Hat / Coat Rack Project

Teen3, EK has just completed a restoration project on not one but two hat racks. I found the hat/coat racks languishing in the back of a second hand furniture store. They had a price sticker of $48 each on them. The store owner advised me that she would sell one to me for $30 or two for $45. At $22.50 each I jumped at them.

BEFORE

This is the only before pic that my girl took. 

The girls have been wanting coat racks for quite some time, but most are either too expensive or too flimsy, or both. This pair are old industrial coat racks and are VERY heavy.

EK got into the sanding straight away. She wanted to strip hers back to bare timber and stain it a dark colour.  Teen 2, Ra wanted hers gloss white to go in her room with the glossy white furniture and black wrought iron.

I have been experimenting with a couple of Mac apps that I have downloaded the trial versions.  This collage was done on "CollargeIt Free". It is a great little free program for Macs with heaps of ways to create collarges.  It does have a few limitations so I am hunting to see if I can find a program that addresses those issues before I commit to buying one. I will let you know the results after my experiments.

Now back to the topic at hand...

She sanded both back to bare timber, gave one four coats of stain becasue she wanted it as dark as she could get it. The other one got two under coats and two top coats. why two undercoats? after the experience with the timber boxes she thought she had to do two undercoats. I explained than usually one one undercoat is done and the boxes were very dried out and soaked up the first coats which is why they got two coats.

The next step was to re-assemble the coat racks. EK was keen on doing the entire project herself. This was her first time using a drill. She did great and only required a small amount of coaching from dad.

Below are three versions (I actually did five versions using two different programs). I would like some feedback on the collages. Tell me what you like and what isn't so great. Experimenting and learning in progress. (I believe you can click on them to make them bigger if that helps)

 TA-DA - our girl was clowning around and was pleased with her results.

AFTER

And once again

BEFORE  -  AFTER  

Two very different looks and both ar quite an improvement on the dull office grey.


Linking up to some parties:
http://www.notjustahousewife.net/2012/05/show-me-what-ya-got-76.html
http://www.passionatelyartistic.com/2012/05/mix-media-canvas-with-cricut-cartridges.html
http://www.domestically-speaking.com/2012/05/128th-power-of-paint-party-mapping-a-table.html
http://diybydesign.blogspot.com.au/2012/05/swing-into-spring-its-party-67.html
fadedcharmcottage.blogspot.com/
http://cedarhillranch.blogspot.com.au/
 http://diyshowoff.com/category/other/diy-project-parade/.
http://www.pollywantacrafter.com/
http://becolorful.typepad.com/
http://www.finecraftguild.com/party/
http://www.homestoriesatoz.com/2012/05/tutorials-tips-link-party-62.html

After the big garden clean out of a couple of weeks ago, I wanted to follow up on it soonish to make the most of the empty beds ... before the weeds could move into those nice fresh garden beds.

When I saw the offer of some Agapanthus on Free-cycle on thursday night, I replied straight away and offered to collect first thing on Friday morning.  Yipee! They were mine to collect Friday. Two big garbage bags of Agas came home with me.

The catch of course is that they need to get into the dirt ... and soon.

First thing Saturday morning, Hubster was out the front garden with the spade.

 He hates having his pic taken but tolerates it for me. 

 Done. 

Note the dog, he looks cute and normally leaves plants alone...

but when it is full of fresh lovely smelly earth with lots of compost...

it is just irresistible for a dog.

While hubs was working in the front garden I potted three of the Agapanthus into these blue pots.

Shortly later I came back to take some photos and found the scene above.

I called buddy and pointed to it saying "Did you do this?" and he stopped wagging and hung his head. 

Guilt confirmed.

Plants replanted. I hope they survive.

A trip to the nursery followed in order to buy more potting mix and some larger pots to finish the job we had started. Note the three big white pots in the left of the pic below.

 See the plants above... my little confession is that I bought potting mix for them to be repotted over two years ago. They were all soooo pot bound but now all have new homes.

 The smaller Pony-Tale Palm is now in a 43cm pot (was in a 30cm pot)

 This palm was in one of the blue planters (really truly it was). It now has a 43cm home.

Here is the large Pony-Tale Palm in its new 55cm pot. Man that thing is huge.

sweet little baby Jade Plant

 Big Mama Jade Plant (or money tree as it is sometimes called) in its new washing tub planter. 

Yep there are several big old metal washing machine tubs turned planters down the side of our house. They mostly housed weeds... I am fixing that.

