Organizing Challenge

I decided to do this organizing challenge I found on Pinterest. It is the Bowl Full of Lemons 14 Week Organizing Challenge.

I did Week 1: Kitchen challenge, though I didn't clean out all the cabinets and wash them like she asks us to. I did go though our pantry and redid that.  Below are the AFTER pictures.

I also wanted to work on our tea cabinet which was a disaster in my opinion. There was tea behind tea, behind tea. Not to mention all the different strainers we have that don't stack well.
Here is the BEFORE:

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Here is the AFTER:

I found the best thing for all the boxes of tea!  It is the YouCopia Tea Stand.  You can see it on the bottom right. It helped a lot.

I still have another cabinet I want to go through. Hopefully I can do it this weekend, since it is a long weekend. it is our corner cabinet located right next to the tea cabinet. We will see how that goes.

Week 2: Laundry room.  I worked on the Laundry room last summer and have maintained it rather well. So I focused on the metal shelves that were in the laundry room. I hate having them in there, but they are there for the foreseeable future and I need to make them work for me. 

BEFORE:

AFTER:

Still have some stuff to work on, but it is better.  The top 3 shelves still really need some help.

 I really want to install base cabinets and some more upper cabinets. But I know Jason and I will differ on that. He will want to make them, and  I want them before I move out (which isn't going to be anytime soon).  

I have ideas on ways to decorate the room, and need to start doing little things down there.  

In this process I also found a great Facebook Page that is tied to this challenge. It is a great place to go for support, encouragement, decor and cleaning questions, along with other things.

Cats can be Difficult...well 2 of ours are at least

You would think that 3 months after getting a new animal, that everyone would at least tolerate each other right?  Abner and Cauchy are still extremely uptight around Casper, to the point where Cauchy runs whenever she hears him, and Abner still kind of slinks across the floor.

Jason and I were home for almost 2 weeks at Christmas due to the Universities being closed-that is a really nice perk.  So we left the basement door open 24/7 while my parents were here visiting. Then we decided to try switching the cats for a day. So the two grumps (Abner and Cauchy) got brought upstairs, while Casper got to stay downstairs.  

It took hours before Abner and Cauchy would even come up the stairs! They seem to think we seriously traumatized them by getting Casper.  Fast forward a couple of hours and we finally decide to open the basement door and let Casper out.  Never seen animals move that fast! Cauchy and Abner couldn't get away fast enough, though they didn't have a lot of places to go. We closed all the doors upstairs, as well as took the chairs away from the dining table so they couldn't hide under there. 

We had some very rough moments with Cauchy, and she got to spend some time in a pet carrier outside because she wouldn't calm down. She got so worked up in that there I had to wash it since it was fabric. So then she got put in the plastic crate we have, and stuck outside several more times. 

We mentioned when we headed back to work in January that we would just shut the door to the carrier and keep Cauchy separate, but upstairs. We haven't had to shut the door, because she kennels herself and normally only comes out if I am in the kitchen or if I feed her.  I know she moves around a little bit more than that, but it isn't much. 

Abner and Casper seem to be doing slightly better, I mean ever so slightly better. There is still hissing from Abner if Casper comes to close, but they can at least sleep on our bed together at night even if they are on opposite corners. 

I came home from work one night this week and I saw Casper and Cauchy touch noses. I mean they TOUCHED NOSES!!!!!!!  Not in an aggressive way either. Cauchy then promptly went running back to her crate as fast as her fat little legs could carry her. 

Not sure if Cauchy will ever come around to be honest. She was a feral cat to begin with and didn't have much social interaction with people until she walked into our condo one day.  

But at least everyone is now upstairs, that is progress-small- but progress. Hopefully as time goes on, they at least become more comfortable with the whirlwind that is called Casper. 

Casper

So we decided to get a new cat. I first came across Casper back in March when I was in Lewiston with a friend. We had to go to Petco for something and there he was. He looked exactly like Fergus and he tugged at my heart strings.

I did get the foster mom's contact information, but didn't do anything with it. I was feeling guilty of even thinking of getting another animal. Abner and Cauchy seemed to be really happy and content and I knew adding another would be hard. Jason and I talked about it occasionally, but made no action.

However we also know that Abner and Cauchy are older and it would be easier to add a cat to the mix now then when something happened to one of the others.

