1 down 11 to go

31 days of the year gone, and in a blink of an eye too. I'm up to date with the declutter challenge (yay me!) And today I was incredibly grateful that I had done the under the sink update.

I had just tapped a sink of water, the dishwasher was running and I heard water rushing, I glanced over at the sink to check that I'd switched it off, I had. I didn't see any thing out of place and put it down to the dishwasher noise. I kept hearing the noise and looked over again. And saw it....

Water rushing out of the cupboard under the sink! I flung it open and saw that a pipe had burst off its fitting and hot water was poring out! All over my clean, organised cupboard! I grabbed the caddy out that I had put general cleaning things into, pulled out the vinegar from the green cleaning caddy and shoved it under the burst pipe and yelled for 'M' to come help.

The water was switched off and it obviously stopped pouring out. I quickly and efficiently cleared the cupboard out. Had this happened a month ago it would have taken me ages to get all the cleaning things, glass bottles and other junk out.

So moral of my story: Do the cleaning challenge, you won't regret it.

On other news, we have our outside lights up, I have my tin pictures hanging in the kitchen. Our fan is working (at last) but it working brought foul weather that doesn't require a fan :/ . I did some spray painting again and did some updates.

 The table was yellow trimmed and now is navy, the final update picture will be when its in its final spot in the house.

 The lamps were the same turquoise as the chandelier and are now the same navy as the chandeliers.

 The picture frames have been sprayed but final picture will be taken when they're in their final spot.

Our lights outside, l love them <3.

The pantry is waiting to be sprayed, so hopefully it will be installed soon :)

L

Progress update on some tasks

Another week gone by and we're still going strong on the diy  and the decluttering, in fact its all almost habitual now, I'm actually really enjoying it all. Yes even the decluttering :) . Our week went like this :

Our garden helper was here again today, he managed to get the HUGE stump out of the garden bed that's going to become a stoned walkway (as in pebbles and pavers) The stump took up that entire patch of soil!

Well the fan  update went terribly, 'M' has said "never again!" Every possible thing that could go wrong did go wrong, the final thing was the switch. While trying to drill holes to attach the switch panel the drill knocked the dial and broke it off! Meaning we can't switch it on or off. 'M' has to do a hack now and preset it on a setting and put in a regular light switch instead of a dial. I'll keep you posted on that one.


The garage  carport roof trim is being painted the primer layer is done, the undercoat is almost done and finally the topcoat will go on, even with the undercoat it's looking great.

We are also getting brand new garage doors! We have had really old metal ones that lift up and are upgrading to roll up doors. They are being installed tomorrow :)


All the pot plants are painted and laid out in a configuration I like, it took a few attempts to get it to what I think is right . The before pictures can be seen in this  post

Declutter challenge update: I have completed all 15 days successfully and weirdly I'm excited for the next 11 and a half months of this, its so refreshing to get rid of clutter, its like I can finally breathe.

Today was my birthday, so I got a special birthday lunch

I think the best thing about today was when 'A' said "happy birthday" when 'M' told him to say it me, it was a bit garbled but you could hear what he was saying, a truly heart melting moment.

Week 3 is fast approaching and I'm ready for it, bring it on!
L

Number one fan

Today was more about running around and getting things we need for future tasks, a very busy Saturday I must say.

Last Summer our ceiling fan in our bedroom broke, we did nothing about it at the time, so today we bought a new ceiling fan and started the process of installing it, stalling being the operative word ;) 'M' got the old one down (with 'A's' help of course)

but the instructions for wiring it up are limited. So we're stalled for tonight. Tomorrow we'll get help from our electrician brother in law. Luckily its an independant fan unit so its not connected to any light fittings, and its not like we had a working fan anyway.

We also bought some lavendar plants and some stones for the succulent garden which is a work in progress, I primed the pots and just need to paint them tomorrow morning quickly, we have a helper in the garden tomorrow so that's one of his tasks for the day- to replant the lavender :)

One small organising task I did today was to get plastic envelopes for 'A's' puzzles, they fit in perfectly and its incredibly pleasing to my ocd nature.

