Okay, this is Window Week. This includes clearing cobwebs from around the corners, inside and out, washing the panes, painting the frames, and washing or cleaning curtains/blinds. Who's up for it? I guess we can each start with our own windows and work our way around the house to the common room windows.
Sounds like a great plan... now if only I can convince myself and everyone else who's around...
Monday, June 2, 2014
Saturday, May 10, 2014
Yep, I did it!
Wow! It wasn't even as hard as I thought it would be... the study is all cleared out, as is the upstairs landing and best of all, the "bodega" is spacious once again, for awhile, at least! Plus being able to give things away was great! On to the next task... MY ROOM!!!!
The bodega, all in order
The upstairs landing... room to move
My study, all boxed up right and with floorspace!
Thursday, May 1, 2014
Oh Dear! but HEY, I CAN DO THIS!
Oh dear... I've let a whole month go by... am I starting to fall into my Sagittarian pattern of dreaming big, but producing negligible results, having gung-ho start-offs that end up petering out along the way?
I hope not! I've already seen myself battling these tendencies over the last couple of weeks in different aspects of my life... but I've managed to NOT let myself get completely off-track in those areas, so I'm hopeful that I can also get back to work on the house - as of today! We have a looong weekend so it's a good time for such optimism!
About the above-mentioned aspects that I had let slide a bit:
my yoga-aerobics-whatever... I kept putting it off for over a week, but this morning I did it!
I skipped painting class last week (mainly because of an extremely heavy workload over the last few weeks, which led to too little sleep, which in turn made concentration on details in painting difficult), but I'm hoping to go today and tomorrow to make up for the missed class, if my teacher will let me.
And last week, in an effort to stop letting things slide I finally started swimming! I had been saying I was going to do so for MONTHS; I realize it's going to be just one more thing I'll have to make myself continue with probably... but it's only twice a week, and I love being in the water, so hopefully that will be enough to keep me going..
Soooo, getting back to the house... today, I'm looking at things and thinking: Hey, I can do this! I'm pulling in the reigns on all this deviation and slacking off... I've still got a heavy workload insofar as class preparation and translations, but I've also got 5 days to catch up on exercise, art classes, and (yes!) home improvements. Better get started!
But first: This picture makes me feel like I WILL do everything I need to do... Plants and flowers basking in sunlight are an uplifting sight!
But on a sobering note, here's a hint of what awaits my attention over this looooong weekend!
The upstairs landing, where there are 4 boxes waiting to get moved... plus things I haven't packed yet...
My study, where things are boxed haphazardly, which means I have to go through each box and sort out what I still need and what I can get rid of... always hard for a wishy-washy Sagittarian..
The "bodega" which is where we store things... it's so full, I'll have to get rid of stuff from there, just so I can fill it up again with stuff from the study and upstairs landing!!!!
Wish me luck!!!
I hope not! I've already seen myself battling these tendencies over the last couple of weeks in different aspects of my life... but I've managed to NOT let myself get completely off-track in those areas, so I'm hopeful that I can also get back to work on the house - as of today! We have a looong weekend so it's a good time for such optimism!
About the above-mentioned aspects that I had let slide a bit:
my yoga-aerobics-whatever... I kept putting it off for over a week, but this morning I did it!
I skipped painting class last week (mainly because of an extremely heavy workload over the last few weeks, which led to too little sleep, which in turn made concentration on details in painting difficult), but I'm hoping to go today and tomorrow to make up for the missed class, if my teacher will let me.
And last week, in an effort to stop letting things slide I finally started swimming! I had been saying I was going to do so for MONTHS; I realize it's going to be just one more thing I'll have to make myself continue with probably... but it's only twice a week, and I love being in the water, so hopefully that will be enough to keep me going..
Soooo, getting back to the house... today, I'm looking at things and thinking: Hey, I can do this! I'm pulling in the reigns on all this deviation and slacking off... I've still got a heavy workload insofar as class preparation and translations, but I've also got 5 days to catch up on exercise, art classes, and (yes!) home improvements. Better get started!
But first: This picture makes me feel like I WILL do everything I need to do... Plants and flowers basking in sunlight are an uplifting sight!
