I am in need of Sir Guy today.
My sister is visiting along with her daughter… well, visiting isn’t the right word. They are going through orientation at her college and the noise level this morning was more than my old nerves could handle. Thank you, Jesus for giving me a son…. who is normally quiet and happy that way.
As you can see, he’s decided who he is voting for for president.
I might join him in that.
ANYWAY! This summer was designated as my completely unload the garage and get my house set up summer. With the unexpected arrival of Suitor and other minor things, that’s not going to completely happen, but my house IS coming together.
I’m really excited. I honestly feel like I did when I got my first apartment – which I moved into in a VAN and was completely unloaded and unpacked in 1 day. What happened???
Oh yeah…
That happened.
And back then I didn’t have a lot of ‘artwork’ up on the wall.
Yes, that is STILL hanging on my wall… in my cave…. as is this
and these…
So needless to say, I’m still enjoying watching it come together.
(Actually, I’m trying to distract myself from going into the kitchen and cooking the peanut butter cookie dough I discovered in my freezer. I also found my chocolate Hershey Kisses….)
But As i’m sure a lot of you could care less…
I remember the first time I saw this room. I thought it was SOOOO huge….
Really.
And oh the things I could envision in my minds eye with my things for this room.
And then all hell broke loose and I actually…. MOVED in.
My beloved piano did not fair well in storage.
My bookcases and baskets fell apart…
I had missing couch pillows, the dust ruffle had come loose…
A lot of things didn’t fare well in storage. 😦
And I discovered this room – along with the others (save the dining room) were much smaller than I realized.
It was sobering. And for a while, I lost my vision for this room. So I cleaned the room and buried myself in work and just left it alone for a while.
At some point, I hung a FEW things, but my piano became the dreaded catch-all for everything in my hands when I walked in the door.
Keys, mail, my purse, junk, all dropped on the dust cover.
The Lamp, that you can’t see, is a yellow teapot that my mom gave me…. oh…. 20 years ago, when I moved out with Spawn, the first time.
You didn’t read that.
And yes I know the two large framed prints aren’t straight. I didn’t want them straight. So nyah!
But summer came and I started unpacking and I rediscovered my vision for this room.
I can’t hold the camera still to get a clear shot of much of anything anymore. Sorry.
I have power tools. I know how to use them. Sort of.
Okay, I have an electric screwdriver and a power drill, which is pretty much a glorified electric screwdriver. I STILL got it up! I even got a leveler to make sure it was straight when I screwed it in.
The hanging of just that shelf did so much for the room!
As did this.
And yes, those are REAL books….
With real words and real poetry about cats by real authors.
That’s Widgette’s treat mouse in the floor. You put treats in it – a string cheese in the ears and when she knocks it about, the treats come out. It’s humorous to watch her bat it around the floor. Lord Thunderbutt has one too, only his is smaller as he won’t more than 3 treats and he’s not overly found of the turkey cheese string.
This is MY corner, with my stuff, can you tell. Oh, the coffee mug??? It made Suitor laugh.
Don’t make fun of my crochet flower pillows. They be comfy and my grandma made them. *nodnod*
(Yes, someone DID make fun of them once. They are now missing virtual teeth.)
More my corner. That is cross stitch stuff, patterns. There is yarn in the buckets.
Funny story about the rocking chair… okay, don’t know if it’s funny or not.
My ex husband (Peckerhead) gifted me the rocking chair on my birthday – when Spawn was 10 days old and had come home from the hospital the day before. We loved it. It had (and still has) a lovely squeak that was soothing to a fussy baby who didn’t want to go to sleep and actually calmed a frustrated young mother a time or two. I’ve read many book, fed many a bottle and sung a few lullabyes in that rocker.
When I left Peckerhead, the judge ordered him to release my things – furniture, dishes, the washing machine and this rocker. I was able to get my furniture and dishes, (albeit some of them badly damaged and in the case of my depression-ware glasses and our wedding cake topper, destroyed and shattered) but my rocking chair and washing machine weren’t turned over as ordered. Come to find out, he ‘sold’ my washer and he gave my rocking chair to his mother.
You would not believe the war that was raged in court over this rocking chair. In the end, I got it back and seeing how I raised such a stink to have it returned to me, I’m rather loathe to part with it.
(Oh, I was given HALF what he supposedly got for the brand new washing machine. Asshole.)
It’s not done. I still have things I”m unpacking. I’m keeping a running list of things I know I need and or want: There are three hooks in the ceiling for hanging things. I have an angel Sun Catcher hanging from one, but I’d like to get a couple of hanging (fake) plants. I need a small area rug – a 3 x 5 for in front of the couch. I need a bigger standing lamp, possibly a potted tree or something to put next to the piano. 6 of my book cases didn’t survive storage and they have to be replaced. The bookcase behind my rocking chair needs painted. I know all of this.
But it’s coming along. Widgette certainly likes it.
Lord Thunderbutt still prefers my bed.
It’s not the complete vision I had for the room, but it’s pretty dang close, and I’m happy with it. 🙂
Happy Monday.
zee's muse 
Looking good!! I have a rocking chair as well that I started using when my son was a baby, but it’s sitting in a storage room right now. Can’t part with it, though… memories… Luckily I don’t have to battle for my chair like you did for yours. Which makes me think, I should find a better spot for it.
I admit that had I not fought so hard for the chair – had he just given it to me and not made such a snit in court, I’d have probably taken it to the Salvation Army or Goodwill by now. But seeing how there was such a fight over it, it will squeak in my living room as long as I draw breath!
Real plants ! Not fake ones. Real ones are good for you and fake ones aren’t. Otherwise looking good my friend.
I KILL real plants. I’ve been known to kill fake ones too.
Let Spawn care for them then.:)
Spawn cooks. I won’t ask for more.
