Once Upon A Time

I've been reading Gretchen Rubin's book "Happier at Home," and she touches on something that I think about often, the pervasive idea that enjoying "stuff" i.e. one's possessions is shallow and materialistic. I think it definitely can be, but I'm someone who (as the author puts it) "is not embarrassed to love [her] possessions." I freely admit that I love stuff. I don't love my stuff more than I love my family, friends and pets, but I definitely find joy in being surrounded by things I find beautiful. Surroundings are important to me, and they always have been. I don't think I buy things for prestige, as the author suggests many people do. If you know me, you know that while I have champagne taste, I have a...prosecco budget. But even when I was 19 years old and flat broke my apartment was pretty great. I remember having to make a hard choice every month between a $5 design magazine or another Guinness at the pub. My liver probably thanks my design addiction, as the magazine usually won out.

My then-boyfriend used to joke that I should write a book called "The Happy Hippie Home; Decorating With Things You Can Beg, Borrow or Steal." The stealing wasn't of bulky 90's style TVs or anything, more like plastic milk crates. I tied 12 of those bad boys together with a ripped up batik scarf (in retrospect, zip ties would've been better, but the scarf was free...) topped them with the worst records in my collection (to create a flat surface) and covered the whole thing with a purple tie-dyed sheet. Yeah, I was *that* kind of girl. I was so proud of myself. All that storage and all I'd had to do was carry out a misdemeanour!  We also had a metal egg-crate end table that wobbled like I would after one too many of the aforementioned Guinness', but it added a certain  level of industrial charm to our 100 year old apartment.

Before that I lived in a big old house with a bunch of roommates where I was the only girl, living with a rock band. Obviously, there was not a decor budget. We had a huge blank wall in our kitchen that needed something. We'd had a running joke about A&W's "See The Bear, Taste The Food" ad and always joked about Seeing the Food and Tasting The Bear. What can I say, we were young and weird. So, one day some of the fellas and I were walking by an A&W and they had these big cardboard posters in the windows, and one of the boys dared me to go get one. I wasn't about to walk into an A&W and steal a poster off the wall, but hey, CHALLENGE ACCEPTED! I walked in there, asked to speak to a manager and when he came to talk with me, I made up some ridiculous story about all of my roommates and I being huge A&W fans, and in fact, that's where we had all met! (Lies, outright lies.) "Gee, mister, we sure would love one of those posters, do you think you could spare one?" He went up to the window, took one down and handed it to me, while my roommates stood on the sidewalk shaking their heads at my genius! Or at my unashamed idiocy, who cares? We took that sucker home and with a slight adjustment, it became the highlight of the kitchen. At least until our friend T came by with a 5 foot tall black plywood silhouette of Sherlock Holmes.

That was such a digression that I don't even know what I was getting at. Something about being surrounded by the things you love. And no matter what your budget, with a little creativity, you can create a home that makes you happy. Sure, let's stick with that! And hey, if you want to check out "Happier at Home," may I suggest your local bookstore? xo

See The Food, Taste The Bear. The kitchen definitely looks like rockstars lived there. (This was after a party, I can tell because of the torn apart feather boa on the floor!)

Before and After: Foyer

Remember that colour I was telling you about from Behr, that I was going to use in my entryway, halls, living and dining rooms? Well, it turned out awfully pale! I've never painted a wall so pale in my life. I almost had a heart attack! I'm going to keep the foyer and hall in that colour (Chocolate Froth by Behr) but I think I'll be choosing the next darkest colour on the paint swatch for the living and dining rooms.

After MUCH work, I've finished painting the ceiling and walls in the foyer. I still have to do the wall leading up the stairs and the upper landing, not to mention paint all the trim; 3 doors, 2 windows, the stair risers and the bannister! Of course, now the wood door looks weird, and I'll have to paint that, too. Maybe the same grey I plan on using on the kitchen cupboards.

After I finished the ceiling and walls this afternoon, I "rewarded" myself for getting the foyer done by installing my new entryway solution. I think it looks pretty sharp! 1000 times better than my slapdash hooks and craptacular bamboo shoe racks that were there before. I still haven't put together my new shoe racks from IKEA, but I'm gonna go do it right now. For now, here are the before and afters of the entryway.

Chocolate Froth is pretty much white. Still nice, but white! I'm going to try out Wheat Bread in the living and dining rooms. I'm sure I'll get crumbs all over the place.

Slapdash entryway before. This is as bad as it's ever looked, the bookcase was just pinch-hitting for the other 2 terrible shoe racks that broke last week.

