Tuesday, November 12, 2013

GRATITUDE TUESDAY: PAINTING AND ORGANIZING

Gentle Readers . . . and Maxwell,

A lot has happened with the painting and organizing Favorite Young Man and I have started in my little house. I'm grateful for the good and the bad.

First, I must admit I seldom remember to take BEFORE pictures, so I guess the AFTER pictures are less striking.

Let's start with the entry to my house. I remembered to take the BEFORE pictures here:



So dull and bland, don't you think? Then Favorite Young Man painted. Instead of calling this area the entry, I think it now deserves to be called the foyer. When Willy Dunne Wooters first saw it, he said, It's so bright and cheerful.

I agree completely.


I have three large shelves in my bathroom. I organized the bottom two. Take my word for it, they looked quite pitiful before.


Sadly, I didn't take photos of the kitchen before Favorite Young Man painted it. It was kind of a pea green. It didn't look right with white cabinets and the white tile back splash and black counters. You can see only a sliver of its beautiful new red paint in the following photo. I took this shot mostly so you can see what I'm up against in the kitchen. Kitchen, you are on notice: You're being organized. Also, you can see a bit of these cubby hole thingies that are on two sides of a corner cabinet. I've never been able to figure out what they're for, so I had something cutesy – such as my miniature Tupperware – in the front of each one. It was wasted space.


The cubby hole thingies are now organized. It's the one part of the kitchen that's finished, other than the paint. The thingies now hold stuff like mugs, salt and pepper shakers, a butter dish, oven mitts, yada.


Now, here's the tale of the bad thing that happened over the weekend, but I'm grateful that I discovered it before it got worse.

I have a "linen" closet in the hall near the extra bathroom – the bathroom that's for everybody except me. I'm very territorial about my bathroom – the mistress bath. I seldom get anything out of the hall closet. It held extra linens and some large kitchenware. As part of the kitchen reorganization, I knew that the closet had to be organized and relieved of its kitchenware. Kitchen stuff belongs in the kitchen.

On Saturday while Willy Dunne Wooters was watching college football, I decided to take everything out of the hall closet. I found a problem quite quickly: two holes in the wall on one side and droppings all over the closest shelf.

Willy Dunne Wooters checked it out and said, Oh, some little mice got in there.

I said, You're just trying to make me feel better. A rat has been in that closet, and his name is not X.

I had to throw out some papers I'd stored in the closet because they were covered in rat poop. I felt sick when disposing of these items. It's not that I needed the papers. It's that A RAT HAS BEEN IN MY HOUSE! I'm very surprised, but very grateful, that it did not make its way down to the bottom of the closet and run out from under the door to search for food and water. Perhaps it sensed the presence of the dogs.

I looked online to find out how to plug the holes in the wall. The next day Willy Dunne Wooters and I made a trip to Lowe's for supplies, and Willy Dunne Wooters plugged the holes while I cooked dinner.

I'm in the process of washing all the linens that were in the closet. As they come out of the dryer, I fold them and organize them nicely in the closet.

Willy Dunne Wooters thinks a rat came up from the crawl space into the area where the plumbing is for the public bathroom and then chewed the holes so he could take a look at the closet.

I'm very grateful for Willy Dunne Wooters' help, and I'm going to post a sign for the rats:


That's right, rats. Calmly remove yourselves from the crawl space under my house and get the hell out of here. Otherwise, Harper will dispose of you, and believe me, you won't like it.

So that's where we stand, or sit, or lie, depending on how tired we are. I'm grateful to Favorite Young Man for painting. I'm grateful I discovered the problem in the closet before it got worse (and I'll be checking that closet regularly for new holes). I'm grateful to Willy Dunne Wooters for helping out with the repairs to the closet and for trying to help me feel better.

I'm just a big ole bundle of gratitude.


Infinities of love,

Janie Junebug

P.S. This post is #997. I haven't worked on the giveaway yet. Haven't had time, what with the rat invasion.


25 comments:

  1. Love the blue foyer! You've been busy cleaning, too. So sorry about your rat visitor. I hope that is the last you see of it. If none of the linens were chewed up then it wasn't there long. Good. That is something to be thankful for. Glad Willy was helpful, too. :)

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    1. I think it's very odd that the rat must have come and gone so quickly. He didn't chew on anything. I'm glad you like the foyer.

