Resolution Recap: January 2012

With one month now into the New Year I thought that I would take a look back to see where I stand with my 2012 New Year's resolutions.

January was a hectic month for me since I was out of town for almost half of it. On top of that I have been sick for the past two weeks and am just now starting to feel like myself again. Despite those difficulties I am proud of what I did manage to get done and it has me energized and excited to keep going. Hopefully I will be able to  accomplish even more in February just by being in town and being healthy.

Resolution 1: Purge & Organize
For three out of the five Mondays I met my goal of having a volume of at least one trash cart (between my recycling and regular trash) out on the curb on garbage pick-up morning. The other two Mondays I was out of town that day so I'm giving myself a pass. Here's my breakdown:

- January 2: Nothing (In New Orleans)
- January 9: 3/4 full trash + 1/2 full recycle = 1-1/4 total
- January 16: Nothing (In Pasadena) 
- January 23: 3/4 full trash + overflowing recycle = almost 2 total
- January 30: Full trash + 1/4 full recycle = 1-1/4 total

I even managed to put things out on the ninth when I was only home for the weekend before leaving that Monday afternoon for Las Vegas. I actually barely made it on my flight because I ran home to pull the carts off the curb en route to the airport since I figured my neighbors wouldn't be too thrilled about them sitting out for over a week.

Overall on the weeks I was in town I exceeded my goal and I am happy with my progress. Among the items that I got rid of was a leaky air mattress (I have a guest room so I don't really need it anymore even if I did get around to fixing it), some broken luggage (did I really think I was going to try to patch the torn canvas?) and some scraps from my craft room that were really too small to be useful.

In addition to things that went out on the curb I also managed to go through a lot of my kitchen stuff and sort out items that were still usable but I don't need anymore and filled up a box for a garage sale I plan to have in the spring. On the organizing front I made some progress in getting a few kitchen cabinets in order.

Resolution 2: Finish Up Projects
I decided to start working on finishing up my master bathroom since it was almost done making it an easy first step. I am about a third of the way through what I wanted to accomplish. Here's my status:

- Paint the outside of the tub teal (it is currently a light creamy yellow): Prepared area, started stripping old paint
- Replace the cheap, temporary mirror with a medicine cabinet: Removed mirror, measured and marked out wall location
- Add shelving to the inside of the built-in cabinet: Wood purchased
- Jazz up the built-in with some color: Done! (Added wallpaper and painted)
- Make a wood vent cover to go over the ceiling fan (the plastic cover that came with the fan just doesn't fit in with the vintage look of the bathroom): Wood purchased
- Make a rug to go in front of the bathtub: Done!
- Add some wall art and do some paint touch-ups: Teal touch-ups done

As I got going I decided that I also want to add making a shower stool to my bathroom to-do list. So far I sketched up the design for that and bought the wood and paint for it. My plan is to have the bathroom finished and move on to some other projects in February.

So there's where I stand with my resolutions at the end of January. So far, so good and I hope to hit my stride this upcoming month. Does anyone else out there have any resolutions they are trying to keep? What are your goals for the year and how is it going? I'd love to hear what other people are doing to stay motivated!

Plans for my Master Bathroom

As part of my New Year's resolution to get projects finished up at my house I thought that I would tackle my master bathroom first since there isn't too much to do and it would be an easy first step.

When I first moved in, the room where my bathroom is seemed to have been used as a kitchen at some point since there were some remnants of plumbing sticking out of the wall and some remnants of tea kettle wallpaper. It was a great, nice sized space (10' x 10') with hardwood floors but there were no outlets and the horsehair plaster was crumbling off the walls and ceiling. The room is adjacent to the two tiny rooms that I combined to make my master bedroom so I decided to make it into my master bathroom.

The room required a complete renovation, tearing everything down to the studs, adding all new electrical, plumbing, and HVAC and refinishing the floors. I moved in the cast iron tub from the tiny upstairs bathroom and built a 3' x 5' walk in shower that I tiled with subway tile for a period look in keeping with my house. The built-in provides a nice storage space and also makes good use of the niche left after the chimney was boxed in. Having the built-in also allowed me to use a pedestal sink instead of having a vanity which I liked for having an open look in the bathroom. The lighting fixtures are vintage reproductions and I bought the antique glass shade for the overhead light on eBay. I wanted the bathroom to be be bright and cheery so I painted the room a fun teal color. One of my favorite parts about the bathroom is the wainscoting that goes around the room which I think adds a lot of charm. The pictures below show how my bathroom is currently, starting with the sink and going counter-clockwise around the room.