 Another transplanted succulent.

 See the terracotta planter on the tank stand? That is where the Jade plant used to call home. 

I don't know the name of the plant the I have put in it. It used to be in one of the blue ceramic planters. I gave it a serious trim and it is looking a bit sad here, I expect it will look better in a week or so.

This tub planter already was home to the sad little tree. It now has a shade loving Lavender for company.

All of this gardening has been a bit hard on my nails (even with gloves).

My thumb nail isn't the only casualty... my back is really sore. Sunday afternoon I could barely stand up, Monday the pain kept me slow and keeping track of pain medication. let's hope it improves more today.

Box Transformation or Re-recycling

Remember this?

The Nectarine Box Shelf has been used and loved for years but is no longer used. Time to change it up.  To see the post about the box shelves and how we made them, click the link here.

First we disassembled it back to its components, then I sanded each surface. 

Note, if one uses something like this and leaves it raw, the timber will get very dry and dusty. We were originally going to paint or stain the boxes, but liked the raw look. Over time and use they got quite dusty and the dust got into the surface of the timber. Sanding was the only way to clean them up again. 

We gave it two coats of undercoat and three top coats with white gloss paint. The timber was so dry that it completely soaked up the paint.
We painted the uprights the same colour as the wall so they wouldn't stand out too much.
Hubster constructed it into its new form. The construction was the quickest part, taking him less than an hour from beginning to hanging on the wall.

TA-DA

The white of the boxes really stands out against the blue walls. 

The hardest part of the project was the matter of how to attach the boxes to the wall with the least impact on the wall itself. Two reasons for this:
1. We rent and this means that we have to be very careful about what and how we attach items to the walls.
2. The walls are made of fibro board which contains asbestos. The less one tampers with this stuff, the better.

We solved this dilemma by making frames which hubster screwed to the boxes and then using hooks and eyes attached the boxes to the top cover strip. Only six small holes are in the cover strip. These can very easily be patched when we eventually remove the boxes from the wall.  Happy solution. I must add that it took quite a bit of thinking and discussing to work it out.  Once that was decided, the rest was smooth sailing (so to speak). And the cost... only a few dollars for the screws, hooks and eyes. We had every thing else already

All that was left was for our girl to arrange her bears on the new box shelves above her bed.

And the comment of the night... Ra said that since there is still a little space, she can acquire a few more bears.

Linking to some parties.

Necklace to Dangly Conversion

Some years ago our friend C made a necklace for Ra. Not only did she string the beads, she MADE them.

 The beads are glow-in-the-dark beads with glittery blue, pink and green. Every bead is different.

Our girl loved it... and still does. The only problem ... she doesn't wear necklaces, actually she permanently wears one simple gold chain, but she doesn't actually bother to change her jewellery.  It sat in her jewellery box not getting worn or seen for a few years.

When we were doing the big clear out of her room prior to painting and re-decorating, she held it up with a sad face. She explained her dilemma to me, saying that she loved it but just doesn't wear necklaces so she should probably give it away, but she doesn't want to. I suggested that she keep it and perhaps change it into a form which she could make use. her face lit up, with a big nod and a smile - I love that look.

I put it aside and added it to my 'to do' list. It is a very long list.

I finally got to it last night. It was a simple matter of unstringing some of the beads from the necklace and adding two pretty crystal beads that I already had with a few of the original seed beads.

 TA-DA

Our girl had the perfect place to hang it.

It is her birthday next week and a mozzie net arrived in the post last week. It is a birthday present from the same friend and now hangs happily in our Ra's room. 

The relevance?

Inside her canopy at the peak was the PERFECT spot for the 'glowy-dangly' thing to hang.

She will see it every time she wakes up.

She will see it when she switches off the light.

I know it will make her smile at both ends of the day.

FreeCycle Finds

As I have mentioned previously Freecycle is hit and miss.

I have offered many no longer needed household items and have had many delighted recipients take them away. I NEVER offer something that I wouldn't be happy to receive if it was needed/wanted and I never offer something that should be in the bin. eg broken items, worn out cheap appliances, general junk etc. Yet it happens all the time. I have on occasions driven to collect an item only to discover that it was rubbish. At first I would politely accept such items and then throw them in the bin, glad to know at least I have performed a public service by getting rid of the nasty thing. These days I politely decline to take the item - the owner can find some other sucker or can bin it them self.