But on a sobering note, here's a hint of what awaits my attention over this looooong weekend!
The upstairs landing, where there are 4 boxes waiting to get moved... plus things I haven't packed yet...
My study, where things are boxed haphazardly, which means I have to go through each box and sort out what I still need and what I can get rid of... always hard for a wishy-washy Sagittarian..
The "bodega" which is where we store things... it's so full, I'll have to get rid of stuff from there, just so I can fill it up again with stuff from the study and upstairs landing!!!!
Wish me luck!!!
Monday, March 31, 2014
Done... or not
The month is getting away from me! It's hard for me to believe that the bathroom may actually be DONE! I always attach a tag to that, like, ...I think, or ....Almost, or....Maybe. I love when I go in there and see the way the purple curtain and purple towels go so well together and how the yellow shower curtain makes the purple details look even better! Anto doesn't agree with my feelings on this, but he's the one who installed the new sink and towel racks, etc. Lu says the sink's too high for me, but I like it like that. Sam loves the purple and yellow color-scheme, and he's the one who suggested putting the sink cabinet on blocks, as it was too low for the plumbing fixtures to fit underneath (and those fixtures are not movable).
So, I as I said, the bathroom is just about finished. I mean, it's finished, but I keep seeing little things that I still want to do... Perhaps the best way to describe the situation is to say it's a work in progress...
So, I as I said, the bathroom is just about finished. I mean, it's finished, but I keep seeing little things that I still want to do... Perhaps the best way to describe the situation is to say it's a work in progress...
Tuesday, March 4, 2014
A word about inspiration - and bathroom walls
I promised myself I would blog today. I've been trying to finish the bathroom because I wanted to post pictures, but the truth is that I haven't really finished... so I feel I shouldn't put anything up... but maybe I can treat this like a preview... you know? Because I want to put something up. I'm afraid I'll lose my momentum if I let too much time go by between posts. Look what happened to me before!
Okay, the truth is that I was incredibly depressed - in spite of trying everything I knew to pull myself out of it - going to the U.S. to start over - just for awhile - coming back and determining to get back into art, writing, languages, yet not doing much in any of those areas, then a trip to Europe, another bout of trying to psyche myself up for art, languages, writing, and failing again, a trip to the U.S. with the whole family to bring home the fact that I am blessed beyond the limits of the concept to have such a loving group of people to call family, and then...
A new year. THIS new year, and the undeniable fact that it was the house, MY house, that was depressing me so. And of course I knew it all along; I might have been trying to escape it and blame my depression on other things, but deep down I knew it was the house, so finally, finally I decided to try to do something about it... because I know that you have to BE where you ARE; if you don't like it, you can go somewhere else, but if you stay, it's with the understanding that you will make "where you are" where you want to be.
Over the past two years I have left, come back, left again for a shorter term, come back, each time hoping that NOW I would be able to get back into a good rhythm, and each time failing bacause I couldn't face the fact that I would have to make a HUGE effort to make where I AM where I actually want to BE.
Until this new year... after 2 complete years of living in limbo, a vicious circle of half-hearted hope and borderline depression... where life went on, where I tried to make myself and others believe everything was hunky-dory, but where I knew it wasn't. I didn't write, I didn't paint, I didn't study anything... I just worked and came home and watched movies, and googled everything I could think of, and tried out routines of this or that, but I couldn't make anything stick. I lacked inspiration.
And now it's starting to come back - maybe it's not quite the jumping-out-of-bed-in-the-morning thrill I used to feel each day, but it's true inspiration, nourishingly satisfying, the kind that motivates me to do more, try harder, be greater.
So when Carm said she was going to take on the LR, I thought it was only fair to take on the bathroom, and that triggered other things, like starting to study German again, for real, going back to art class, for real, blogging again, for real! Things started to balance out once again, finally, for real!
I know I should feel angry or frustrated or at least regretful about having lost my way for so long, but I don't; instead I feel happily relieved, as if all of that was inevitably leading me to what has become this HERE and NOW. I needed to get that lost in order to appreciate what I've found.
Enough with the pilosophizing...
