Don't think I'm going to make my deadline, but at least I have pictures.

*Every cancelled check and check blanks for bank account that we closed 26 years ago before we got married.


*My metal Pinocchio lunch box from grade school.


*The test results from Hopper's DNA karyotype that changed our lives so completely 21 years ago.


*Unopened Sesame Street and Highlights For Kids magazines from 15 to 18 years ago.


*Card from Hubster's grandmother from 1997. It still had the $5 she sent for us to buy ice cream in it. We did.


*Birthday card from Hopper's 4th birthday from her uncle that still held the $5 he sent her. That was 17 years ago.


*Box from mug Hubster and Bugster got me for my birthday when I was expecting Hopper. Mug said, "I Y my job like I Y having my finger slammed in the car door." with an adorable note from Hubby on the inside flap.


*The beginning lines of a story Bugster started to write when she was about 10. "There was a boy named Jack, who didn't know the difference between a Life Saver and a nickle. He was a very lonely little boy." And that's where it ended. I would have loved to have read more.


*Bugster's beginning music book for French Horn and her beginning, intermediate and Christmas music books for flute.


*Plastic glasses from a comedy show we saw in our first year of marriage.


*The boxes from Hopper's first set of hearing aides.


*The assembly instructions for the wheelchair Scooter used until she was 7.


These are just some of the many, many things I've found in the boxes of paperwork I've sorted through the last couple of days. 


I set a goal to get through all the boxes of paperwork in the study before the end of September, but I'm not sure, if I'm going to make it or not. The whole situation with Scooter set me back a bit, so I will probably have to be okay with finishing up in October instead.

After

And just so you don't have to go searching for the before picture, or clicking on a link to see it, I've uploaded it below.

Before. 

In the meantime, I can see the back wall of the study where the boxes were stacked 3 deep and all the way to the ceiling. The first row is completely gone, and the second row no longer reaches the ceiling, but I still have a long way to go. 


I sent 4 more bags of shredables out the door this morning after sending 7 bags out yesterday for a total of 25 grocery bags of preshredded for the month of September. I've also sent 4 huge black contractor bags of trash out that consisted of paperwork I could throw.


I've been able to let go of things I've hung onto for years in the hope that I would eventually fix them. The most liberating of these items has to be the story books that were torn up. I always felt such a huge obligation to repair them to the best of my ability and practically laminate each page with tape, so they couldn't tear them again. I did manage to do this a few times with some of the books over the years, but more often than not, they were just tossed in a box. I am sure some of the missing pieces of pages I never found ended up in someone's digestive track somewhere along the way. I didn't check too closely.


I'm just glad that I was finally able to dispose of them guilt-free. 


I've come to the conclusion that I'm not responsible for everything that goes wrong. It's not my job to fix it all. I don't have to save everything associated with our children's lives to be a good mom. 


It's better to throw it away than to throw my life away worrying about it. 

Progress in pictures. Part 1.

K helped me a lot over the last 10 days or so. Over the next few days, I will be posting pictures of some of the projects we worked on. The first project was part of my craft area. The Hubster and I got a couple of really pretty oak cupboards on Craigslist for an unbelievably low price of $100 each about a year ago. I knew the moment I saw them that I wanted them for the craft area.

They were solid oak and had been used in some sort of a medical situation. The shelves and drawers all had labels inside. I peeled off labels that said anything from 'adult diapers', to 'chux pads' and 'catheters', knowing I would replace those labels with labels of my own. I'm really looking forward to healing enough from the surgery that I can start sorting my craft supplies and putting them in their places. It will be fun to get it all put away and labeled according to how I want it labeled.

After all the caulking and painting in the family and workout rooms were finished, The Hubster helped me move the craft cupboards in the place we had in mind for them the moment I saw their picture online. We had bought some solid oak shelves that were darker in color than the cabinets to put between them but we weren't sure how we were going to mount them. We had a few options.

We could try to install those metal shelf bracket things on the wall between the cabinets and make them adjustable. The problem with that, though, was that the only stud between the cabinets fell in the center. We were concerned that the weight of the shelves and contents would be enough it would pull the thing out of the drywall, if we used drywall anchors. So that option was off the table.