The declutter task for today is to declutter pot holders and kitchen towels, since I have so few to start with there is nothing to declutter. I will however be adding more. We are goung the unpaper towel route. What is unpaper towels you ask? It's cloth that is used in place of paper towels in the kitchen, you wipe up spills and counters with them, you can use them as napkins and then you wash and reuse them. Mine are flannel on one side and toweling on the other side.

I upcycled some of 'A's' burp clothes and they are now in the kitchen, he was quite an unburpy (is that a word?) baby so most of them are brand new.

I'll get more into other 'green living' things we do in another post, we cloth diaper and use cloth wipes too, and I use cloth sanitary pads and a menstrual cup.

Onto tomorrow, another busy day.

L

Fri-Yay!

Our internet sucks, we live on a small holding outside of Port Elizabeth and for the most part our internet is great, fast even. But now during the festive season its been horrendous, dipping up and down, days where we struggle to connect. I blame the new mall in the area (7km away) The influx of shoppers must be driving the tower usage up. I wish holidays were over so that can have my internet back. Even now I'm typing this out on word, hoping to copy paste when our internet comes back on today.

I'll do a quick recap on yesterday. I started spraying the front table but got stuck when I ran out of spray paint :(  and the nearest 2 hardware stores didn't have my colour ( I always wonder when it comes to not having a particular size/colour in stock if its because the item is so popular it sold out very fast? Or if its so unpopular they only get 1 or 2 of them in? And if its so popular it sold out quickly why don't they order more in the next times? )

I did however manage to re-spray my old blackboard and hang it in a new spot, move the picture that was its spot to a new spot and decide to redo that wall gallery style. I love re-purposing, moving items around in my home, re-loving the items :)

I got a quick snapshot of the pantry drawer/shelves laid out before they start getting assembled, 

and another of the first drawer built  :)

I finally got more spray paint today and it was not without a hitch, I got to the seemingly only shop in PE that stocks Rustoleum in Navy gloss and saw that they were also out of stock! At the back of one of the shelves, tucked away was one last can, but alas it was lidless :( I gave it the once over deemed it ok, that it hadn't been sprayed and took it the paint desk to inquire if they had more stock. They didn't, but gave me an R9 discount on the can :) I got the table sprayed and this is the final product, compared to what it was before. The top image is before, the bottom what it looks like now.

The declutter challenges for yesterday and today we also completed, yesterday was to clear the kitchen table, since I don't have a kitchen table I scrubbed down the cupboard fronts. Today was to clear out unused kitchen utensils and knives, I'm kinda pleased to see that I actually use everything, and I only got rid of 2 knives that were blunt. Yay me :)

Now for the weekend challenges, hopefully we can accomplish more and get some pantry action going.

L

Shared on: Nifty thrifty things

Pantry progress

Despite the wind today I was able to prime the pantry drawer fronts, sand them with a mouse sander and spray them with blackboard paint. I'm so excited about the progress on the pantry and cannot wait for it to be installed :) its not far off apparently. My husband got some work done on it this evening quickly while 'A' played  with spanners (wrenches). He's our little diy kid :)

The drawer fronts have hole handles to make pulling the shelf out easier, I sprayed them blackboard spray paint as I mentioned so that I can label the drawer front ( I love labels and lists). My go to spray paint is Rustoleum, it really goes on the best. My review for the blackboard paint is: it goes on wonderfully smooth, dries quickly but seems more difficult to  cover the surface, it seemed to take more sprays than the general purpose spray paint. I will however use it again, and again and again.

Today's 365 declutter challenge was to clear counter space, and since I tackled the main counter the other day I did the 2 smaller counter pieces either side of the stove. Once again I'm pleased with it :) And best of all the rest of the tidying I have done since Monday is still tidy! Now that's a major accomplishment.

More exciting news, My husband managed to find the Navy gloss spray paint today so I'm back onto a diy fix up task tomorrow :)

L

A tweak and a promise

So today I'm a bit embarrassed,  the declutter challenge of the day was "declutter and organise kitchen sink area" my 'before' pictures are a shocker. But I must say I'm pretty proud of myself for the 'after' pictures.