Here are
the photos I took
of the bathroom walls...
freshly painted
with 2 coats of sheer
lighter-than-white green.
I took two pictures in the morning, and the other at night with artificial lighting. I guess that makes a difference in how the color of the walls will be perceived! But trust me, they are all the same color.
Okay, the truth is that I was incredibly depressed - in spite of trying everything I knew to pull myself out of it - going to the U.S. to start over - just for awhile - coming back and determining to get back into art, writing, languages, yet not doing much in any of those areas, then a trip to Europe, another bout of trying to psyche myself up for art, languages, writing, and failing again, a trip to the U.S. with the whole family to bring home the fact that I am blessed beyond the limits of the concept to have such a loving group of people to call family, and then...
A new year. THIS new year, and the undeniable fact that it was the house, MY house, that was depressing me so. And of course I knew it all along; I might have been trying to escape it and blame my depression on other things, but deep down I knew it was the house, so finally, finally I decided to try to do something about it... because I know that you have to BE where you ARE; if you don't like it, you can go somewhere else, but if you stay, it's with the understanding that you will make "where you are" where you want to be.
Over the past two years I have left, come back, left again for a shorter term, come back, each time hoping that NOW I would be able to get back into a good rhythm, and each time failing bacause I couldn't face the fact that I would have to make a HUGE effort to make where I AM where I actually want to BE.
Until this new year... after 2 complete years of living in limbo, a vicious circle of half-hearted hope and borderline depression... where life went on, where I tried to make myself and others believe everything was hunky-dory, but where I knew it wasn't. I didn't write, I didn't paint, I didn't study anything... I just worked and came home and watched movies, and googled everything I could think of, and tried out routines of this or that, but I couldn't make anything stick. I lacked inspiration.
And now it's starting to come back - maybe it's not quite the jumping-out-of-bed-in-the-morning thrill I used to feel each day, but it's true inspiration, nourishingly satisfying, the kind that motivates me to do more, try harder, be greater.
So when Carm said she was going to take on the LR, I thought it was only fair to take on the bathroom, and that triggered other things, like starting to study German again, for real, going back to art class, for real, blogging again, for real! Things started to balance out once again, finally, for real!
I know I should feel angry or frustrated or at least regretful about having lost my way for so long, but I don't; instead I feel happily relieved, as if all of that was inevitably leading me to what has become this HERE and NOW. I needed to get that lost in order to appreciate what I've found.
Here are
the photos I took
of the bathroom walls...
freshly painted
with 2 coats of sheer
lighter-than-white green.
I took two pictures in the morning, and the other at night with artificial lighting. I guess that makes a difference in how the color of the walls will be perceived! But trust me, they are all the same color.
Saturday, February 22, 2014
The painters and their astounding results!!
Meanwhile, this weekend is my room and the bathroom. I'll call this Part I because I'm sure there will be several parts to each of these makeovers. Today I'm clearing out stuff and moving it to the study until I decide what to do with it. I was going to do the study first, but the problem is the clutter in my own bedroom. I think it's really affecting my mental state!!! If I want to have a clear mind, I need to clear out this room!!! Okay, I'm going to start. Box 1 is already halfway filled. But do check out the painting party from last weekend. Carm and her friends really got the job done!!! Anto ended up doing a great job on the door, although I never thought he'd need to take it off the hinges to paint it! EVERYTHING LOOKS SO GREAT! THANKS TO ALL WHO PARTICIPATED!!!
Sunday, February 9, 2014
Behind the vines
Sunday, January 26, 2014
two weeks later...
... I'm not doing things in order. I seem to have a HUGE problem with getting my own bedroom in order, much less the study! HOWEVER, and thanks to helping hands from my kids and others, some things have gotten done that immensely improve the house. For example, I bought 4 new planter pots and Anto transplanted the large plants that were choking in their too-small pots; they look like they feel much better in their new homes.
The kitchen is coming along with its scrubbed and shining appliances and new dishrack. We ordered a really neat comfortable-as-anything LR set that will be ready to be picked up in about 6 weeks, during which time Carm thinks she can organize a painting party so that the whole downstairs area will be ready for new furniture (in the hopes that after the LR, we'll be able to do the DR).