When offering an item, if it needs work or has any damage I make sure that it is known very clearly.  I have had the chance to meet some lovely folks who turn up to collect items and have had enjoyable conversations with some. I have been fortunate in that I have only met a few who I thought were a tad dodgy, and I have now made note of them.

Last week I gave away a very solid single bed with two drawers underneath it. It used to used by teen1 (yep that long ago) and when teen 3 went to board with friends we repainted it and took it there for her to use. Then our friends continued to use it for their son after his bed was ruined by minor flooding that affected their home (Queensland floods Jan 2011). He no longer needed it so it came back here. One of the drawers had been damaged when it wasn't shut properly and then was forced ('tis a teenage boy thing).

The bed itself was however very good and the damaged drawer only needed minor repairs which hubster could do. Since I planned on giving it away, I didn't think it justified his limited time. I stated clearly in my add that it had damage and the nature of the damage. I had a family request the bed. When I spoke with the wife over the phone I described it and she was confident that her hubby could fix it. When hubby came to collect the bed, he was delighted and said they have been looking for one like this but they are VERY expensive. I know they are. He said that he was planning on making one and now all he has to do is a minor repair to the drawer. happy customer. It also meant that anyone who wasn't able or prepared to do the repair didn't request the bed.  

I have recently requested items myself on freecycle as I am changing things around. I rarely request items these days as I am trying to keep the clutter down.

Recently a 'love seat' was offered on freecycle. the add had very little description and only said the the cushions on the seat needed recovering - no probs, I can do that. When hubster and a friend went to collect it they got quite a surprise. It wasn't a love seat or anything that I was picturing. It was a three seater  garden swing seat.  Not at all what I wanted. If it had been accurately named or even described I would not have requested it. It did however turn out good.

I thought that I would recover the seats and then decide what to do with it as it is very nice - originally a more expensive version than the one that we own. Before I got any further in my decision making regarding the garden swing seat, our eldest daughter JC came to visit and upon spotting the swing seat went gaga over it. She said that she has been longing for one and had proceed them but they were too expensive for them at the moment. I offered it to her and got to watch as she did a happy dance. She sent her hubby over a couple of days later to collect and it now is getting used in her yard. She says he will eventually recover the seats, but they are ok, just faded and have paint drops on them.

Our other score this weekend was from yet another not well described offer. The add read "two cafe chairs and glass outdoor table". I pictured a small glass table to go with the cafe chairs.  Not so.

The table was much larger - 103cm diameter in fact. Since immediately prior to picking up the glass table we had just had four strong young men come and take our huge table downstairs and into the garage, there was a sizeable gap in our kitchen. Hubster moved the fridge and freezer. He suggested that the glass table could go in the kitchen as a temporary measure while we restore the table purchased for the kitchen.

Here it is - installed in our kitchen

 I went rummaging through my table clothes and pulled out this nice little linen one which was made for me by a friend for a different purpose in a former stage of my life.  it loo cute here.

yes, I probably should iron it - but not ironing is how I roll. 

And here are the cafe chairs just where I wanted them. It is the same spot that I had intended for the 'love seat'. It has worked out better as I was able to dig out my little marble coffee table. I am sooooo delighted with how it looks.  Heck, I may even break out the spray can and finally respray the metal legs on the marble top table... and if I really get inspired I could give the wicker on the chairs a coat of something too.

 It makes use of the dead spot on our front landing. Buddy approved. EK tested it out for me.

This week had a miss that turned into a hit. A hit and a miss which again turned into 2 hits. I'll add several hits to it with the recipients of my offered items. And only 1 miss of a no-show which also turned into a hit when I was able to offer that item to a delighted receiver.  I think that means a hit over all. :)

Another Keratin Post

A friend commented a little while ago that there is a keratin trend in my postings. I laughed. She's right: hair, nails and skin. Well here we go again. ;)

I have seen lots of reviews of Sally Hansen's 'Salon Effects' Nail Polish Strips. Most of the reviews have raved about them. From what I could gather the only down side was the price - $13. For a one time use item I consider $13 WAY too expensive! I was waiting at the chemist on Saturday (waiting in chemists sadly an all too regular occurrence) and roaming the aisles when I came across a display bin full of the nail polish strips. The best bit... they were marked down to $6.

