Home tours part 1

Hey hey! I’m back today with a couple fun house tours for you – one of my very favorite things to do is walk through model homes. I even have my boy hooked on it. We’ll be driving through a random neighborhood and he’ll ask if we can “walk through the houses.” Yes, I am raising him right.

The Indianapolis area used to have a Home-a-Rama tour every year that my friend and I would attend, but for the past few years I haven’t heard of anything. It was a major bummer. Maybe they had been happening and we just didn’t hear, but I even searched online a couple years back and couldn’t find any shows.

So I was thrilled when I picked up our local magazine last week and saw there was a new one going on. I thought I’d share some of the houses with you! There were four but I took a ton of pics, so I think I’ll break this up into two posts.

Thing is, the old home tours (years ago) were extremely elaborate. I’m talking huge, gorgeous, over-the-top homes. Man I wish I still had pictures of some of those. I could tell this year that things are just changing – these homes were still big square-footage wise, much bigger than our house, but the floor plans didn’t make them feel huge. And the decor was beautiful and well done but just wasn’t as elaborate as the old shows.

The first home was an all brick exterior in what they called an Italian Renaissance style:

It felt very imposing to me – not my favorite. The brickwork was beautiful though.

I tried to cut down on the pics so bear with me here. I loved the bright kitchen with the dark gray kitchen island:

This look is one I’ve probably pinned a hundred times. :) I adore it but would need to add more color in my own house.

I find the layout is generally the same in a lot of these homes – but the difference in houses in this price bracket is in the details. The doors are heavy solid wood, the cabinets are soft close. The hardware is heavy and HUGE:

Check it out – those handles are massive!

I loved the brick flooring look in the mud room and the wood tile in the basement:

That brick look is actually a tumbled stone, not brick. So it was smooth to the touch – easy to clean! I really loved it! It brought a lot of character to the space. That wood tile in the basement is definitely cool – but also a little too cool for me. Literally. ;) I love the warmth of wood (on my feet).

Usually the basements on these tours are spectacular, and these were still fun but not crazy decked out like years back.

I LOVED the brick walls with the holes for the wine in this basement:

How cool is that? Not sure that could be DIY’d but I dug it. I liked the black cabinet and gray subway tile combo too.

I thought this multi-purpose room with the chalkboard wall was cute:

I loved the bright colored poufs with the black wall.

I noticed that all of the master bedrooms were surprisingly small. Seems to the trend too:

I do think some of the masters in new construction over the past ten years or so are ridiculously big, but these felt a little cramped to me, even with just a few pieces of furniture.

I loved the big shower in this house:

Loved the tub too, but the placement was odd to me. It was just kind of out in the middle of the room. Very exposed. ;)

The second house had a much more traditional look:

And yet the inside was more contemporary – I expected it to have a warmer feel:

I did love this nook in the kitchen – they had it built out as a homework/crafting station:

I thought this clipboard idea was adorable!:

Just secure them to the wall and you can easily clip new stuff to each board.

This idea was pretty darn cute too:

Your very own pumpkin patch! ;)

I loved the black cabinets in the kitchen – they added to the contemporary feel:

The kitchen table and chairs and stools were all dark too, so it did get a little heavy in there. But the multiple huge windows made up for that. ;)

The family room area was done in gray and orange:

The rug was super cool, loved it.

I thought this art in the basement was such a fun idea!: 

It looks like Instagram art, right? They used graphics but I thought this would be SO cool with Instagram pics. Each square was a little piece of wood that was velcroed on, so you could change them out. You could do this with wood and photos printed on paper then mod podge them on.

Now I’m trying to think of where I could do this. :)

One of the rooms upstairs had a super cool bunk wall built in:

The Bub LOVED this room. There were little cubbies complete with outlets in each bunk. Although there would need to be a bar up there on that top bunk to help me sleep at night. (These ceilings were high!!) I keep debating bunk beds for my son’s room – I think they’d give him so much more space but they freak me out a little. :)

The master bathroom had a REALLY cool tile used as an accent:

It was like a bubble tile – the circles were raised and we couldn’t stop touching it. SO much fun.

This bathroom also had a little something else I loved – a little coffee/kitchenette station: 

Certainly makes me wish we liked/drank coffee. Would a hot chocolate station be over the top? Maybe.

Well there’s the first two! I’ll share the last two soon. (The very last house was my favorite!) I think the show is still going next weekend if you’d like to attend. I didn’t even scratch the surface with these pics of course – there’s SO much more to see.