I cleaned out the utility area, and the guys took all the stuff to be recycled or trashed. Then they re-roofed the outside storeroom and cleaned it out, making the space usable for bikes, garden equipment, etc.
Meanwhile, back to my task for today... MY OWN BEDROOM. I think if I can just get that done, I'll be able to move on to the study.
The kitchen is coming along with its scrubbed and shining appliances and new dishrack. We ordered a really neat comfortable-as-anything LR set that will be ready to be picked up in about 6 weeks, during which time Carm thinks she can organize a painting party so that the whole downstairs area will be ready for new furniture (in the hopes that after the LR, we'll be able to do the DR).
I cleaned out the utility area, and the guys took all the stuff to be recycled or trashed. Then they re-roofed the outside storeroom and cleaned it out, making the space usable for bikes, garden equipment, etc.
Meanwhile, back to my task for today... MY OWN BEDROOM. I think if I can just get that done, I'll be able to move on to the study.
Sunday, January 5, 2014
2014 - Will I blog more than twice this year?
Well, it wasn't one of my New Year's Resolutions to blog more, but considering what my only NY Resolution is, blogging just might make it more doable. Because my resolution is to make this year The Year of the House; that's right, a colossal home-improvement project. Daunting! Just contemplating the scope of It makes me feel like I need a cigarette, and I don't smoke anymore... As for the glass of wine I'm drinking, it's doing nothing to stop the terror of the mere IDEA of it. After all, I am only one person...
But wait! I am one person and I can do what I can do! OPTIMISM TO THE RESCUE!
According to Lu, my son, you can totally fix up your house if you take it a room at a time. One week per room. In one week, you can clean out the junk, paint the walls, and rearrange / complement your furniture, or can you? In my case, maybe not. But 2 weeks sounds feasible! On a 2-week-per-room schedule it will take 28 weeks to fix up the inside of the house, plus another 8 weeks for the outside (facade, patios, garden, garage), coming to a grand total of 36 weeks - 9 months, the time span from conception to birth.
How appropriate! How symbolic! But just in case, let's even give it another 10 weeks for unexpected setbacks. Let's say that my home-improvement project will be a done deal by Guadalupe Day (Dec. 12th), 2014. Can I live with that deadline? I'll tell you in 2 weeks, after the first room is done... or not.
Assuming that I am indeed going to do this, I would say that the room most urgently in need of improvement would be the downstairs bathroom. It's just got to go. However, in view of the fact that this is January, the month when money is at its scarcest, and in the belief that hurdles are best surmounted if you start with the easiest, it might be better all the way around if I let the first room be the study, which would only involve cleaning out the junk, rearranging the furniture, cleaning and painting the walls, ceiling, and window frame. I should be able to do that in 2 weeks with minimum cost, right? Wish me luck!
But wait! I am one person and I can do what I can do! OPTIMISM TO THE RESCUE!
According to Lu, my son, you can totally fix up your house if you take it a room at a time. One week per room. In one week, you can clean out the junk, paint the walls, and rearrange / complement your furniture, or can you? In my case, maybe not. But 2 weeks sounds feasible! On a 2-week-per-room schedule it will take 28 weeks to fix up the inside of the house, plus another 8 weeks for the outside (facade, patios, garden, garage), coming to a grand total of 36 weeks - 9 months, the time span from conception to birth.
How appropriate! How symbolic! But just in case, let's even give it another 10 weeks for unexpected setbacks. Let's say that my home-improvement project will be a done deal by Guadalupe Day (Dec. 12th), 2014. Can I live with that deadline? I'll tell you in 2 weeks, after the first room is done... or not.
Assuming that I am indeed going to do this, I would say that the room most urgently in need of improvement would be the downstairs bathroom. It's just got to go. However, in view of the fact that this is January, the month when money is at its scarcest, and in the belief that hurdles are best surmounted if you start with the easiest, it might be better all the way around if I let the first room be the study, which would only involve cleaning out the junk, rearranging the furniture, cleaning and painting the walls, ceiling, and window frame. I should be able to do that in 2 weeks with minimum cost, right? Wish me luck!
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