It seems like I am not the only person who considers them too expensive for a cute gimmick. At $6 I was prepared to give it a go. I still consider it too expensive, but decided that I could treat myself.  I chose two patterns that I couldn't create myself. yep two splurges. :)

cute butterflies

 If you look closely you will see that I haven't quite lined it up perfectly.

I trimmed the edges after looking at the pics.

Here is the packaging.

They are simple to use. One tip that I picked up from reading the nail reviews was that it is important to follow all of the preparation and application steps and to not skip steps. I followed the directions and it worked perfectly.

Now to see how well it lasts.

But wait.

There's more...

This is a double keratin episode....  two for the price of one.  How can you contain yourself.

OK so I went a bit too far.

Humour me and read on...


Saturday night it was hair cut time.  AKA I have been nagged to do the hair cuts and now that I am not working I can't justify the extra expense of sending them off to the hair dresser so I am back t doing it myself.
yes I do a good job (so humble) but I hate, loath, detest, can't tolerate, (I think you get the idea) having little bit of spiky hair sticking into my skin and through my clothing. I couldn't ever cut hair all day every day.

First on the cutting seat was teen 2.

Before

I didn't take after pics Saturday night. I did however take lots of pics on Sunday morning as the girls were relaxed and hanging out in the park at one of the many lovely lagoons we have in our area.

After

 

Teen 3 was next. I forgot to take a before pic. Here is the cute after. I love her happy open mouth smile. She has been tending to smile with me mouth closed since she has been wearing braces. I prefer the open mouth, braces and all smile.

The biggest difference to her style was that she wanted the pointy bits in front of her ears and cut up over the ear (like mine). She wanted it layered more and more 'elfin'. 

At least her self haircut had grown out giving me enough to work with in styling it.

Last to sit in the hair cutting chair was hubster. I didn't take any photos of him either before or after his cut. Although I was particularly happy with the nice style cut I did for him.

I don't think he even noticed (or cared) that I did it differently. :(

He certainly didn't say thanks for making me look all handsome again.

And just to finish off.

I snapped this of teens 2 and 3 goofing around in the park yesterday when we went out for a picnic for mothers' day. It delights me how well they get on and how they muck around together and stir each other.  I hope they will always respect and love each other as much as they do now at 16 and 18 (nearly 19).

Dining Table

I like buying my furniture second hand.

The majority of the furniture that I/we own was bought second hand. Sometimes we buy pieces that are ready to use just as they are. Sometimes we buy pieces that need some work on in order to make them suitable for our purposes.

Lately it seems like we have been finding pieces that need work in order to fit our needs. this often saves us more money, but at the trade off of our time and labour.

I have mentioned the kitchen / dining space dilemma. We don't actually have a designated dining room / space in this house. We do have a large eat-in kitchen.  The House is a typical Queensland post-war home built around 1946. We are the first people to live here after the original owners have passed.  The neighbourhood has changed but it is an area where there are still many people who knew the original owners and have told us much of the house's history. It may be just me but I really like knowing its history.

I bought a timber dining table and chairs on eBay and we picked it up on the weekend. We got it for $70. The catch is that the chairs need reupholstering and the entire set needs repainting. I have started sanding the chairs.

 yep two different seat covers.

The original owners had covered four of the chairs with a cream micro-suede, which is now awfully stained and in need of re-covering.

 I like my little Ozito sander - it is small and shaped like an iron and when I use it, it doesn't leave my arm feeling like it has been shaken half out of the socket and my fingers aren't tingling for two hours after switching it off.

 The table top with its legs removed for sanding 

I will get stuck into this with the heavy duty belt sander which does shake my joints loose and leaves my fingers tingling for two hours after I switch it off... but man is it serious about sanding a surface back to naked wood.

... and a close up of just how bad the surface looks. It was redone by the original owners - poorly, they needed some lessons on staining a surface evenly. Then it was used to stand on when painting (why???) and has multiple spatters of paint all over it.

Later this afternoon our eldest daughter and her hubby will come over with his extended family. That will bring us four strong men to assist hubster in the task of getting the monster table out of the kitchen. Before they come we will need to move a heap of furniture out of the path - our hutch, lounge chairs and maybe some of the furniture in the front room (my craft space). yeah no mean feat.

Same, Similar, Different

My eldest daughter was over visiting yesterday.