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  2. Woo HOO! You're using COLOR, honest-to-goodness color! I can't wait to see your finished kitchen. Red is my favorite color, but I've never had the cojones to paint an entire room red. Yet. Most of the house is in paler shades of green and pineapple upside down cake, (Cool name for the color, eh? Perfect description of it, too.) but I painted one bathroom an electric blue. (Rather startling, but I like it.) Now you've got me intrigued with the idea of painting a room red. (If people don't like it, they don't have to go in there...)

    Glad you discovered the rodent entry points before they got too comfortable in your house. When we removed the two enclosed steps from the kitchen to our family room, we discovered a bedding area. Ewwwww! Made me sick to think those nasty things were breeding in there at one time, so I know how you feel.

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    1. I have no plans to sell this house, so why should I be stuck with neutral colors? I'm living here till my cold dead body gets dragged out. I'll keep a few rooms in their light colors, but for the most part, I'm going bold and bright. Thank you for your empathy regarding the invasion. It IS sickening to think of them in our houses, doing nasty rat things.

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  3. Those darn rats! I hope they at least liked the new paint job (which by the way, looks very nice!).

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    1. They didn't see the paint, thank heavens. They didn't get that far.

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  4. Foyer is a very appropriate upgrade for it! I love the colors and your kitchen looks terrific. I am so glad you found the ugly visitor before it got any further. Ugh! Hate those things!

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    1. Thank you. It's so upsetting just knowing it or they were in my house. This house is mine. It belongs to doggies and me. I left Illinois so I would never see a big rat again.

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  5. Is that a candle box in he first photo?

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    1. I've never known what it is. My mother gave it to me years ago. What's a candle box?

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  6. I also love the colors you have chosen. And i agree completely about being so skeeved regarding the rodent invasion. Because that's what it is, an invasion, violation of space.

    I live in an old house, and the oldest part has a stone foundation, so rodents find their way in down cellar. Shudder. Fortunately, one of the cats, Phoebe, thinks it's her mission to patrol down cellar, and she does a fine job of it. Two mice decided to try living upstairs, but she found them and killed them. She's always been built for comfort and prefers this indoor hunting option that wasn't available at the other house.

    There's some stuff called "Fresh Cab" that you can put in the linen closet. It's got mostly balsa fir in it, and it's supposed to repel rodents. I put it in the upstairs place where i suspect the mousies were, and have not seen any since. Neither has Phoebe, and she checks on a regular basis.

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    1. I read that Bounce fabric softener sheets repel rodents. I might give them a try. I've never seen Fresh Cab.

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  7. Enjoyable post! I love the blue. When I had mice, I was embarrassed about it. Then I talked to others, and eveyone's got 'em.

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    1. The first time we had mice in Maryland, we found out that everyone in our neighborhood had them.

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  8. That blue in the foyer is such a bold choice---and a great one! Favorite young man did a very nice job. And I looove that strip of red I see in your kitchen. I'll bet you love those cubbies now - cute & functional.

    The rats....yeah focus on all those things to be grateful about. That would've been horrible if they'd come into the main house! Good thing Franklin & Co. are on patrol.

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    1. I don't think Franklin would kill anything, but Harper will–gladly.

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  9. Get a cat... a big cat. The love McRats for lunch. With winter coming on, the rats will be inside more and birthing more rats. You might need a professional or a shotgun.

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    1. I think I'll go with a shotgun. hahahahahahahahahahaha

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  10. I LOVE the blue & red!! at one time, Our house is all off-white, but at one time I was going to paint a 1 foot wide red diagonal stripe on one living room wall. I chickened out because I preferred a white wall to a divorce!!

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    1. I'd like to go all Jackson Pollock on a wall, but Favorite Young Man says no. I think a red stripe would be ab fab.

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  11. Rats! Yuck. But I'm proud of you for introducing bold color to your home. Changes like this can be hard but I think the results look great.

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    1. I have no difficulty introducing bold colors. It's Favorite Young Man who balks, and he doesn't even live here.

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  12. The foyer looks awesome and I'm busting out laughing at your new rat sign!!!!

    -andi

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    1. No sign of a return, so I guess the sign works.

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  13. Whether you want the whole home painted, just interior, exterior, or even just a section of the property, painters sydney provide a painting service that adds an extra element of colour and style to your home.

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