While I love how things have turned out in my master bathroom, I have a ton of small projects to finish up before I will feel like it is complete. Here's my current to-do list:

- Paint the outside of the tub teal (it is currently a light creamy yellow)
- Replace the cheap, temporary mirror with a medicine cabinet
- Add shelving to the inside of the built-in cabinet
- Jazz up the built-in with some color
- Make a wood vent cover to go over the ceiling fan (the plastic cover that came with the fan just doesn't fit in with the vintage look of the bathroom) 
- Make a rug to go in front of the bathtub
- Add some wall art and do some paint touch-ups

I'm still out of town right now, but I'm looking forward to start tackling some of these projects when I get home. 

Patio Furniture in Progress

One of the unfinished projects that I want to complete as part of my New Year's resolutions this year is to finally finish up my patio furniture. In the summer of 2010 I had a contractor put in a patio in my backyard. I looked into doing it myself but since I wanted something a little complicated (a half circle built up off the ground) when I priced out how much materials and equipment rental would be it just didn't make sense.

Patio furniture was a completely different matter. I was in love with the West Elm wood-slat sectional but there was no way I could justify a few grand for patio furniture. It looked like a pretty simple design so I thought I could build it and doing some internet searching brought me to Ana White's fabulous website. She has all sorts of simple furniture plans for knock-off versions of catalog favorites as well as some original designs. This is not New Yankee workshop, but it is easy with beautiful things you can build yourself and it is really inspiring.

Just my luck, Ana had plans for both the armless section and corner section of the outdoor sectional. I bought out the cedar 1x4s at my local Lowe's and got building. The thickness of my boards was a little different than what Ana assumed in her plans so once I got going I realized that I had to make some minor adjustments to my cuts for everything to fit, but other than that it was very straightforward. I used my Kreg Jig to join everything together with pocket holes which made things easy and meant less holes to fill in later. Since I made a lot of sections (six armless, two corner) I did everything assembly line style which sped things up for me.

After I finished building the sectional I made a coffee table as well as a dining table that I designed to match with the same slat design as the sectional for the top. Unfortunately, that is where I stopped. I bought 3" outdoor foam (from Foam N' More) and outdoor fabric (from JoAnn's during a 50% off sale) but I just never had the time to make the cushions or paint the furniture that I built. I have loved the furniture and it has gotten a lot of use the way that it is with barbecues and relaxing in the backyard, but this summer I really want to get it all done. Wish me luck!

2012 Resolutions

Happy New Year! Like many people I am kicking off 2012 with a few resolutions for the upcoming year.

My first resolution is to purge and organize my home. I have way too much stuff due primarily to two reasons. First, as anyone who knows me can attest to, I am very sentimental so I keep everything. Do I really need a box of notes folded into footballs from Junior High? I probably do not. Second, after spending several years struggling to make ends meet while I was in school I am loathe to waste anything. If I can think of any possible reason why I may need something in the future I keep it just in case. Do I really need to keep my old, cheap can opener that slips off the rims of cans just in case my good can opener breaks? In reality, if my good one breaks I am at a point in my life where I can buy a new one instead of dealing with the hassles of my old junky one.

So, as a concrete goal I plan to get rid of one curbside trash cart (32 gallon volume) of things from my house each week. Since I plan to recycle what I can or donate anything useful to Goodwill I will count those items to my volume amount in addition to what I put in the trash. My problem in the past has been that I get too overwhelmed sorting through boxes and I think this will give me a manageable goal.

My second resolution is to finish up some of the many unfinished projects I have around the house. I bought my house in the fall of 2007 and it needed major remodeling. That phase is over but now I have a ton of finishing things that need to get done that I have been procrasinating about. My plan is to go room by room and start ticking off the items on my list. I also need to do work on my landscaping and finish up my patio furniture that I built.

I have some high hopes for being productive this year and I am going to do my best to stay on track with my resolutions. Here's to 2012!