Tuesday Tidies

I haven't done any "Tuesday Tidies" in awhile....so I thought: Why not do some Tuesday Tidies?

Why not, indeed.

So, without further adieu, here are some "Tuesday Tidies," courtesy of Hints from Heloise:

Bed Freshener: If you have a guest room, before guests arrive or just to keep the bed fresh when unused, tuck several fabric softener sheets under the bottom sheet to keep it smelling nice.

Cheap Way to Make Room Smell Nice: Don't throw out perfume card samples from magazines or samples from stores. Instead put the card samples (or pour a tad of perfume onto a cotton ball, paper towel or tissue) and place into the bottom of a wastebasket.

Keeping Garbage Can Smelling Sweet: Try this simple hint: Put fabric softener sheets or perfume sample strips in the bottom before putting the trash bag in. They can help prevent odors.

Musing Along Some More on a Monday

The soon-to-be "birthday boy." I loved his expression here...
Happy Monday -- already -- to you! Can it really be Monday again?

We begin our third week of school today, and so far the kids seem to be enjoying themselves...as much as kids ever enjoy school. *wink*

We are in the final week of awaiting "Leechie," though that means nothing in the world of delivering babies. It seems to me that I was once reminded of the fact that babies choose their own day to make their big debut. I am due on Friday -- a mere 5 days away, counting today -- but that doesn't mean I'll give birth on that day. The whole thing is amazing to think about really...or maybe the word is "surreal?" As I was explaining to someone, once I finished the baby's room and had everything washed and ready, I entered the "school/activity zone" with the older two kids...and that's where I've remained. So the idea of giving birth to a baby and having a newborn in the house again seems very, very foreign to me. Good thing God equipped us with mommy instincts, right? *grin*

Stuart finished the last-but-one of the "house/codes" projects this weekend by installing an extension to our back downspout. Hopefully, we won't get any more citations? We're still not sure why we were cited in the first place, given the fact that none of the violations had anything to do with safety. Oh, well. At least we got the house looking a bit nicer. Now to finish some more inside.

The kids wanted to go to Motherhood Maternity for one last "hurrah," as we called it. They've been so cute during my pregnancy, asking to go there to pick out different maternity outfits for me to try on...even Edward enjoys it.

Emily's goal -- from the start of my pregnancy -- has been to get me into styles much different from my usual, in her eyes, "conservative" ones. (She's our little fashion diva-designer.) She had me in hugely flared maternity jeans and some kind of flashy shirt at one point...and another time she got me into some camo maternity capris and a black tank top. Happily, I can say that neither outfit made it home and into my actual wardrobe. But trying on unusual stuff is part of the fun.

Funny enough, Edward enjoys picking out outfits for me, too. But last Thursday, on our last visit to the store, he began to cry as we entered. The sales associate and I asked him what was wrong, and he explained that he was going to miss coming to the store and picking out stuff for me to try on. The sales lady told him there were other clothing stores for Mommy where he could do the same thing. He shook his head sadly and said, "But she won't be pregnant any more. She's so cute when she's pregnant." I'm still smiling from that little exchange. Out of the mouths of babes, right?

Speaking of Edward, his Autumn soccer season begins tomorrow evening. He was reluctant to sign up again last, and we basically arm-twisted him into it. But when he saw it on his schedule this morning he got really excited. Yippee!!

Emily has her first Monday dance class tonight. She started last week with only a Wednesday class, so this will be the first week she has both classes -- for a total of 3 1/2 hours of ballet a week. Hopefully, she'll continue to enjoy it. She had a "drama queen" rolling on the floor, moaning about sore toes, during the pointe portion of her class last week. I'm amazed this girl wasn't too embarrassed to act like this, but as I pointed out to Emily who was annoyed by it, her ballet room is a room full of emerging hormones...go easy on the other girls. *wink*

Our homeschool learning group starts on Wednesday. I'm hoping "Leechie" stays put at least through that day since I'd like to meet my new journalism class...of three. *grin* It should be interesting, to say the least. None of the three guys in this class has ever taken it before -- I had one repeat last year which helped immensely -- but hopefully they'll be enthusiastic enough about the subject matter that it will be a fun year for us. Either way, we have two newspapers to produce.... Yikes.

Stuart has his 38th birthday on Thursday, and secretly we're both hoping for a "newborn" birthday gift for him. Hmm....time to break out all the old wives' tricks? I think it might thunderstorm before then... *wink*

Time will tell, I guess...

Until then, enjoy your Monday!