We figured we could use metal brackets. We'd screw the brackets into the shelving and into the sides of the cupboards, but that gets expensive. We'd need 16 screws and 4 brackets for each shelf. And while we could weather the expense the problem really comes with having 4 screw holes in each cupboard for each shelf we put up.

I decided on the last option. I took a 1x2 and cut it into 10" pieces and screwed them on the sides of the cupboards. Using my grandfather's level, we made sure the shelves were straight and then put the other furring strip on the other cupboard. It all went smoothly with K's help, but the color of the 1x2s really stuck out. It wouldn't work at all. So I took the Old English to them, and they looked like they were part of an overall unit. It was perfect!
As you can tell in this picture, the boards looked like they were meant to be a part of a bigger piece of furniture. And of course, I had to have my grandfather's level in the photo. He would have been so proud of me for not being too intimidated to do the work I've done just, because I'm a girl. That makes me really happy. Just like using his level.

This is how they looked when we were all done...I am so ready to start using them! I'm so very happy with how they turned out, and I look forward to many years and many hours of crafting with my girls down there.

And as hard as it was at the time that the pipe burst and flooded our basement, it's one of the best things that has ever happened to us.

I am thankful for that blessing in disguise.

Very. Very. Thankful.

Of logs and meadows, crown moulding and stripes. Oh. And pictures to boot.

I'm tired tonight, but I'll sleep like a log. A very restful log with moss growing on it in the shade of a warm and sunny meadow.

I worked for twelve hours in the basement today. My elbow has rug burn on it from having to paint the caulking that bled into the paint above the baseboards. We tried using clear caulking, but it didn't look like we'd used it at all once it dried, and where we could see it, it turned yellow. So we had to go with white instead. The only problem was that it bled into the green.

Bugster and Frank came over last night and volunteered to help out. They helped with some of the touch up painting that needed done, and I'm so very grateful for the extra hands! Bugster painted the bottoms of the dark stripes where they meet the baseboards, and Frank painted the tops of the crown moulding where it met the ceiling, because the caulking dulled the finish of the paint. It was really obvious when the light shone on it just right, and it would have driven me nuts, so it was nice having it done.

You can see in the picture how crisp and clean the top of the wide stripe to the left looks compared to the other two stripes. That's the difference it made to cover up the caulking that bled into the paint. And as time consuming as it was, it was so worth doing. It makes the entire room look so much better.

So while Bugster worked on the bottom of the stripes last night, I worked on finishing up the light green stripes today, doing both the top and bottom of those that weren't finished yesterday. I also did the entire workout room today. It took several hours, but I'm so glad it's done.

The workout room is as done as it's going to be until next Spring, when we can get the oak door with the windows in it stained and hung. If we have time before my surgery, we'll put the trim around the windows, but I'm okay, if we don't get to it. The rest of the workout room is done, and it's nice to have it out of the way.

The corner boxes were a bit harder to deal with. And although this picture isn't the best, you can get an idea of how they look before and after, with the left side being the before and the right being the after. I'll post more pictures later on. I just wanted to get these up to show what we did today. One other thing we did today was finish covering the television cable, so it blended in better than just having a black cable line hanging down the wall. Most of it will be covered by the bookshelf/entertainment center, but I still wanted it to look nice. We may not always use that bookshelf as an entertainment center. We used some white plastic cable covers that we'd gotten a year ago. The cable originates upstairs on the far wall, goes through the floor upstairs, through the ceiling downstairs, and is hidden under the crown moulding until it comes out at the opposite end of the family room. I love the fact that it's not on the floor with us having to trip over it or try to hide it behind furniture. And while it's a bit of an optical illusion and looks like we have a raised board in the edge of that section of wall, we're pleased with how it looks.

I'm hoping we'll finish up the family room and hallway completely tomorrow. I'd love to get the cubbies hung up above the refrigerator and stove tomorrow, but it will be fine, if it doesn't happen. Once we're done downstairs, I'll be able to concentrate on getting the kitchen and living room cleaned up again. It has been sadly neglected while I've worked downstairs, but it will be done in time for us to enjoy Thanksgiving together around the table.

