Two things bring out the worst in people.  Weddings, and buying/selling homes. 

I am trying so hard not to be angry right now, because really, we are almost through this house thing - but it’s so aggravating to have given a house away and still be asked for more and more and more.  With the exception of the first house we purchased, none of the others have gone well.  Bickering and griping over tiny little things is just par for the course. 

That is all. 

This is my first set of before and after pics.  I’m only posting them in sections because, well, I have only finished a couple areas of the house. 

Lots of people have said they “couldn’t do it” - meaning downsizing to the extent that I have.  Losing 2200 square feet is quite a bit and required every ounce of organizational ability I stole from years of knowing Sara.  I’m fairly proud of my work and sometimes I would go so far as to say I’m pleased as well.  My life has been simplified to an extreme degree - I can probably clean the entire house (haven’t tried yet, because I’m still unpacking) in 45 minutes.  It will take me much longer to mow the front and back yard than it will to clean the entire house. 

I’ve posted a flickr badge at the end of this post if you want to see the whole set; some people asked me where I got things, and a lot of the pictures have the specifics in the “info” section if you click on it as you are viewing the slideshow. 

So up first:  Lily and Arden’s room.  My brother, my dad and some friends helped get the painting done before the bunkbeds were assembled. I wanted their room completely done before they moved in to cut down on any sort of additional stress for them, and we got 98% of the way there. 

Before:

After:

The girls’ room presented a number of challenges, not the least of which being the closet space (basically none).  I used a stackable shoe rack, purged a bunch of their clothes, rearranged and stored things in places I hadn’t though of (like repurposing Lily’s shelf baskets as storage for under the bunkbeds) and secretly sneaking out with armfuls of stuffed animals to donate when they weren’t looking.  I love the paint colors; I took the linens from Target and picked a very pale pink and a very Granny Smith green for alternating walls.  The louvered closet doors were not only ugly as all get out but hard to open and close.  I ripped them off and hung a beaded curtain.  I’d like to say it was intentional, but I didn’t realize until the beads were up that it really didn’t give any coverage for the mess in the closet, so I added a curtain road and a sheer dotted curtain from Target over it. The result was super cute and the girls love their “sparkly” closet. 

And the picture of Thora?  Really nothing spectacular about it but she’s so cute.  And she looks so well-behaved in this picture. 

Next up:  the office.

Unfortunately, I have a lot of things for my home office that had to come with me.  I had to keep my sewing table (it’s my old, tile topped table from 1996), I had to drag my inventory, and I needed a desk.  Fitting those three things into one smallish room with a tiny little closet was challenging to say the least.  Here’s what the office looked like before:

Tiny office closet:

And now:

Closet:

My wall of inventory:

My “master” bedroom was definitely a challenge.  It had nasty carpet that smelled like a nursing home to me.  The wall color was a sickly beige contrasted against a slightly less sickly white for the louvered doors.  The blinds were cream, and plastic, and mostly broken.  It clashed horribly with the very very blue bathroom.  Someone got a peel and stick bug up their butt and decided to “improve” the blue bathroom by adding hideous tiles in completely the wrong shade of blue.  The result was as follows.

Bedroom Before:

With a lot of carpet pulling and staple removing, a bunch of paint, new blinds, curtains, and a hard look at what I really needed to keep, the end result is this:

And finally, my last set for the night. . . the dreaded master bathroom.  With one tiny light, hideous blue on white tile, decaying grout, a blue toilet with a white lid, and some bizarre looking blue sink, I cried my ass off the first night I showered in there.  It was grungy, depressing, and made me feel like I was staying in a flophouse somewhere.  Dramatic, yes, but seriously gross:

View from inside the shower - note huge door not able to really open . . .

And the afters, with tons of help from Nicole on the curtains and the overall color scheme.  Did I mention Steve ripped out the blue sink and toilet, and replaced both in the span of about 2 hours?  Yeah, he rocks.  He’s my brother, and no, you can’t have him. 

New flooring:

and the world’s best invention - a suction cup thingy to hold a hairdryer and brush!!!!

I just finished the girl’s bathroom tonight and am also done with the family room.  The screen porch has become my holding area, even though Robey and Co. made fun of me when I had them hang up my “festive” garden lights. They say it now looks like a mexican restaurant’s bar, and that’s okay with me.  More to come later - as I get finished. 

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It’s no secret that I have strong associations (and love) for music.  With the exception of screaming speed metal, I can listen to just about anything.  It started way back in 1989, when I DJ’d at a college radio station.  I took the slots they gave me - and one of them was called “The Revolving Fandango”.  It was literally a song from every genre of music one could think of.  Being 17-ish, I had no idea what to play for Blues, or Folk, or C&W, and most of the rock was alternative.  Thankfully I had some education in Jazz courtesy of my dad (he loved to drive my mom nuts with scat jazz).  I would wander around the tiny, smelly (think bean burritos, rank beer, a faint scent of urine, and something that always reminded me of moss) lovingly fingering the album covers, pulling them out and placing them on the turntables. 