So we were down in Lewiston one day and just decided to stop by Petco and see if he was there for adoption. He wasn't. Part of me was relieved and part of me wasn't. Come to find out after talking with the foster parent, he had been pulled from adoption because he was having skin issues and had been on medication.  She told us that he would probably be available in two weeks after he had been off the medication for a period of time and they would see if the skin condition returned.

So a little while later, I emailed the foster mom just asking for an update. He had no occurrence of the skin condition, which they think was related to stress, and he was available for adoption. Jason and I decided we wanted to meet Casper.

We made the 30 minute drive from Moscow to Lewiston, the whole time I was fighting my emotions and guilt. Casper started off friendly and loving the attention, then he got defensive and started attacking and hissing. We asked if we could move him to a quieter part of the store (if it actually existed). He calmed down again and would be fine, then would freak out again. One of his freak out moments, he actually bit me pretty good. I got 2 puncture wounds on the top of my left hand and some pretty good scratch marks on the left palm. I left drops of blood on my way to the bathroom. After getting that all cleaned up, I went back to meet up with Jason and Casper. Now I was really conflicted, but watching Casper helped. I knew the attack was purely situational and not a reflection of his personality.

We decided to take the leap and adopt him.

My nerves driving home were intense. The guilt overwhelming. How would Abner and Cauchy take this?

We put Abner and Cauchy downstairs and let Casper roam upstairs to get use to the scent of the others. Sunday we attempted the first meet and greet....hummmm.... it didn't go badly. There was a lot of hissing and growling, but not much else.

We continued to try and let them meet downstairs a little at a time after work during the first week. One night Casper attacked Cauchy pretty good, then one day Casper attacked Abner 3 times, all really good attacks. Casper does have an advantage, he still has his front claws.

Casper got to spend the majority of the day and an entire night all by himself downstairs. We tried again over the weekend. Lots of hissing, some growling, some poop. Yes, I said poop. Casper seems to scare the poop out of Cauchy. So she got put downstairs by herself and we tried just dealing with Abner and Casper. Abner never really moved from under the dining room table, and when Casper would get near, there was of course growling and hissing. Needless to say, Abner was getting a pretty wet face by being sprayed with water every time. Every time Abner tried to moved (while mopping the floor he was crouching so low), Casper would come and check this out, thus making Abner run back under the dining table.

So the update right now is, that they still hate each other. I knew it was going to be hard, but I was hoping for some improvement by this point in time.

We will keep trying and eventually they will learn to at least tolerate each other (or so I hope). Keep your fingers crossed!

This is Casper very relaxed on Jason's lap, if only the others were this relaxed.

Changes Happening

So Jason and I have some changes happening. Jason will be leaving the University after 14 years to work at the University seven miles away in Washington State. .

This is a change for us because we won't be commuting to work anymore, or at least not every day.  I am hoping to start walking to work as part of an improvement plan I have for myself. Nor will I be able to see him throughout the day as I can now since we both currently work for the same department.

I also decided to go back to school and work on another degree. This is not a Master's Degree which probably would have been the smarter option, but I am okay with that. I also didn't feel like studying, paying for and taking the GRE.

So I will be working on another Bachelor's Degree, this time in Child Development/Family Relations. I get to take classes at a reduced price since I am an employee of the University, with the stipulation of not taking more than 6 credits per semester.

So the plus is, since I already have a piece of paper (still unframed, or even out of the envelope it came in 10 years ago), I don't have to do all the core requirements, I just have to focus on the classes for this particular major.

If I finish the degree that is great, if not that is fine too as I already have a piece of paper.

Classes started today for me, I am taking two classes and both just happen to be on Tuesday/Thursday. One is a 100 level class, and I think I am older than the professor, but that is okay. I know the information is priceless and the professor seems fun.  The other class will be more of a challenge. It wasn't the class I was first signed up for, but found out since I had already had the class for my original degree they wouldn't count it again. Okay, fine....that just took 2 more classes off the list to take, which is fine with me. However the new classes will require me to do a lot of reading to just catch up. The class is on Theories and while I know some of the theorists names, I can't recall anything about their particular theory since it has been so long. But I know I can do it, it will  just require some extra time on my part and that is okay.

I am sure the question is being asked,"What is my plan?"  Honestly, there isn't one that is set in stone. Right now my goal is to be able to stay at home when we have a family, is that a viable option for us? Yes and no. Could I do something like watch a few kids every day, yes.   I have the space for it.  Do I need this degree to be able to do any of the stuff mentioned above, no, but the information is still priceless in many ways.  I could also work for the hospital in some capacity when it comes to Family Relations, we will just have to wait and see and is in store for me.