Tonight?

I have a date with a warm meadow and a little bit of shade.

Of fibro and pictures and teeth.

I had a day with bits of productivity, but I didn't feel like I got enough done. Granted, I rarely feel like I've gotten enough done, even when I've been productive, but I think aches and pains make it worse. And I'm hurting tonight.

I strained my back last night when the pipe sprung a leak. I had to clear the shelves that sat under the leak of the things that were sitting on them. The top shelf had an 18 quart electric turkey roaster. Unfortunately, the water had leaked through the cardboard box and had filled it part way. I'm not sure how many gallons of water were in there, but there were a couple or three at least. And while that might not seem like a lot of water, it weighs quite a bit when it's on the top shelf, and I'm in a hurry to get it down from over my head, because the plumber is on his way, and hubby hadn't made it back to the house yet.

After the girls got home from school, we ran over to my friend's house (the same friend who gave me the little dresser and hutch some years ago) to take some baking dishes back to her. She gave me a tour of her house and showed me all the projects they have in the works. She and her husband do an amazing job at renovations, and I love talking to her about what they have planned. I love seeing the picture she paints in my mind, and even though I can see what it is they're doing in my mind's eye, I'm always so pleasantly surprised when I see the reveal. They always do a better job than I can even imagine. They are absolutely amazing!

Before I went over to her house, my back was hurting from what I did to it yesterday, but I felt pretty well overall. Tonight, however, my fibromyalgia is in overdrive. I hurt from head to toe, and I think it could have to do with being around her dogs. I wasn't around them a lot. I only sort of pet one on it's head, but it was apparently enough to make me ache all over. I'm going to take some Benadryl before going to bed in a few minutes. I'm thinking, if the firbro flare is from my allergy to dogs that it might help. I guess I'll know tomorrow.

Yesterday, Sherry C. commented: Those looks great! Your always working so hard keep it up. Your house looks great in the photos can't tell you have any clutter must be a thing of the past now.

Unfortunately, I'm just really good at taking pictures with as little clutter showing in said pictures. I've had years of practice. Still, the basement is still mostly empty, and we're doing everything we can not to add to what's already there until we have a place for everything, so things can be put in their place immediately upon unpacking them. There are boxes of movies and books downstairs that need to be unpacked and put away, but we need to get some things done before we can do that. I'm hoping it will happen in the next few weeks. I guess we'll see.

Scooter's room is still looking good since I finished it up 5 months ago. It is in horrible need of a paint job and some decorating, but it's still clean and sparse. I'm thrilled with it. The porch is also still in amazing shape, and like I wrote the other day, I've got my very own little workshop out there now that the tarps have been hung and it's somewhat weatherproofed. So the progress we have made hasn't come undone, but the house still looks like it threw up in several rooms. It seems the rooms we live in look the worst, because they're the first to get messed up, if our attention is elsewhere. And with the painting projects and such, our attention has definitely been elsewhere lately.

I had finally gotten enough courage to post before and after pictures of the porch and Scooter's room, but my camera battery is dead. Of course. And for the life of me, I can't seem to find the charger. I'm hoping to borrow Bugster's, since we have the same kind of camera. It may take awhile to get the pictures up, but it will happen. As embarrassing as the before pictures are, I'm proud of the after pictures, and I need to allow myself to feel good about what I've accomplished so far.

I'm off to bed. Tomorrow's going to be a long day with Hopper having to go to the dentist. It's always a very stressful thing for everyone.

I hope she does okay and isn't too scared.

Just a typical day. And pictures.

Woke up this morning to Scooter having gastrointestinal difficulties. She stayed home from school, took some Immodium AD and rested. She was feeling better by this afternoon but still tired. Not sure, if she'll go to school tomorrow or not.

Made an appointment for Hopper to go into see the dentist. She broke a crown. Not a porcelain crown, but a silver one! I would think it would be difficult to break a big old chunk out of a metal crown, but I'm thinking there's a good chance that the teeth grinding that happens at night may have contributed to it. We take her in Wednesday to show them that there is no way they'll be able to work on her in the chair and will instead have to put her under general anesthesia to get her dental work done. We're hoping the surgery will be as soon as next week.