I have been clearing out more items of late and had asked her some weeks ago if she was interested in the baby rug that was crocheted for her. I have only saved a few special items from when the girls were babies with the intention of offering them on at the appropriate stage of their lives.
She said yes she wanted it and asked was it ok to take it now even though she doesn't plan to have babies for a few years yet.
When she was visiting I got down the box with the few special items of clothing and pulled out the baby rug, the cotton wrap made to bring her home from the hospital and a cream layette also knitted for her. She did her happy dance and hugged all the items. I reminded her that they are to pass between each of the girls when they have their own families.

She then got to rummaging through the rest of the box and pulled out my wedding gown, Hubster's wedding vest, and a couple of other special items.  She held one of the dresses up to herself and asked me about it. I told her that I made it when I was her age now and wore it to her Aunt's wedding where I first got more acquainted with her dad and then went out with him after the wedding with a group of other wedding guests.

She tried it on.

It fits! Sneakers and all.

I was a little wider in the shoulders and a couple of inches taller but other than that our proportions were much the same.  Our ensuing conversation just has to be recorded for posterity ... and to give me a giggle.

She was surprised that it was shaped perfectly over her tiny breasts as most tops are too big.

JC: It fits me.. 

me: Ah darling, tailoring is the advantage of making one's own clothing.

JC: But mum you aren't tiny like me.

me: I was at your age. Having babies makes quite a difference to such matters.

JC: So you have told me before, but I didn't think it was THAT much of a difference.

JC: what is it with these puffy sleeves and the weird shape?

me: the bigger the better was the 80's motto with many things sweet. hair, sleeves ... The sleeves are called Tulip sleeves and were the height of fashion in the late 80's and early 90's. I have seen tulip sleeves making a comeback now, but not full gathered like these ones are.

JC: and the "funny shaped" neckline?

me: that is a sweet heart neckline.

JC: but it sits so high and it is wide.

me: yeah it looks like a cross between a sweet heart and a boat neck. Maybe the designer couldn't decide.  And yes we were more modest and wore higher necklines in the "olden days."

JC: MUM!

me: LOL.

JC: And mum this print, it's like nothing I have ever seen. 

    FYI - It is black with tiny red and white flowers and green leaves.  It is very detailed and is high quality cotton.  The comparison would be a high quality quilting cotton, although this fabric is slightly heavier than most modern quilting cottons.

Me: yeah I had forgotten just how much fabric quality has deteriorated until I touch older fabrics. The print is higher quality than you find now too. 

JC: I like the pointed V waistline, but it sits below my waist.

Me: Mmm. That was another late 80's thing. dropped waists were still big then. Pointed waists went out for quite a while but have been making a comeback for a while now. Like your wedding dress. they are quite flattering, and very feminine. It may have sat a little higher on me given that I am 5cm taller than you.

JC: Mum you could sell this as retro. You would probably get a lot of money for it.

Me: what, you don't want to wear it to a party or some special occasion? You could model it for your hubby and tell him that I was wearing it when I was 21 and see if he has a fit then.  LOL lol lol. 

JC: mum!

The back storey on that stir is that I suspect Her hubby didn't believe me when I told him I was once as thin as our girl is now. At the time he told me that JC would never get fat like I am now. !!!  Yeah tact. And I sure hopes she takes better care of herself than I have. (And lives with less stress too) 

Anyway, the trip down memory lane was fun. Seeing my dress on my daughter was fun too. Maybe I will look into selling it...

Project Overload

I mentioned yesterday that I keep dreaming up more projects than I can get done with the time and energy that I have.

I thought I would list them and see just how bad  long it really is.

