HJ Waxing Moon

Mr. Moon and I have been working for over a year on a project to turn the garage into a lounge area, second living room, game room, whatever you want to call it. We have a name all picked out, which will be revealed when we have AFTER pictures. We agreed to take a futon from one of his aunts who is moving out of the area, and somehow we ended up getting obligated to take a second couch. Not sure where the misunderstanding was, or if that was the couch Mum was going to use to replace the one in the living room she doesn't want, or what exactly happened that we have more furniture than I'd originally planned in there. All I know is that with the couch we found on the side of the road in the subdivision, and the futon and couch from the Aunt, we were supposed to be fitting three couches in this garage. Which would be fine, without the chair that Mr. Moon insists on keeping, and the massage chair that will not be gotten rid of so long as it works because the thing is delightful. ...

With Pops' birthday party on Sunday, it got sprung on us last Sunday that we would be having a major event here in... well, now, about two days. I'm struggling with the frustration that with a little more notice, we would have prioritized things like carpet shampooing to be this week instead of the week before Thanksgiving when we will, now ironically, have fewer people here. (Let's just say, clumsy adults + clumsy cat + WHITE carpets + said carpets are past double their life expectancy = Needs regular shampooing.) We have been here officially for 8 and a half months now, and the garage has not yet been set up into the lounge sanctuary that was intended to be our stress-relief area. Everything Else keeps getting prioritized ahead of the garage, and now it is in a stage that Pops' participation is required to continue at all, which means we are at the whim of his condition. It just so happens that if we can get the current stage of sorting done before Sunday, then some...

You know those projects that have been hanging on your to-do list so long you barely recognize them as words anymore? Those things you leave shut tight behind a closed door hoping one day they will fix themselves or just disappear? Dude! Get On That Already! The challenge created by the good folks at Young House Love , to clean out those spaces that are filled with unfinished projects and un-used decor. Join in! What are you going to finish this week? --------------------- We started building a pot rack in MARCH! Took a few measurements, bought the supplies in April, started with the hole drilling, and there it sat waiting to be painted all summer long. Finally I got around to it the other day. So here's my step-by-step tutorial. Step 1: Take measurements. Decide where you want the thing to hang. Make sure it won't be hanging where anyone is likely to bang their head, nor block line of sight in the middle of a social common area. Remember that you need to measure this inclu...

May 7, Mr. Moon took some "before" pictures of the shed that desperately needed some TLC. As you can see, one door (ahem, the one that LOCKS) is torn completely off the board that attaches to the hinges. It just kinda fell down in a rain storm. Like so many of us do these days, everything was just kind of... tossed. I can't even say "shoved." I know for a fact that some of these things toward the back were actually indeed "tossed" in, because I did it myself (see: rainbow umbrella). There was everything from gardening tools and supplies, painting tools that had never even been cleaned off (and actual paint and stain) to hard drives and radio equipment that had been out here since around the time the 'Rents moved in. Do you see the pile of tools (left) and the rack for them to live (middle) standing empty? It was a wreck! We'd made it even worse in the spring planting process because we hadn't had time to deal with it. After we rem...

This is what our Nook looked like, upon us moving in. I'd like to say that Mr. Moon and I made a mess of it all moving in, but the truth is it looked worse than this before we cleaned it up and then made a mess again, and half of this isn't even ours. Let's review what we're seeing here, shall we? To the left is a pile of boxes full of towels needing put away, and almost-unpictured is a stack of small appliances for the shelves that were built under the lip of the lunch counter. Behind the red curtain is a mess of canned goods needing sorting, though by the time we took this picture the dry goods had been put away in the sewing cupboard next to it. You can also see the drawers of Mum's yarn, tucked away back in the corner where she couldn't get to them because of the kitchen table that was just a catch-all for all manner of everything. We had brought in the recycling bins already, because the floor had been just a pile of recycling waiting to be picked up...

One of my favorite blogs is Young House Love . Recently, Sherri & John from YHL instituted a project they call, "Dude, Get On That Already!" It's a feature of those projects that you keep meaning to get to, but just never quite do... For us, since moving in, it was the bathroom. I got it started, and little pieces were coming together here or there but... let's just say, Musical Boxes was a regular game in that room for the last month or so. I wasn't partial to the Americana decor Mum had in there, but I would have been alright if it had stayed. However, in order to help us feel more at home and welcomed, Mum insisted I make it my own. So I did! Once upon a time I had a Celestial themed bathroom and loved it, but I never really completed it. Still, when I needed a new shower curtain last year and found a Celestial one at Value Village, I couldn't pass it up! Same with this Sun basket. I had no idea how we would use it, but I knew it would look great. And h...