Wordless Wednesday

The Nursery - Phase One

As I mentioned yesterday, we semi-finished "Phase One" of the nursery.

There's still some work to do on it so I'll post more pics one it's completely finished. But, for now, I present the "Leechie Domain:"

I kept the colorful paper handprints we made for the schoolroom several years ago.


The closet. I'm going to use curtains instead of the door.


The window with the glider in front of it. The changing table is there on the right, under some school stuff that still needs to find a new home.


The crib filled with birthing supplies.


The library. Rather than relocating the gadzillions of books we seem to have, I decided to combine it with the room. I'm sure Leechie won't mind. *wink*

Tuesday Tidies

Another great hint from Heloise:

Food Burned on Bottom of Cooking Pot?
To get food crud off, pour full-strength vinegar into the bottom of the pan and let soak for around 30 minutes. Then scrub and wash well.

Hazards and Houses

A photo of the front of the house last month as the windows were being replaced

One of the hazards of owning a 90-year-old house is that at some point it will need some work done to it...again and again and again.

We bought our home, seeing its potential...what it could be, not what it was. The latter was just depressing.

The people who owned our house before us were multi-millionaires, though we didn't know that at first. They came to the settlement in old clothes and appeared to be "in need" of selling their house. We felt good about the whole transaction since we were "in need" of buying a house.

Fast-forward to the conversations during settlement, and you'll hear the man talking on his cellphone to his son who is fly-fishing in the Colorado River...and chatting about his horses and their latest races against a sheik's horses...

*sigh*

Not very needy.

Still, we bought the house and realized afterwards that though this couple had money, they put none of it into the house. They were, in fact, "slum lords," or people who buy property for the rent money but have no intention of keeping the property in good repair. Sad, really.

So we began to fix up the house...

That very night we tore down the suspended ceiling...to reveal the enormous cracks in the plaster ceiling...and a bathtub-sized hole.

I need to point out as we later found out that the house had been rented by three different "families" over the course of the former couple's ownership. One family had a reptile business... Another was just a "normal" family...we think. (Though a 3-foot patch of our backyard won't grow anything on it...and there's some surmising that they buried something there...)

And the last group was a commune of his, hers, yours, theirs, and ours. About 10 people, none of them married, with a kid who set a few local fires, absolutely no common sense, and not a single clue about "This Old House." The main man -- for lack of a better term -- tried to pass himself off as a home repair guy. (Insert a smirk here.)

Using pressure-treated wood to create a "half-timbered" (or Tudor) look in the dining room doesn't do it for us. Neither does hanging a suspended ceiling to cover the cracks and holes in the plaster ceiling...and then building a closet only the same height as the suspended ceiling over top of a dead mouse and...and...and...

You get the picture.

Recently, we got it into our heads to replace the kitchen floor.

Like all projects in this house, it was like opening the proverbial "can of worms."

After nine layers of flooring (including carpeting), several weekends, and lots of sweating, Stuart finally got to the original hardwood floor.

Step one complete!

Step two was putting down an underlay. Since we don't have a lot of room in the kitchen (it's only 10 X 12) that took place in several stages. But eventually it was finished, too.

Step two complete!

Step three was laying the vinyl floor.

(We have just one car in our household. We decided to do that as a moneysaver. I don't need one all the time, and when/if I do, I drive Stuart the 4 miles to work and pick him up afterwards. That said, this poor little car also doubles as our Home Depot "truck." The amount of stuff it's had to tote from the DIY store has been amazing. Enter a roll of vinyl flooring...)

So we had the 12 X 12 sheet of vinyl. Stuart wanted to get it down in one piece so there aren't any seams to worry about...

And he did it! A beautiful job if I say so myself.

I gave it a good washing and vacuuming...and then we began to move stuff back into the kitchen...

Refrigerators are heavy items. There's a reason that when you have them delivered they take a team of men and a dolly to move them around.

...

We began to move the 'fridge back into the kitchen. All was going swimmingly until we realized we had it facing the wrong direction. We began to turn it and saw that...

...we...ripped...the...floor...

...our brandnew floor...

We felt sick. Not only was there a 4-inch tear, but there were three spots where we'd rubbed back the vinyl. I smoothed down the rubbed marks and used a Sharpie (gotta love those!) pen to blend into the black.

Oh, well. What's done is done, and overall the floor looks so much better than the dingy tan linoleum tiles that were there on top of carpet on top of wood on top of...

Just one more hazard of owning -- and loving -- an old house...