sand and spray Ra's lamp
sand and paint the newly purchased second hand kitchen chairs
find a suitable fabric to recover the chairs
actually recover the 6 dining chairs
sand, varnish and paint the newly purchased kitchen table.
sand the ten chairs from the old kitchen table and revarnish them
get the big old table out of the kitchen (it took four men to get it in)
sell the 10 seater table and chairs
sell the big blue box that doesn't fit in Ra's room.
sand and paint my old mirror for Ra.
sort and give away stuff from EK's latest room clean out.
sand and paint the timber boxes
paint the uprights for the timber boxes
arrange the boxes and uprights and screw them together to form a new shelf arrangement.
get shelf mounted
get Ra to arrange her bears on the new shelf
attach 5 hooks to Ra's robe and tall boy
buy brown paper to EK's room
mount brown paper on walls in EK's room
tea dye the printed images for EK's room.
put tea-dyed images on the walls.
frame poster for EK's room
hang mirror in EK's room
help EK to sort her papers and clear her shelves.
get EK to transfer remaining items to just one shelf.
remove second shelf from EK's room.
move remaining shelf over to better accommodate door hooks in EK's room
sell single bed which is no longer needed
replace EK's old mattress which is hurting her back
rearrange kitchen
find a storage / usage solution to the office/paperwork issue.
sew bolster cover for Ra
sew 3/4 pants for myself (can put that off until spring)
mend jeans
sort and put away beads (out since Christmas)
find a cute feature bead for Ra.
re-make a hanging beaded thingy out of Ra's glow-in-the-dark beads
sort superannuation out and consolidate all those little plans into my main one
re-work our budget now that I am not working.
sort my fabric
sew slacks for myself for winter
dressing gown for myself?
pull all the ferns out of the front garden
plant some of the pots into the front garden
weed pots at side of house
repot jade plant
prune jade plant
repot 4-5 large plants in back yard
cut out Asparagus fern from under tank stand
prune orange tree
research how to remove Stag-horn pups
actually remove the pups and then put onto their own boards
sell / give away stag-horn pups
sort plastics cupboard and tidy up again
make a stand / storage rack for baking trays
re-cover outdoor swing seats
sell / give away outdoor swing

I am sure I have forgotten a heap of things...

No wonder I feel overwhelmed.

I have begun several of these projects (eg sanded 3 dining chairs and bought fabric for the bolster cushion). Each project takes multiple steps in multiple stages. I will just have to keep breaking them down into small tasks which I can do as the energy and time allow.

Since I am working on at least 10 projects simultaneously I don't have anything actually finished to show.

This is the beginning stages of the kitchen rearrange. I have measured and drawn a scale model of the kitchen and all the current furniture. i am now attempting to arrange and rearrange on paper (to save our backs) and see if I can find a workable solution.

Yes all this really is the stuff that lives in my head ... well some of it at least. I am sure you wouldn't want to know the rest of it.

The Domino Effect

I have heaps of ideas for projects.
I have very little energy.
Those two don't make good companions - well perhaps it would be more accurate to say the two opposing realities don't sit easily with me.

I am at home. I am seeing all the things that I mostly ignored before because I didn't have the time to see them or to do anything about them. Now I am seeing them ALL the time. I am trying to work in a kitchen that doesn't work for me and it frustrates me. Multiply that by each space in the house and it becomes hair-pullingly frustrating.

When I/we 'fix' one space it seems to make another space worse. For example, I moved the photo albums out of the corner of the lounge room and into the little room that Hubster affectionately called 'the resource centre'. That helped in the lounge but meant that the computer items stored in the resource centre had to be moved. They lived on and under the kitchen table for weeks before going under the house. The still are waiting sorting by Hubster and hopefully rehoming to folks who could use them. But the longer they sit, the older and more out of date they become. Some of his old hoarder habits come up from time to time. sigh.

Fixing teen 2's tiny bedroom and relocating the shelf to the resource centre solved some problems ... and created further problems.

Small space looking awfully squishy and not quite working.

The Low shelf with the photo albums is on the left.
In the corner is the shelf with stationery on the bottom and the printer on top.
Next is our girl's shelf.
On the far right is our book shelf.
In front is the trolley with stationery.

We used to have an office where all the office type stuffs were stored.  Now they are spread over several rooms and none of it quite works.
The filing cabinet is in the kitchen - why? because that is the only place where it fitted.

It highlights for me several inter-linked space / storage matters.

When we moved here I bought a large ten seater dining table which we restored and is now smack in the middle of our large eat in kitchen.

I both love and hate this table.  Love it 'cause it fits lots of people around it. Hate it 'cause it is too big for general family life, invites stuff to get dumped on it and blocks off too much of the usable space.

The following pics show both our kitchen and the big table in use at a recent gathering of my family - my parents, sisters, respective spouses and children.

looking towards the stove end of the kitchen

 looking towards the useless pantry end with the doorway to the previously named resource centre.

Just in case you missed it ... the spaces in my home don't quite work. ;)

So I have added more tasks to my already too long project list and am feeling a little overwhelmed and under financed. There are things that need to happen in order for the next thing to happen. And so on. I am trying to plug away - at a snail's pace moving towards solving each issue.  In the meanwhile I am living in a messy chaos.

And I have confirmed yet another thing about myself... I don't live with chaos easily. My old pattern is to get stuck in to resolve it. I can't do that any more. I am learning to live with the tension, but not doing it easily either.