I did some work on it while 'A' napped, but got stuck when I needed to vacuum. We have a real 'daddy long legs' spider problem and no matter how much I vacuum I cannot keep control of them, they make their webs everywhere: in our cottage pane windows, the cornices and once the toilet- our only toilet we have, we were only out of the house for 4 hours! But anyway I digress. 'A' woke up and I was able to vacuum the windows and window sill above the sink.

They say that it takes 21 days to form a new habit and 90 days to make it a lifestyle change. So my new habit is going to be no dishes in the sink or draining rack and counters wiped and clear at the end of the day.

I did a small tweak today for the #365project, new cushions for our couches :)

I tried to get more spray paint in the navy gloss today, but the hardware store I went to was out of stock, I'm an eager beaver and want to get to more spraying. Due to more rain today out door diy was delayed :(
We need the rain so I can't complain, I'll embrace it and rejoice in the fact that my marigolds will grow.

L

Shared on : one-project-at-a-time-january-2017

Furniture rearrangement and some decluttering.

Trying to clean, organise and declutter with a toddler is like using an umbrella in a hurricane or using a blender without a lid. Today I had success! My son played by himself, followed me around and mostly stayed out of trouble. At 20 months old that is a major feat :)

I had another productive day, I started out by scrubbing A's mat from his room (one of those with a city and roads on it) and hanging it over a trestle leg to dry, with today's heat and wind it dried much quicker than I expected. And since it started pouring with rain around 16:30 (much needed and wanted rain) its a good thing too.

I have a bee in my bonnet this year about decluttering, getting organised and working on some diy tasks, maybe its a mental thing, clean space, clean mind?

Today's #365project was more of an update using items I already have and using them in a different place.

I moved that table from against the wall where the coat rack is to directly in front of the front door, the shoe rack under the table was in the entry way and always in the way. The mat has been used in our bedroom, the lounge and now the hallway. The coat rack was to the left of where it is now and blocked the archway into the lounge. This feels so much cleaner, less cluttered, more open and just prettier.

I have chosen a few key colours I use in our house which makes swopping out mats, cushions and decor items easy and makes for some quick updates. In case you're wondering the colours are :

Bedroom: navy, grey, mint, coral
Kitchen: mint, coral, white
Bathroom 1: nautical theme so navy, mint, white and a touch of red.
Lounge: navy, cream, mint
Bathroom 2 (to be built still) will be natural colours, so that we can bring any colour in for a fresh look.
My future craft room: mint, coral and glitter gold.
Passage: red.

We have a few works in progress, namely the pantry. I browsed pinterest and came up with a design I liked and drew it up for my husband and he's busy making it happen. Yay for some team work 👊he works on it a few afternoon's a week with the "help" of A, so some days are way more productive than others. (Blender without a lid senario)



That's my pantry in pieces, hopefully within the next 2 weeks it will be installed. Yay again, its been a few months without a pantry so I'm pretty excited - eeeeek!☺

The declutter challenge for today was to read through the kitchen counters article, I may have cheated and got a head start by clearing one counter and swopping out some crockery.

Onto tomorrow, I hope I can keep it up, 2 days down 363 to go.

L

365 house project

Well its a new year- Again! Ok so this year  we aim to do 365 tasks, or rather 365 days of tasks. Some tasks will take longer than a day to complete, others will be quick. We got off to a great start today by redoing our chandeliers.

I like to say I collect chandeliers, I am always on the look out for them in second hand shops and snap up good deals. I then give them a clean, and a respray and a new lease of life.

Today was the second time I have redone our ones that are in our lounge area.

The colour is actually a dark navy gloss, we went from the vibrant turquoise to a more classic navy. This is the start of redoing our lounge/craft room into a sitting room with a tv area which will lead onto a dining room. #goals2017

The second chandelier was a deep purple and a different shape to the first one. I also sprayed it the same navy gloss, you just can't see in pictures that its different.

I'm also planning on doing a decluttering year, I'll be following  declutter 365 mission. Sign up to their newsletter and get the calendar for 2017. Today's task is to set up a donation station, a place where you can put any items you want to get rid of/give away/donate. And since its only 21:13 on the 1st I can still set it up and call it a great day :)

Here's wishing you a happy new year, may it be organised, may you achieve your goals and may your dreams come true.

L