Which one was your favorite? Anything you loved? I think that kitchen in the first house is my favorite room so far. :)

House one was built by Brookshire Homes, decorated by Luxe Home Interiors.
House two was built by DB Klain Contruction, decorated by Savvy Decor.

How my house lost weight

Hello there! How was your weekend? Ours was great – how about those Colts?! There’s a lot of folks in Indiana dragging today, we had to stay up and watch a the whole thing. What a great game!

Anyway, I didn’t get any DIY done this weekend because I had one. sole. focus…get the rest of the house DECRAPIFIED.

By the way, I can’t take credit for that term. A very lovely reader used it years ago and I was instantly hooked on it. I asked her if I could use it cause it was so awesome. And I do. It’s a good word.

I’ve mentioned once or 75 times that I’ve been working on cleaning out the house for the past few months. I didn’t realize how long it’s been till I looked back at some posts. It’s been a LONG time.

I don’t mind the process but doing as intensely as I did got to be a little much at times. I would stall out for a week or two and then go back to it. And I was easily sidetracked and would have to finish up DIY projects as I went along.

I got ‘er done. A lot.

I think the biggest difference is in the kitchen. The drawers open easily (nothing “sticking” as I open or close them):

A functioning drawer is highly underrated. I like not fighting with my drawers. :)

I showed you how I cleared out the utensils and organized them here:

And the clean and organized pantry last week:

I use a lot of dressers around the house, including this one in our foyer. The handle on that top drawer (my tool drawer) has broken twice because it was so heavy. Now it’s decluttered and light as a feather:

As light as tools can get anyway.

And no, I don’t organize every bit of stuff in the drawers – when there’s less in there I can see to find what I need easily so I don’t think it’s needed.

There are even a few completely, gloriously empty drawers in the house!:

The other room that I’ve noticed a HUGE difference in is our mud room – the floors and shelf were covered with, well…CRAP.

Even the utility closet was a mess – now we just open the door and select the cleaning tool of our choice:

I had been hoarding floor cleaning stuff. It was a bit ridiculous. I need one broom and a couple floor cleaning jobbies – not 12.

While I was at it I gave the whole a room a nice coat of clean white paint:

I’m SO glad to be done with the yellow in there and I’m still in love with the white!

The bathroom linen closets were purged and organized as well:

Complete with LABELS on the bins so they stay that way!

While I was at it in the downstairs powder room I added some fun to the laundry chute:

Want to smile when you open your closet? Add polka dots.

One of the rooms that lost the most weight was our guest room. The closet was a dumping ground for sure. I cleaned it out and used some scrap wood to make better use of all the space in there:

While I was at it I painted the room (it had been waiting years for its turn):

Still loving that light green color too!

I can’t even tell you how many trips to the recycling bins and Goodwill I made – I lost count. I actually have a load in the back of my SUV right now. I just had to get that last pile out of the house. :)

I do have a few more spots to tackle that I knew I’d have to wait on – the master closet is one. Lots of laundry happening this week and then we can really start going through all the clothes. That room just by itself will take at least a month. It’s bad. Very bad.

But the garage is up next on my list. I’m completely reorganizing and moving things around in there. My plan is to create a workshop where there wasn’t one so I’m super excited about that.

And finally…the BAG. While going through the house there were always little things that hung me up. You know, those little jobbies you are pretty sure you need but you can’t think of a good spot and wait, maybe you don’t need them but you need more time to decide?

Yeah. I put all of those in a bag:

Those annoying things trip me up suck out my decluttering mojo. So they must be bagged till I can deal with them. It helps. Cause I’m a bagger.

I already found the rug I’m planning to use as my inspiration in the mud room inside. I knew it was in the house but couldn’t find it anywhere. I wonder what other treasures are in there?? I’ll go through that today, take the final trip to Goodwill and I’m calling it done till next year!

Usually I tackle this earlier in the new year, but I started later this year. Oh who am I kidding – it went all year. But it is nice to hit the holidays with a house that weighs about 200 pounds less, figuratively and literally.

Ahhhhh…it is a GREAT feeling!! Virtual high five y’all!!

An organized pantry

Good Friday to ya! Whoo-te-hoo.

I’m back today with an update on a big redo I did a couple years back – the pantry. And I hope you still like me after you read cause I have a big revelation to make.