Kitchen Cabinet Handles

Our kitchen cabinets did not have handles or knobs on the cabinets or drawers when we purchased the house. We had decided that we wanted to add some and would be on the lookout for ones we both liked and went well with the house.

We found some pulls and knobs almost two years ago at a local store. Jason installed a few of the knobs just to see if we liked them. Honestly I hadn't given it much though since then.  Fast forward to about two weeks ago and Jason decides he wants to install the handles, this may or may not have anything to do with trying out the new drills he got.  Anyway, he installed the handles on some of the cabinets and we decided we liked the handles better than the knobs and wanted to install those on all the cabinets and drawers, even though it required ordering I believe 10  more handles.

It is truly amazing what a little change like changing cabinet hardware or in our case adding hardware can do for a space. 

Here is a before view of a cabinet.

Here is the after-same cabinet. Not the greatest picture, but you get the idea.

This is a close of up the handles

Here is a view of the kitchen cabinets without the hardware (taken April 2014 when my dad was painting).

Here is a view of the lower cabinets with the hardware installed- see amazing what a small change can do. (Don't ask about the missing tile)

New Curtains

In a previous post, I talked about doing things around that house to just make it more welcoming, homier, whatever.  Yesterday Jason hung curtain rods and thus, this allowed me to hang curtains I have had for at least 2 years. I won't mention how long I have been asking for the curtain rods to be hung.

This action was spurred on by our air conditioner deciding to quit working on Friday. Of course this happens when it is 95 degrees outside. We have been trying to keep the house cooler by shutting curtains and keeping fans running, though that doesn't seem to help too much. Hopefully we can get the air conditioner fixed soon.

So anyway, back to the curtains. We had bought a double rod so now, what do I put on the front? I am in a small town and there are two places to shop for curtains, Bed Bath and Beyond and Wal-Mart.  I bought some curtains that are suppose to block out sun, though white curtains don't do that so well. I should have bought longer length though, oh well, I was in a hurry and didn't pay attention to see if they had 96" length.

However my favorite curtains are the sheers I bought what feels like forever ago and am finally seeing. These came from Cost Plus World Market, and can I say I just love them. I love the clear "burnout" and the birds are green, but since there aren't that many birds it is just a pop of color. Very happy with the purchase and even happier with finally getting to see them hung up. Love the white next to the dark purple of the master bedroom walls. Simple things that make me smile.

New Shower Curtain

So I have decided to try and make the house just a little nicer, homier (not really sure of the word I am looking for). This could be adding curtains, artwork, pillows, or some type of character to a room,  a little bit at a time. I have been told that our house is very inviting and warm, but sometimes it just doesn't feel that way to me. And honestly I get very tired of looking at the same old stuff, so sometimes change is good.

Before we moved into our house we owned a condo and while living there we bought a very nice Nautica Denim Shower curtain. Yes it is actually a very nice lightweight denim fabric. When you are a poor college student spending the type of money we actually spent on this shower curtain was a lot, but we really liked it and it went with the casual feel of the condo. Fast forward a couple of years and now we have a house. I took that shower curtain because:

1. The buyers of the condo were jerks and I wasn't going to leave it for them.
2. The shower curtain was expensive.
3. I wanted a shower curtain to hide the hideous avocado green tub we inherited in the house.

Here is the denim shower curtain. I was so excited to get the new one up, I forgot to take a before and after picture. So here it is on the floor, with Abner checking it out, and me probably telling Abner he better not pee on it. :)

Here is the new shower curtain. I had originally thought I was going to do a white shower curtain since the bathroom can be a little on the dark side. The room is long and skinny, there is a decent size window, but the room could still feel dark.

There is no flash or anything, but just replacing the dark blue curtain with a lighter one has made that bathroom much brighter already.  I love the design as it is something, but not over done. And I love that there is a hint of a coral color in the flowers for just a pop of color.  It is amazing what making a simple change, like changing out a shower curtain, can do for a space. The change made me happy and that is exactly what I am looking for.  I have more ideas for stuff I would like to do in that room so stay tuned for eventual updates.  And eventually we will redo the ugly tile and tub but that is a lot of $$$$$ , time, and not to forget marriage stress.