell you that I am not in the mood to repaint it.  Also, the heavy orange peel texture in this room made it difficult to keep crisp, straight lines, even with tape, so this color is probably going to be here for a while.  

Ever have a paint color turn out not quite what you thought it would be, even though you tested it first?

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displaying children's art

My kids create a prodigious amount of art, so I wanted a way to display it that would allow for frequent rotation of new artwork.  In our previous house I had pictures framed in a gallery wall around the tv, and I thought I would do a gallery wall here, but decided instead that I wanted something less formal.

We have a brick wall on the wall in the kitchen.  I hate interior brick walls. I will be painting it eventually.  In the meantime, I put two corkboards up on the brick.

And voila, an art gallery.

How do you hang your children's art?

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Accessory-Free Zone

Last week I was reading The Nesting Place, and came across this post, where the Nester is going to go accessory-free in her house for 30 days.  And a light bulb went off for me.

I don't really like accessories.  I mean, I do, sort of. I like to look at them, and I see things and think, ooh, that's so cute, and I have plenty of tchotchke crap in my house.

I don't think I really want it.

I do not have the "vignette" talent.  I cannot for the life of me make a decent vignette.  I tend to like accessories that are sculptural pieces, like a foot tall and a foot wide.  Smaller pieces make me think of clutter.  I'd rather have a clean, bare surface than one piled with tchotchkes.

About a week ago, I was thinking about the two boxes of tchotchkes in the garage that weren't unpacked yet.  I realized that I had nowhere to put them.  That will never do! I must have places to put my stuff!  So I decided...oh, you will laugh at me, but I will tell you anyways.  Remember when I said I had two tall bookcases in my family room, but I moved them out to the garage and brought in two short bookcases instead, so that I could hang my childrens' art, because the art was more important than the tchotchkes?

Riiiiight. That. So, I was having a hard time deciding how to hang the children's art, because there is just so much of it, and I wanted a system that would allow for frequent rotation, and the clean fresh white walls without holes were sort of making me think, hmm, how about I don't poke 400 holes in there and....I know! I will bring those bookshelves back in and put my stuff on them!  So I had the Mister move the bookshelves back in (he was thrilled), and then I unpacked all the stuff, and given my lack of vignetting skills, all the stuff is just stuffed up there.

Then I read Nester's post. I thought, maybe the reason I think that all this stuff up there looks terrible is because I DON'T NEED ALL THIS STUFF.  I'm tired of being the Stuff Manager and teaching my children to Manage Stuff too.  I want LESS STUFF.

I've been working on this for the past year.  I have already gotten rid of stuff galore.

I've thought consciously about What I Like (Lisa's Decor Rules).  I like lots of bright white with lots of color, I like jewel tones, I like art, I like books, I like sturdy and comfortable furniture, I like large scale patterns, I like pictures of my family, I like busts (heads of people/animals busts, not your chesticular area type busts).

I do not like dainty or fussy furniture, I do not like pastels, I do not like dark without lots of bright white to balance it out, I do not like things that need constant cleaning, I do not like small scale anything, and I do not like clutter.

So why do I have tchotchkes?

I started reading design blogs about five years ago.  Design blogs put a lot of emphasis on stuff.  The acquisition of stuff, the managing of stuff, the painting of stuff, the "refreshing" of stuff.  I enjoy reading about this.  But I need to stop feeling that in order to be like these cool design blogs, I need stuff.  I don't. I can enjoy someone else's stuff without needing that stuff for myself.

I have my design rules, I need to follow them. I need to stop trying to be other people with their cool stuff and stop trying to live how other people live.  I'm just going to be me with my books and my art and my 400 (slightly clutterish) pictures of my kids and all their art.  Is it clutter if its hanging on a wall instead of sitting on a table? Because I am still working on liking less art. I like more art. Lots of art.  Like, all the art, all up on the wall.  But we won't have any furniture or tchotchkes; we will be sitting on tatami mats.

(To recap the accessories rule: books, yes, art on wall, yes, pictures, yes, busts, yes.  Everything else no unless it has great personal meaning.)

So, I packed up all the tchotchkes again.  I kept the busts out. (Not sure where they will live, but they will find a home.)  If you are wondering what survived the purge, that is a vase containing a collection of rocks and shells from foreign vacation locales, two Japanese sumo wrestlers from when I visited a friend in Japan, a birdhouse my uncle gave me, a picture of my father in law dancing with his mother at my wedding, two small busts and a big horse bust, and a red marble apple with a lovely inscription the Mister gave me for my first teaching job.  All the rest of the tchotchkes, in a box.  I think the horse bust is probably going to join the box.)

And now I have room for more books.

I love young adult literature.  I had an enormous collection at one time, but lost it during a flood years ago.  And it occurs to me that I have the space and the inclination and a number of children who will one day read young adult literature, and what better time than now to start rebuilding that collection?

This weekend the Mister and I found a local used bookstore where all the books were a dollar apiece.  I went to town.  I bought thirty-six young adult and children's books.

As we checked out, the cashier asked "you guys homeschoolers or sumpin?"  I am befuddled by this question.  Only homeschoolers like to read?  Only homeschoolers buy young adult classic literature?  No, I just love to read and am attempting to instill that love in my kids.

You might think that I am just trading one type of stuff (tchotchkes) for another (books).  I suppose that might be true.  I guess the difference is that I love books, and books serve a purpose in my life of giving knowledge and exercising imagination and providing entertainment, while my tchotchkes that I don't deeply care about just take up my room and my time without giving anything back.  (Maybe your tchotchkes give you great joy--that's great!--but mine don't.)

I also went through a book purge when we moved in, and donated various books that we did not need or want anymore.  I have room for our book collection to grow.

If you are wondering, "what about all the other tchotchkes in the rest of the house?"  I don't have any.  No, really.  I have the large busts of Gary and Elaine in the foyer and my bedroom, and that is it for stuff.  I had collected all the tchotchkes into one display, and now I'm packing away 90% of them.  This may not work for you, but I'm getting back to following my rules.

(You might also be wondering about the children's art--problem solved, different location, post on that soon.)

How do you feel about going accessory-free?

Edited to add: I joined up with Nester's accessory free link party.

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