🙂
It is looking really nice Zee. Have I mentioned I hate moving? However, I do love it after I have spent the time making my areas at work and/or at home look nice, welcoming, organized and above all, smell good. Which can be a difficult thing to achieve when little hair balls bring in a mess each time they walk into the house.
BTW—is your son using a digital camera or a 35mm camera?
Those pictures were taken with my Kindle Fire. He uses a Digital and does a much better job than I.
I have 2 wax melt pots – one in each bathroom, 7 oil plug ins and one automatic mist in the house to combat the smell of kitty. I admit to being unable to smell the plug ins and the mist, but I don’t smell kitty either. I also keep a mop bucket with Pine Sol ready to go at a moments notice because Widgette tends to miss the litter box when she pees. I don’t know WHY she insists on getting IN the box in order to pee OUT of it, but she does. She seems quite perturbed that no soon does she do that, Spawn or I are in right behind her, mopping it up. It helps with the smell.
Right now, the living room and my bedroom are my favorite rooms in the house. I should get pictures of my bedroom up soon. Need to hang the pictures…
I was born with a mutants ability to smell and hear things I shouldn’t be able to hear or smell. Blame my mother. I am sure I’ve offended dozens of people with my sense of smell. I cannot handle unbathed stench. Not the fresh-he-just-worked-out or walked-of-the-basketball-court sweaty smell, that, I can deal with just fine. I’m talking the people that don’t bathe or use deodorant ever, the smells that Earth-muffins wear like a badge of honor. (Props offered people reading this already.) Or the people who just don’t bathe because momma’s didn’t raise them right. The rotting garbage human with greasy hair and ear wax balls poking out of on each ear-hair you can see from 6 paces away stench. GAG Anyway, enough about the unwashed masses.
I use a baking soda brand carpet freshener, have the carpets cleaned every qtr as well as plug-in air-wicks. For mopping, I use what my mother uses, a capful of murphy’s soap oil in a bucket of hot water. I wonder sometimes if something is wrong with me; I actually like the smell of a clean house, store, car, although nothing beats a new car smell.
I can’t smell much of squat, so when I can smell it, it’s bad. Really bad. So I’m anal about the floor mopping and such. I have Murphy’s Oil, but I’ve used that on the furniture especially when it came out of storage. So much mildew. I’ve used Pine Sol for years – I like the smell – and recently tried Fabuloso, because it’s lavender and fresh and cheaper… Think I’ll either go BACK to PineSol or try your solution. I have a big thing of it.
I use a scented carpet freshener and I have a cheap vacuum cleaner. Reminds me, I need to get in the floor with it, take the canister off and do what I need to do to get the big dust ball out of the top. Ew.
Oh. Found out from the Landlady that the previous tenant had a pet bunny they didn’t tell her about and they kept it loose in the house. The thing did more damage to the carpets and walls. We figure that’s what’s setting the GirlyGirl off with her having to mark all the territory. Or remark it.
Yep, that bunny probably did some serious scent markings. That will never go away. Although, there are a few tricks that might help diminish the embedded oder, vinegar helps to neutralize urine oder, I put it in a spray bottle and spray the spot/area. Also, Hydrogen Peroxide gets stains out really well and also eliminated urine soaked spots. Even if you have clean carpets, the smell that is left has soaked down thru the pad beneath the carpet and into the floor. Spraying those areas with peroxide and/or vinegar can help to prevent your dog/cat from marking those areas again. It is also very inexpensive. 😀
I’ve sprayed the carpet with vinegar and saturated the one corner that looks like a dog dug it up. No kidding.
Would you believe Windex takes most carpet stains out? Really! Like a BOSS! I remember the last apartment we lived in right after we moved to Atlanta – a 4 bedroom, believe it or not. It was bigger than the previous 3 houses we had lived in. Anyway, when we moved out, my dad went back into the apartment armed with a Windex bottle and a cloth and I swear you could not tell 4 teenagers had lived on that carpet when he was done.
Oh, I am gonna have to try windex. Hydrogen peroxide is always good for getting puke out and other runny protein based accidents, but sometimes you still have a stain. Grape juice, red wine, etc. Have to ask, is your dad Greek? Just thinking of my big fat wedding, not mine, the movie 😈
Dad’s family is German… or for years, we were told the surname was German and now rumor has it the surname is REALLY Norman-French. Go figure. No one has done a lineage for that side of the family.
Mom’s side is Scottish, although they’ve been here since 1800. We have the birth record of her ancestor that was born in West Virginia in 1803.
Turns out my hubs’ family while mostly Irish, there is a a lot of German women in their line. Which sort of explains why so many people assume he is German when we have been in Europe.
My family is mostly Mexican, I thought, until I started to get gray hair, then mom told me that her mother was actually from Spain. There are really no records for most everyone else along the family lines, I joke with hubs that records generally aren’t needed for the peasant class😈
My mother’s family came over I guess in the late 1700’s or early 1800’s. The question of if the family was Scot or Irish came down to the spelling of the last name. If it was spelled with a C, it was Scots, if it was spelled with a K, it was Irish. All the old birth records, it’s spelled with a C – and we have the occasional redhead pop up in the family.
My grandfather had a brother who moved out west to Utah and when he did his genealogy, because apparently they’re big into that, and whoever was doing their background informed him they were spelling it wrong, pronouncing it wrong and it was supposed to be spelled with a K and pronounced VERY differently than how it was pronounced. But seeing my grandfather insisted that it was pronounced THIS way and it was spelled with a C and the records go back over 200 years showing it’s spelled with a C and we have the occasional redhead in the family, I’m going to say without a shadow of a doubt that we are Scots!
Hahaha, I guess I have it easy on the genealogy side of things then😈