Finished up on the last of the paperwork today for the refinancing. Looks like we'll be closing this week. It will be nice to have it out of the way. Really looking forward to saving a bit of money each month, too. You know. Just in case we need it...

For instance like today when I thought I heard water running, went into the laundry room, and noticed water all over the floor. And all over the ceiling. A pipe had sprung a leak. We now have a neatly repaired pipe and our credit card balance is $320 higher than it was this morning. It could be worse. It could have happened in a room that didn't have an unfinished ceiling and a drain in the floor.

On a good note, I finished up the painting today. I think. I have a little left in my tray that I'm not going to toss out just yet. I'll wait until the current coat on everything is dry and then use what's left for touch up - just in case something needs it. The headboard and footboard may need a little more. I guess I'll find out soon enough.

I took a few pictures today...

To the left is the bookshelf turned entertainment center I've been painting.

To the right is the dresser and hutch I've been working on the last few weeks.

We got the bookshelf at a local catalog store that was going out of business for less than $25. I can't remember, if we paid $20, or if we paid $24 for it. Whatever it was, it wasn't much.

The dresser and hutch were given to me by a dear friend years ago. They were in desperate need of a new paint job, and I have to admit I love how they turned out! This would so go in my kitchen, if I had the room. I'm not sure, if I'll be using it to store games or tea party dishes or both, but it will be used. I still have to make little curtains for it or add glass to the doors.

This is what the wall looks like with them on it. We haven't installed the door to the workout room yet. It will obviously be in between these two pieces. It will be a light oak, and it has 15 little windows in it. It's one of the next projects. I just have to finish up the doors first. I'm hoping to stain it soon.


So there you have it. More pictures to come in the next day or two. You know. When I have enough time.

Hopefully.

Ha.

Shiner.

Scooter came out of the bedroom looking like she'd gone a round or two with Mike Tyson this morning. We're not 100% sure what happened, since she's non-verbal, but we're think she or Hopper accidentally opened the shutters in her bedroom right into her face.


She had this silly smirk on her face whenever it was mentioned. She likes the attention!

The scrape above her eye is right on top of a permanent bump on her forehead. When she gets mad, she hits herself out of frustration. She has a matching bump on the back of her right wrist. She's had the bumps since she was 2.. Thankfully, she doesn't hit herself nearly as much as she used to. It is so hard to see it happen and have no idea how to stop it.

That's the big story of the day.

The next biggest story of the day?

I finished the porch.

At least all the sorting and purging is done. We still have to wash all the 18 gallon and 2 gargantuan totes that were on there that got so dirty over the years. We also have to dislodge the mud that is caked in the gutter on the awning over the porch/patio. It's not quite an awning, but it's also not your typical shingled roof, either. And there is caked mud in the gutter part of it.

We're not sure how we're going to clean it out, because it's at such a horrible angle it's hard to get our fingers in there. We're wondering, if we can clean it out with a pressure washer. It's a possibility, so we're hoping we can borrow one from somebody. If not, we can always rent one at a home improvement store.

My friend's boys came over today and helped clean and paint the cast iron bases for some tables that had been stored out there for several years. They were a bit rusty and somewhat dull. First they scrubbed the rust off with a wire brush. Then they painted them. I can't get over how much better they look!

All 3 of these tables will be in my craft and sewing area downstairs once we get them finished. I'll have them in an L shape or all 3 against the wall. It's just going to be so nice to have such a large area to work! You can see the underside of the table tops up against the house in the first picture.



I'm not sure yet, if I'll be painting the table tops or not. Two of them are already painted in a checkerboard pattern, but the paint is dull and faded. If anything, I may just paint over the existing paint. I need to decide pretty quick, if I'm going to get these done, so we can put them downstairs this weekend.

Oh. And the stack of chairs you see in the background of the second picture? They came with the tables. Only 2 per table, which is sort of odd. They're on my list of future projects. They'll need repainted and reupholstered.


Some day.

Help! I don't like hum a dity!