Ooh la freaking la! Pretty sweet, right?

Cursing a Blå Streak.

Flerm! Florgen! Liilanglorp! (I ran out of English swear words while I was putting together my IKEA cabinet, and had to come up with some new ones.)

I'm not even going to get into how screamy and insane I got while hanging my new IKEA cabinet in the bathroom. We've all been there. All I'm saying is that I should probably have my mouth washed out with soap.

The good news is that my pal J and I went to IKEA today, and got all manner of housey-things. Our boss (who is clearly the best boss ever) drove us to IKEA, dropped us off and met up with us to help us load our heavy flat-packed boxes of frustration onto the trolley! What a guy! We plied him with meatballs in return, but I think J and I got the better deal.

J bought herself a couple of Expedit shelves to help organize her yoga area. We were looking at an 8-shelf one, but when we went to load that sucker on the cart it turned out to be HUGE! She settled on two 4-shelf units, instead. WAY easier to move, and a lot more flexible if she wants to repurpose them in the future.

I bought the aforementioned cabinet, a sink, a faucet, white towels, a ceiling light for the bathroom, hangers for the entryway, two shoe racks, a picture frame...quite the spree. Luckily, I had gift cards from Christmas, thanks to my dad and to my stepmom, and I put them to good use.

I haven't put my sink cabinet together yet, as I try to limit myself to one outright conniption per day. And until my flooring arrives and I install it, there's no rush. Tomorrow I'll get an early start and prep my foyer for painting. Not too keen on the painting itself, but I'll be really happy to get my new entryway system up and running. Can't wait to show you...stay tuned! For now, here are the photos of my new cabinet and my freshly staged bathroom shelves. ("Freshly staged bathroom shelves?" What have I become?!)

Lillangen cabinet.

Staged shelves. The blue DKNY towel was a HomeSense find. 

Stressed Out!

Normally, when I make a decision, I don't second-guess myself. I decide on a course and it gets done (not always quickly!) But  I was lying in bed a couple of hours ago and thinking about how much work it's going to be to move. Not so much the readying of the house, or even the actual move, I'm mostly concerned about what to do with our cats. My plan all along has been to rent a small apartment for a couple of months while the house is on the market (hopefully it won't be longer than that!) My husband and I would take turns staying there with the cats, and it would also give us a place to store our excess stuff so the house is less crowded, airy and properly staged. I just don't think anyone's gonna walk into a crowded house full of kitties and jump to make an offer, you know? I also worry about the cats running off if the house is full of strangers at open houses and viewings. I know it's not ideal, but the only other way is to purchase the new house before I sell this house and that's just not in the cards! (Unless I win that lottery that I don't play.)

After lying around worrying about cats (clearly I'm neurotic, but I've gotta put my pets first!) I thought, 'Well...what if we just don't move?' I mean, it would make sense in a lot of ways. I even made a Pro and Con list (not typical!) Pros: -It would be way easier. -We wouldn't have to worry about the cats. -We probably won't be able to afford to be right in the neighbourhood we want anyways, and would likely end up on the outer fringe of it (not so far from where we are now.)
-We would save a lot of money staying in this house.
Cons: -This place is too small for us, and I don't love the neighbourhood.
I thought, maybe I'm being elitist for wanting to live in a nice neighbourhood. The pros seemed to outweigh the cons, so I woke up my husband and told him what I'd been thinking. If you knew C, and how much he hates change and projects, you could imagine his response!

I racked my brain for a couple of hours about how to make this house work for us, and thought I'd come up with some good ideas. I was kind of relieved to be taking the easy way out. I drew up some floor plans and everything was going alright until I started drawing up the living room plan. I tried every combination of things I could, using my existing furniture. I was going over and over where I could fit my daybed and my lamps and tables that I have in storage and I realized that there was no way to make it work. I would have to buy all new furniture for the room, and either get rid of the beautiful pieces I've had in storage (eagerly awaiting a house that they'll fit in) or keep them wrapped up in my basement, where I don't get to enjoy them at all. I know it seems silly to base a big decision on whether or not my daybed will fit in the living room, after all it's just stuff, but I think it's symptomatic of this house. 808 square feet is small! We've lived here for 6 years and we've outgrown it. I've always seen myself living in my favourite neighbourhood, in a (slightly) bigger house, close to work and friends, and I'm going to commit to doing it, even if it IS going to be a pain in my ass! Guess the easy way out doesn't apply this time!
(I think I'll wait til morning to wake up my husband again and tell him the revised plan. Ooops.)

You deserve a picture of a stressed out cat.