Making progress, and postponing the home tour.

In case you haven't figured it out already, I've decided to wait on doing a tour of our home. We're in the midst of doing so many projects around the home, I think it'd be better to just wait until December when the vast majority of the projects will be done, though I'm itching to do my own home tour!

Anyway...

My main focus lately has been in the living room. With all the projects we have going, one thing has to be completely done before we move on to something else. (Isn't that the way projects should be done anyway?) There are some shelves in the living room that will be moving to our bedroom and the dining room, but to do that they had to be cleared off. To do that, I had to clean out the living room closet (which I honestly don't think has been done in the 11 years we've been here). It's just a never-ending cycle. I wish I could remember to take before and after pictures, because I finished the closet project today. There are actually coats in the coat closet! Who'da thunk it? Almost all of the stuff I pulled out of the closet are going to charity or in the trash. Out of all the junk I pulled out, a small box of Christmas decorations were kept. Now, the only things living in there are: our coats, space heaters, extra florescent light bulbs for the kitchen, blankets, and a set of crutches we haven't needed since 1998 but mom won't let me get rid of because they're so expensive and "What if we need them one day?" Babysteps. Mom's getting there, though.

It's so nice to finally, after all these years, be able to talk to mom about getting rid of stuff and not being met with hostility or "That cost a lot!" or "We'll need it one day!" or "What if the other 2 we have breaks?" even if we haven't used whatever it is in years. I'm proud she's finally making progress and realizing that we don't need all this "stuff" nor have room for it. This house is finally starting to turn into a home, and I'm loving every minute of it.

Next on the project list is the dining room. There is a huge metal cabinet in there, along with a set of plastic shelves that are falling apart and a heavy wooden cabinet, all along one wall. There is a bench behind the kitchen table. There is a very cluttered TV stand that is falling apart. We're doing our family Thanksgiving this Tuesday (which is the same day we find out the sex of the baby!) because mom is sitting with her disabled sister Thursday night, so at some point next week, here's what we're planning to do to the dining room:

There is a brand new wooden bookshelf in the living room that I got Josh for his birthday. Well, my construction wasn't as good as I had hoped it would be, so it kind of leans and has to be propped up against something. There's a set of black shelves in the living room, too, that were going to go in the dining room, but since they can stand alone, they are going in our bedroom for our books and the wooden shelf is going in the dining room, since it was going to be up against a wall anyway. The china cabinet that has been in the living room since mom got it is going in the dining room. The bench is going away, and a leaf is being taken out of the table to make it smaller. The white shelves and cabinet in the kitchen are going away, along with the TV stand. We're bring a bar in to put in place of the bench... It's just going to be wonderful. We have to do it next week since the boys are going to be out of school and can help Josh with the heavy lifting. My little pregnant self is in charge of the organizing and decluttering, what I love to do anyway.

Normally, it would take us forever to get all this stuff done, but mom finally called the charity we usually have pick stuff up after we've been decluttering, and they will be here December 3 to pick up the mountain of stuff we have piled up on the front porch. I think once we get all the big stuff out of here once and for all, we'll be able to keep up with the decluttering of little stuff since we have a drop off place in town now.

I can't even begin to tell you all how good it feels to finally be making our house a home. Look for before and after pictures next week!

Home Tours

I've been reading about home tours on one of my favorite blogs, keepingthehome.com, lately. I would love to do one of our house, but not in it's current state, lol. Still, I think it would be fun. I think I'll do some cleaning this weekend and try to post a tour of our home by no later than Sunday. What do yall think? (Not to mention I really want to show off our new couch, lol!)

In loving memory of Alice.

Sometime between 11pm last night and 3:30am this morning, our kitty, Alice, made the trip to Heaven. We think she may have had a stroke sometime yesterday, and as the night progressed, she just went downhill. We did everything we could to make her as comfortable as possible, because we all knew the end was near. Though we're not sure just how old she was, Alice was an old woman. She was an old woman when we got her.

We have had Alice since 2004. She wandered in to a friend of mine's house off the street. He said he'd seen her hanging around the dumpsters at his apartment, then one day she just came in and made herself at home. He was not an animal person and was going to take her to the pound, but called me first to see if I wanted to take her. My kitty had just died the week before, and though it felt too soon to take on another pet, I just couldn't let this baby go to the pound and end up being euthanized. So, off I went to pick her up and she came home with me.

A funny story about me going to get her... I didn't have a cat carrier or a box or anything, so my mom suggested that I bring her home in a pillow case. That's how they had always carried their cats to the vet, and it seemed the safest way possible to get Alice home. When we got home, the first person Alice saw was my mom, and they were instantly 2 peas in a pod. It's a running joke in the family that Alice never liked me because I put her in a bag, lol. We all know that mom was her moma. Mom always refered to Alice as my sister. Mom likes to make a big deal about how she doesn't like animals, but she loved that cat dearly.

This was so sudden and unexpected. I spent most of the morning at work crying. Thank God they had burried her before I came home because I honestly don't think I could have handled that.

The house is just too quiet tonight. Usually, anytime you walk through the kitchen, day or night, Alice would meow "Noooooooooooooow" to you, telling you she wanted food, no matter how many times she had eaten that day. Now, with mom at her sister's and Josh at work, it's just too quiet. *sigh*

We all loved Alice dearly, and she is very, very missed. Rest in peace, little kitty. We love you.