The humidity has been horrible today. We've had heavy rains off and on and just a general thickness to the air. I don't like it when it's muggy. It makes it harder to breathe. Add the cold we have on top of it, and yeah. I'll just be glad when the sun dries up the humidity. Hopefully tomorrow. And I really am thankful for the rain. We needed it desperately. It just doesn't take much moisture in the air to feel like it's too much when one lives in a steppe climate.

Ok. I'm done with my whine. I've already finished my cheese. So..onto other business...

In spite of the humidity and overall blechness to the day, we got a little bit accomplished. The hubster and I finally installed all the light fixtures we bought almost a year ago for the basement. In fact, we just finished. They look so nice! They have an iron vine design that wraps around the light fixture. We got 5 fixtures plus a lamp all in the same design for less than $150 last summer. They were being clearanced at one of the local hardware stores, and we'd already decided that was the style we wanted, so we were thrilled when they went on sale so cheap. They should have cost us right at $300 total. It was a nice little savings for us.

Eventually, I'll get a picture up. Right now, though, I'm going to go relax with my wonderful husband and my trusty heating pad.

The powdered sugar has been retired to the freezer for when we need it again. Thankfully, my knee is back to normal.

Nothing tossed. Lots gained.

My eyes feel gritty and like they're full of sawdust, even though I was using goggles like a good girl when we were using the table saw downstairs today. I wore a mask, too. No sense in breathing in minute particles of MDF boards.

We were able to install the rest of the crown moulding today. Feeling very good about that! We have gaps in a couple of places, because we didn't do mitered corners. Instead, we bought little corner blocks like these, because we were too intimidated to try to cut the right angles and such. The blocks we used were like the ones in the bottom two pictures. In retrospect, I think we could probably have done it, but we really like the look of the corners the way they are, so we're happy this was the route we chose.

The thought would be that we'd only have to make a straight cut, and push the moulding up to the edges of the blocks so we didn't have to do any intricate cuts. The only problem with this logic is that our walls and ceiling are so not square! As a result there are gaps between the wall and the boxes in a few corners and a few more rather large gaps between the crown moulding and the corner blocks. We'd measure. We'd measure again. We'd cut. It wouldn't fit. The piece would be too long. So we'd shave a little off only to end up with a gap in the end. We realized after most all of it was installed that it had to do with the corners being out of square, and if we slid them in at an angle we could have them match almost perfectly.

At least we figured out how to patch the gaps today. It took several cuts to get the right width, but we just cut some slivers of crown moulding until we got the right size to stick in place. Once it was smoothed over with a little wood putty and painted, you can't even tell where it was patched. Finishing things up with a little bit of caulking, and the crown moulding looks like it's been there since the house was built. Well...about a 10' section of it does. Can you guess what I'll be working on this week?

Our oldest came over today and helped out. She took the Christmas tree down and put the decorations away. The corner of the living room looks bare, though. It's the first it's been empty in 16 months. No. Between the flooding basement, sewer problems and illnesses I'm ashamed to admit that we had not taken the Christmas tree down in over a year. I am beyond thrilled that it's down now, though!

While we didn't get quite as much done as we were hoping for (the treadmill and the pull-up machine are still where they were when I blogged last night), I'm satisfied with what we got done. I'm actually quite motivated. I know I'll be able to finish up filling the holes with wood putty and the caulking this week on my own. If I can also stain the door before Saturday, we should be able to get that installed and finish the baseboards next weekend. We have to wait for the final cuts on some of the baseboards until the door is installed and the trim is up, but it's finally starting to look somewhat finished. We even hid the cable for the television behind the crown moulding and in a channel coming down the wall. I'll paint it the same color as the wall, and it won't be nearly as noticeable as an ugly black cable would have been.

I know it's supposedly a no-no to put crown moulding in a basement. It supposedly makes the room look shorter, but we don't see that at all. Our basement is only 7.5' tall to begin with, and somehow the crown moulding seems to draw the eyes up, and the ceiling doesn't feel as short. It's also supposedly a no-no to put anything but the short 2.5" baseboards in a basement. We say pshaw! We went with the 5", and it looks great! I'll try to post pictures when we're finished.