Because 90% of this music was new to me, I learned A LOT about music genres and my taste buds for music became far more sophisticated than my taste buds for food.  It’s still that way. 

Along the way, music has been a backdrop for whatever I was going through in my life.  I would bond with albums and later CDs and now MP3s like lovers, depending on my mood and their staying power.  During the initial stage of my separation, I listened incessantly to Iron and Wine, Shawn Colvin and David Gray’s Draw the Line, which to this day I swear he wrote just for me. 

Nicole told me I had to listen to the new Court Yard Hounds offering.  Never a huge fan of traditional country music, I do confess to liking the Dixie Chicks.  I like them still with their lead singer on hiatus from them.  Emily Robison’s divorce obviously plays a huge part in the songwriting.  Nothing soothes my broken-down soul than other women crooning their way through their broken fairytales.  Misery indeed loves company. 

The opening song is called “Skyline” and I’ve put it right down there for you.  It’s my life, in this moment, in a nutshell.  Or an MP3 player, embedded on this site, which is way more tech savvy than a nutshell.  (or not so much, considering it took a good 30 minutes to figure out how to do this)

If you don’t feel like listening to the song (but you should), the lyrics are as follows:

What am I doin’ here
In such a lonely place?
Birds fly below
I’m high up in my cage

Wide awake again
Or am I dreamin’?
Trains passing by
World’s spinning ‘round my head

Then I heard a sweet voice cry
Telling me, yeah it’s gonna be alright

I just look at the skyline
A million lights are lookin’ back at me
And when they shine
I see a place I know I’ll find some peace
I just look at the skyline

I used to rush around
To keep busy in the day
Then we’d sit up and drink
We might find something new to say
No, I can’t live this way…

But then I heard that sweet voice cry
Telling me, yeah it’s gonna be alright

I just look at the skyline
A million lights are lookin’ back at me
And when they shine
I see a place I know I’ll find some peace
I just look at the skyline

I look at the skyline
A million lights are lookin’ back at me
And when they shine
I see a place I know I’ll find some peace
I just look at the skyline

What am I doin’ here
In such a lonely place?

In other non-divorce-related news . . .

Lily has always been fascinated with art. She’s been drawing since she could hold any type of instrument with color in it.  Her first grade class had a final project, and it was to draw the Queen of England.  Here’s her rendition:

Considering my artistic abilities consist of stick figures and lines that are never straight, I was impressed that my 7 year old is already drawing better than me.  She did it in watercolors and proudly explained that she made the “peach” color by mixing pink and yellow and a tiny bit of brown to give it just the right shade.  Arden’s teachers also tell me she’s advanced in art, but when they are your kids, it’s just the way they are.  I really try not to be like many of the moms I know, who think every little thing their child does is the BEST, most BRILLIANT, most GENIUS thing on earth.  Everyone has their talents and skills; Lily’s is definitely art and writing.  I can only take credit for the writing. 

Her first grade recognition assembly is on Thursday; she’s getting an award for something that will hopefully make sense during the presentation (it’s called something like “Appreciating Differences”) and an award for missing only 1 day of school and no tardies.  She would have had perfect attendance had I not given us all the stomach flu.  Way to go, mom!

Just wanted to give a big thanks to my parents who as self-describing themselves as “old”.  My mom planted flowers, cleaned windows, and helped unpack things.  My dad hung up blinds and did anything else I asked of him, including hauling crap to the dump that I didn’t get out in time for the regular trash pickup (major fail on my part).  My brother Steve did TONS of stuff, including teaching me how to use templates to cut peel and stick tile (it’s easy once you know how to do it).  This entire moving process has been hell and without the help of my family I wouldn’t have made it. 

I’ve given plenty of thanks to my friends because they don’t really have to help - apparently I’ve hurt my family’s feelings by not mentioning them enough.  So consider yourselves mentioned. 

Just wanted to give a big thanks to my parents who self-describe themselves as “old”.  My mom planted flowers, cleaned windows, and helped unpack things.  My dad hung up blinds and did anything else I asked of him, including hauling crap to the dump that I didn’t get out in time for the regular trash pickup (major fail on my part).  My brother Steve did TONS of stuff, including teaching me how to use templates to cut peel and stick tile (it’s easy once you know how to do it).  This entire moving process has been hell and without the help of my family I wouldn’t have made it. 

I’ve given plenty of thanks to my friends because they don’t really have to help - apparently I’ve hurt my family’s feelings by not mentioning them enough.  So consider yourselves mentioned.