When I decluttered the kitchen a couple weeks back this space was on the list. I joked that it was scary but honestly…it wasn’t bad. That’s when I knew I had really, finally come up with a system for this space that works.

See, years ago this is what it looked like most of the time:

Actually, that wasn’t too bad. :)

Over the years I realized something BIG about myself that kind of changed my pantry-world. I always felt like we needed to have a TON of food, just in case. That just in case ranged from a natural disaster (which I do still think you should have a stash for) to financial insecurity to Armageddon. Take your pick.

I knew exactly why I did it too – it stemmed from my childhood. The desire to never have to worry about having food in the pantry ever again. So I hoarded food. And it was a bit ridiculous, as you can see. Ridiculous because: 1. three people can’t possibly eat that much 2. we eat out a lot 3. Armageddon is not coming. Probably. At least not in my lifetime. I hope. 

So early last year I completely made over this space (took out the wire shelves, painted, installed melamine shelves), took a hard look at how we eat and changed how I bought food. Now when I cook I either plan ahead and make sure to have what we need, or I go out that day and get what I’m missing. I don’t keep food in here that I might need for that one recipe that I make every six months. I just go buy it. Because I can make the time – again this is what works for me.

When I cleaned out the pantry this time I still felt like a horrible, no good person (because of the wasted food) – but it wasn’t nearly as bad as it used to be. Because we can see what we’re eating now:

Last time I wrote about our pantry many were like, no, seriously, where’s the food? There’s a good foot of space on each side that you can’t see straight on. I do still have SOME food.

Sooooo, here’s the thing. Don’t hate me. I don’t even know if I’m allowed to blog after confessing this. Last year I loved the whole idea of the plastic containers for things like crackers, baking supplies, etc. It was kind of the thing. I liked that I could see the food and I thought we’d eat it if we could see it. Something like that?

Anyway…the thing is…I don’t use them anymore. I KNOW. Will I be banished from blogland?

Over time I realized that we were wasting food when it was in clear containers. I would try to mark the expiration on the bottom but then when you’re almost out of, say, crackers, and you go to get more, what do you do? Dump the ones that are left but still good? Put the new ones on top and mix up expiration dates? Keep the new ones in the box until the old ones in the container were gone?

See. THESE are what you call first world problems.

I mean, it wasn’t all that dramatic, but you get what I’m laying down here. It just didn’t work. And I used quite a few of them for dry cereal but my boy doesn’t like cereal (I KNOW!) and I don’t eat it like I used to so we don’t really buy much anymore.

SO. I got rid of most of the containers (in here, I’m using most of them elsewhere). The flour and sugar and all is now out on the counters where I can easily access them (in these glass containers) and the rest (for the most part) stays in the boxes.

Did I just rock your world? I have BOXES. :)

I do still use a few plastic containers for a few baking things like candy chocolate, brown sugar and my beloved popcorn:

And you can barely see it here but I use them for pasta (because I use it a lot and it doesn’t go bad as fast):

I do still use baskets in the pantry – I find them helpful to corral the smaller items like packets and mixes and such:

Last year I was able to clear out so much that I had one free shelf. I love having some mixing and serving bowls in here – they’re easy to grab when I need them:

That’s the popcorn bowls up front. Where they belong.

So there you go. The cleaned out pantry – and there’s no horrible before photo because it actually stayed pretty darn cleaned out. It’s a MIRACLE. Because we have the glass door that’s a good thing:

      

For years I felt like the pantry was SO tiny and just not big enough for our needs, but now I think it’s just fine. Keep in mind it’s usually just three of us in this house though, so what works for us may not work for a larger family. But it does feel good to let go of that need to have it packed full of food constantly.

Do you use the plastic containers for your food? Love them or no? Any tricks for keeping your pantry organized?

To see more about the door that I used for the pantry go here.
To see how I made the windows private and make the inside glow at night, go here.

Have a LOVELY weekend! Anyone planning on cleaning out their pantry now? You’re welcome.

The Laundry Room: Making it work

Hello everybody! Hope your week is going well! I can hardly believe it’s Thursday already. Crazy pants.

I’ve been working on purging the basement (you can see one of my big projects earlier this week here) and it was when I moved on to the laundry room that I realized I haven’t shared progress in here since last year.

It’s been a year since I’ve blogged about this space when I built the shelf behind the washer and dryer:

When we got the new set I knew I wanted a top loading washer, so the little shelf along the back gives us a spot for some items we need within reach and it hides all the ugly stuff behind the set. :) 

But we’ve made some updates to make this a more functional space over the past year and although the room is still very much in between, I wanted to share some of them!