No. I didn't get the last few papers filed from the empty box. I was distracted by the work we were getting done downstairs. I will do it tomorrow for sure when I'm taking a break and getting reacquainted with my heating pad.

Please make sure to ask me, if I actually got them done tomorrow! I need the accountability! :)

Pass the oxygen please.

13 x 14 x 16. That's the size of the box that has NO more room in it that holds paperwork that has been tossed into the filing cabinet and not filed. When I pulled the drawer out to take a picture, I almost tipped this very heavy filing cabinet over, because it was so full. My task for today is to sort and file all the papers in the box. Maybe tomorrow, too. We'll see how much I can get done tonight. I've already been working on it several hours, and I haven't made as big a dent in it as I'd like.

So..my fingertips are splitting from working with the paper, my nose is stuffy, and my eyes are overly dry and puffy. Yep. I'm thinking there's still dog dander in this here room! You know, I'm really anxious and excited to get this all done, because when I am, we can clean the air ducts out, and I won't be having problems with my allergies/asthma then. I really do look forward to that!

I'm frustrated at not being able to get a definitive answer on how long to save my taxes though. I'd looked it up and most places said 4 to 7 years. When I started to tear some of the taxes up from the year we bought the house, I thought I'd triple check. That's when I saw something else that said tax records should be kept indefinitely. :::sigh::: I dug the pieces out of the bag of shreadables and put them back in the file. I won't tape them back together until I know, if I really do need to keep them, but I also won't put them in the bag of shreadables, either.

I figure I've got a couple of hours to work on this before I go to bed, so I suppose I should get going on it. I won't really see the progress on this once I'm done, because the drawers will be closed, but I'll see it in my mind. :) I have to get this organized in order to finish the rest of the paperwork in the house. It will give me some breathing room.

I'm ready to breathe easier - both literally and figuratively!

But I don't WANT to look at the big picture!

So I did it. I took the 'before' pictures today. The whole time I was taking them, I thought I was going to get sick to my stomach. I cringed with every click of the camera, but I know that I need to do this, so I have a record from where I've come, that I may never go there again. But it was HARD!

While taking the pictures, I heard myself making excuses again. That this, that and the other thing wouldn't be as bad, if only: I had help. I didn't live with 3 other people with hoarding tendencies. I had been well the last couple of years. I hadn't hurt my back. I hadn't been in such deep grief after losing my dad and my nephew within 5 months of one another less than 3 years ago just months after our youngest had a spinal fusion. If only.

And while there may be truth in each of the excuses, it doesn't excuse the mess I'm/we're/the house is in. I do have a couple of more pictures to take, but I already took the SD card out of the camera. I just can't look at them. Not right now. Maybe when I'm all done with things, but not right now. And I won't be posting them anytime soon, either. I'm not there yet.

However, I am elbow deep in a box of paperwork that's 18" x 18" x 24". Yes. It's a huge box, and it doesn't even touch the total amount of paperwork I've still got to sort. But I'm sorting it now, because I need to get the box out of here. It's slow going, but it's going. I'm over half-way done, and I will get through it tonight. It's already resulted in 2 grocery bags of shreadables, a half a bag of trash, and several newspapers to the recycle box.

I have to remember to not look at the big picture too often. It's a bit too daunting.

But I will keep my eye on the prize.

I needed a break.

Took the day off today and took the girls out to spend their Christmas money. It was nice to take a little break, but I swear shopping can be more exhausting than de-hoarding!

I've decided to take before and after pictures, but I'm not sure when, or if I'll post them. My friend, Ami, had a good idea. She suggested that I take the pictures and just not look at them again until I'm finished. That maybe I'll be ready by then to face what things really looked like in my house. I like that idea. Maybe I'll be ready to post before and after pictures when I come to the end of my journey.

So my husband cleared off one of his SD cards for me today. I'll take the before pictures tomorrow and then label the SD card and put it away until I'm finished with my de-hoarding extravaganza. I think it will be best. I won't be stressed by not having before pictures, but I also won't be stressed with having them posted here before I'm ready.

Right now, I'm ready for bed. :) Sorta hurt my back with the triple back somersault the other night, so tonight, I'll try a belly flop instead!