How Does Your Garden Grow?

Waking up to a beautiful day after almost a week of the flu and rainy weather is enough to make anyone feel better. It feels like spring has arrived in January. I know that winter will return tomorrow but I am daydreaming about this years garden.

Marston and I enjoy gardening together. We both have lots of ideas for location, types of beds, soil preparation, varieties to plant, etc. Learning from our past mistakes and wanting to improve on our successes has been the focus of our plans. We want the new garden to be efficient, productive and fun.

In the past we have used tomato cages, stakes and string to train/provide support for the plants. We will continue to do use them but I want to spice it up some. Last year Marston wanted to replace the rusty tomato cages with new ones. I decided to give them new life with some leftover spray paint. This sounds tedious but it was easy. The result was a stack of red and a stack of yellow cages. They looked brand new and added colour interest among the green plants. This idea is definitely a keeper with plans to take it one step further. Add additional colours and use the colours to identify the type of plant. For example, we grow a lot of peppers and keeping track of what their ripe colour should be has not happened. As a result peppers often get picked when they are green instead of waiting for them to turn yellow and red. The new plan to colour coordinate the plants with cages should solve this.

The search for additional items of interest to be re-purposed for the garden has yielded a headboard and footboard of a metal bed (FREE) , and two large sections of unique hand railing ($20). The beans and cucumbers will undoubtedly love climbing their new trellises as much as I will enjoy looking at them.

Simply stack the desired number of cages one inside the other and paint. When they are dry flip them over and paint the opposite side.

Another Closet

Little progress was made today. It is day four of the flu and honestly I am ready to move past it. The final touches on the kitchen island started this afternoon and will be finished tomorrow in preparation for the counter tops being re-installed on Thursday. They had to removed and placed in storage so we could fix hurricane damage. I eagerly wait our reunion.

Closet design progress has been slow. Final plans for the Yellow Bedroom's closet are done. Meanwhile I keep re-drawing and configuring our Master Bedroom closet. The problem is that it is huge closet with hard to use space (it has two large windows in it). Not exactly what I would have planned but I am trying to make the best of it. A couple of possible designs have emerged but nothing that screams - This is it!

The good news is that another closet design has been completed. The bad news is that I created two plans for it and have to choose between the two. This bedroom would be perfect guest room or child's room. At this point some may be questioning: Why go to all this trouble for a room that may never get much use? Which is a great point but the truth is resale. Really great closets and storage spaces (along with great kitchens and bathrooms) helps sell houses. Marston says this is our last house and I hope he is right. But I am leaving all our options for resale open just in case he changes his mind.

Option 1 - Has drawers possibly eliminating the need for a dresser in the room.

Option 2 - Has lots of short rod storage and is less expensive to build than option 1.

Basically the bulk of the material will be IKEA products with upgraded hardware and a few personal touches added. To start designing your own closet system visit their website http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/categories/departments/bedroom/19086/tab/pax_planner/

Foyer Closet Design

Day three of the flu and it is cold and rainy outside. Perfect weather for curling-up with a quilt on the coach. Just me, the laptop and my two assistants (Jack & Oreo - my cats). It was the perfect time to start designing closets (all seven of them). Actually managed to finish one today and quite possibly will finish another tonight. Yeah!

The foyer closet design was created using the IKEA website and thus their products. Other items will be added, like hooks for keys and a pullout rack for scarfs. One of the nice things about moving locally is the ability to relocate "areas" from one house to the other, one at a time. Unpacking into an organized space should make getting used to the new house easier and faster. Visit http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/categories/departments/bedroom/19086/tab/pax_planner/  to plan your own IKEA closet.

River House - Foyer Closet

Operation Organization

The holidays are over and Christmas is put away. What is next? Retailers want to help us with our New Year Resolutions. The sales flyers are full of fitness and home organization products. I would argue you could do this anytime during the year but traditionally it seems like we all do it after New Years and before Easter. The secret is to get everything organized before your momentum is gone.

My mission this weekend was to put Christmas away in an orderly manner (aka the lights). The biggest deterrent to decorating the outside of our house with lights is the task of testing/repairing the lights before we can put them up. Mission accomplished. All the lights were tested and bulbs replaced as needed before each strand was individually bagged and labeled. The job was made easier with a handy testing device I purchased at Target. This was time consuming but worth it. Next year Marston will be able to select the lights he wants without the hassle of a tangled mess that needs testing. Generally my method of organizing the other Christmas items has worked, except the totes were not labelled. Lack of labeling means all the Christmas totes arrive in the house at the same time (overwhelming). Next year I will be able to select totes as I need them.

Makes finding the problem easy. Target $18.99

Operation organization moved to the garage on Sunday. Every time I walk into the garage I realize how much my husband loves me. HIS garage is full of MY stuff and I have it everywhere. Some of you are probably wondering why I am keeping extra stuff in the garage? How much stuff do I need? The majority of the space is storing furniture I have bought at auctions for the new house. Then there are those totes of collectables that did not fit in our existing home. Plus the Christmas totes. By the end of the day: Marston was able to reclaim his workbench (he is happy); some totes have been sorted and labeled; three boxes of stuff will go to charity; another box of stuff is ready to be given to new owners; and our recycle bins and garbage can are full. Operation organization is not done with the garage but progress was made.

The Cliche New Year Start-UP

Woke-up to a sunny Sunday. The spring like atmosphere inspired a long walk. It was also a way for me to avoid unloading the car full of junk I bought yesterday. Normally I cannot wait to drag it all into our patio to wash and sort it but I hesitated. I always have a project. I have ideas about everything. Unfortunately I accumulate more projects than I have time for and they pileup. The result: a few great projects get completed. Everything else remains a dream committed to wait for me in the garage.

New Year's Resolution

1.  Inventory Purchases

• Photograph treasures as they arrive. 
• Record date and purchase price as part of individual photo names.
• Allocate items to specific future projects.
• Purge items (at least annually) to make room for new finds.

2.  Project Completion

• Complete at least one project a month.

3.  The Blog

• Share trials, errors and success stories with others.
• Get help and inspiration from others when I run low on ideas/motivation.
• Accountability: What am I really doing with my time? Can this become an outlet for my talents?

It sounds simple. Yesterday's purchases were relatively few compared to my usual haul. Easy right? But for this to work I will have to evaluate the existing contents of my garage, which will be no small task. (Did I mention it is two stories of treasures?)

The goal is to have everything organized, allocated and purged before we move. Our new home is still undergoing a much needed rehab. Working with my carpenter can be a full-time job. Then there is design, purchasing and problem-solving. The objective is to have the other house completely finished before we move in.

Share the journey!

Bon Journee