The room is smaller than we originally planned -- we had to work with beams in the basement so this room get a little tighter. It’s just over eight by five feet, which is still a dream compared to the mud/laundry room space we had upstairs before. A DREAM.

But with the washer and dryer taking up most of that space and a door to the storage room, I’ve had to be smart about storage and any additions in here.

We’ve always used one of those wooden drying racks that you open up on the floor, but this hanging rack from IKEA works just as well (and takes up way less space!):

I wanted small laundry baskets that would stay in here all the time and last year I found ADORABLE polka dotted ones at the container store:

One for lights, one for darks. It’s so great to just grab one and just dump it in the laundry. And they’re tall and skinny so they fit perfectly right next to the dryer.

I’ve added some storage in here so the shelf behind the washer and dryer only holds the necessities now. My glass jar for the detergent and a little box hides the dryer sheets:

 

I like the necessities to be cute, alright? :)

We moved the ironing board down here and it hangs next to the door:

We set it up right outside in the family room and watch TV while ironing. It makes it suck a little less. ;)

You can see a lot of the to do’s in the photo above – I installed that cabinet to use some of the awkward space in here and it needs to be finished up. I have ideas for the wall above it too. The storage room door needs to be painted (it will be black like the rest of the doors) and the trim all needs to be painted too.

One thing I did to help make this room a little bigger when we finished the space was to push it out to the family room area just a bit more than planned (to the right):

That allowed me to put double doors on the room instead of a standard door. I LOVE it – I can easily carry baskets or armfuls of laundry through the door without banging into them. (And yes, they still need hardware. On the list.)

I still love love love the hexagon tile we put in here – it was so inexpensive and looks great. It is chilly on bare feet though so I have small mats in front of the washer and dryer:

I’m always looking for one rug that would be the right size/color but it’s hard to find. These get dirty really easily so I don’t think they’ll stay forever.

And obviously we installed two small cabinets on the wall (that need to be painted) – I didn’t want it to be all cabinets and I didn’t want just shelving (I wanted some of the stuff to be out of sight), so we went with two. Initially I was planning on hanging a rod between them to hang clothes but quickly realized I didn’t want to look at that all the time. (And we really don’t keep clothes down here.)

So now I’m planning a mix of both hidden and open storage – shelves between the two cabinets. I’m also planning on bringing in more color to this space and doing some kind of treatment to that wall. Haven’t decided just what yet.

There’s still so much I want to do but it’s already wonderfully functional and it’s come a long way from how it looked just over a year ago:

Compared to how it looks now:

And yes…a year later I still LOVE having a laundry room in the basement. It was the right move for us but it may not be for everyone.

Do you have a big laundry room? Is it combined with your mud room or does it stand alone? This one is way bigger than the space we had in our old mud/laundry combo but I’m still always trying to use every bit of it as best as I can.

My daring new paint color

Hello all! How is your week going? It’s going to get downright chilly around here starting tomorrow – it’s been absolutely beautiful here in Indiana lately!

I mentioned in passing last week that I’ve FINALLY started work on the mud room redo. It’s been a long time coming! Even though I’ve been SO ready to makeover this space, it’s a little bittersweet since this was the first redo I ever shared on my blog. (Oddly enough, almost exactly five years ago.) Sniff.

Back then the yellow and black was fun and different and wow…BRIGHT. I dug it. But when we moved the washer and dryer downstairs last year this room became a dedicated mudroom (halleluiah!) and I grew tired of the in yo face yellow.

I’m now on a mission to transform this into a more functional space. So I started with some paint and trim removal. Since I was painting I went ahead and removed the trim I had installed along the top – it’s going anyway:

Ignore the paint samples that have been up for three years. :) And wow, the yellow looks neon in these pics. It wasn’t THAT bright.

I also removed the trim around both doors in the room and the random piece that was above the utility closet:

That one strip of trim has always made me shake my head. Just one across the top – so sad and lonely.

To remove the trim I scored the caulked areas first and then used a small pry bar to pull it off:

 

My Dad gave me that little one awhile back and I use it all the time. I have a larger pry bar for bigger jobs too, but this tiny one works great for stuff like this.

The next phase was twofold – we had someone come in and remove a few things that I just couldn’t. We took out the big 220 volt plug for the dryer (but left the electrical in case we ever sell and the homeowners want to move everything back up), removed the dryer vent (just the part sticking out of the wall) and turned the gas nozzle that went to the dryer so it wasn’t sticking out of the wall anymore. (That line is no longer working, it was removed and run to our dryer in the basement instead.) All this had to be done so I can eventually build the built ins right there.

And yes, we had the 220 volt and a gas line – the builder installed the electrical not realizing we were doing gas everywhere (they did the same for the stove that was supposed to be gas.) I realized the mistake early enough that it wasn’t a big deal, but we ended up with a big plug we didn’t need. Another reason you need to be on-site as much as possible when building!

Anyway…they took care of all of that stuff that was over my head and then I was able to paint! I think you may be surprised with my color choice – I’ve had it in mind for awhile and I am already really excited about it.

Are you ready for this??

I went WHITE: 

;) Dramatic I KNOW. And no it’s not primer, the walls will be white. Bear with me for a minute. And those holes in the walls will be covered, so ignore.

I decided a long time ago that I wanted to do a little something different in here – instead of white on the beadboard (which is staying) and color on the walls, I wanted to flip it. So the color will be on the beadboard, and then art on the walls. I’m REALLY excited about it.

I used a Dutch Boy color called Stone Arrowhead that I picked up at True Value. The location I visit has a HUGE paint selection:

I used the Dutch Boy before to paint my office ceiling and was really pleased with it. Covering the yellow took a couple coats which didn’t surprise me – it was a saturated color.

Here’s the thing – EVERY white I’ve ever used in my house has been an off-the-shelf white. Every single one. People ask what the color white I use and I’m all…uhhh, white? :) Just go to the paint aisle and pick up a can of whatever finish you need (just make sure it’s not one that needs to be tinted, it will say on the can.)

This time I didn’t want it to be pure white – I wanted a little depth to it. This Stone color has definite gray undertones (but it’s not “dirty” look – it’s a bright color) that will work well with the new color for the beadboard. I hope anyway. ;)

I’m already so thrilled with the change I can’t even tell you. It felt SO GOOD to cover up the yellow. :) It’s so bright and clean looking!:

You can see here how only half of the room has beadboard. When I installed it the washer and dryer were still there and I was too lazy to move them. So five years later I’m going to finish it up.

And yes, I painted the whole room – even the spots that will eventually be covered up, just because I wanted a really clean slate for awhile. It’s been a mess of black, yellow and white for years now (I never painted behind the w/d either):

It’s how I do. ;)

Check out the difference!

HUGE right? I seriously love it. I’ll be ready for color soon I know, but for now I’m so totally happy with it. (And check out how small our little Nya kitty was in the before and Colby is the same size in the after.)

I had to share a little thing I had the electrician do – he added an outlet up higher on the wall so I’ll be able to keep the dust buster plugged in and out of the way:

It will eventually sit on either a shelf or in a cabinet – haven’t decided just yet. But it will be awesome to be able to charge stuff up there. It’s the little things right??

It’s just the start but my vision is finally starting to come together. I can’t wait to keep moving in this space! Next up will be new flooring, installing the new trim around all the doors, and then finishing up the beadboard. Then I start building. YAY!

Have you ever painted a room white? Could you do it? I was surprised at how much I liked it, but I know I’ll need color back soon enough.

I was one of the bloggers selected by True Value to work on the DIY Squad. I have been compensated for my time commitment to the program as well as writing about my experience. I have also been compensated for the materials needed for my DIY project. However, my opinions are entirely my own, I would have done this project anyway and I have not been paid to publish positive comments.

For more painting tips, take a look at True Value’s site here!

That space under the stairs

Hey all! How was your weekend? We played quite a bit on Saturday and then yesterday I worked my tail off. I’m still nursing a sore back from all the hard labor. :)

You may have noticed that I stalled out on the house purge I started a few months ago. I was on a roll for a while and then I just couldn’t go through one. more. drawer. There’s only so much of it I enjoy and then I need do other stuff for awhile.

But I’m BACK! I finished the kitchen (including the pantry, scary!) and then moved on to the basement. This space is going to be cake compared to years past when it was unfinished. Shudder. But so far I’ve only worked on spaces you can’t even see – closet and storage spaces.

I’m SO EXCITED about a change I made to the area behind this door:

So. This is the storage space under the stairs. When we started finishing the basement early last year one of the first steps was to move all of the Christmas stuff into this spot. Early this year I majorly purged my holiday decor and made it so we had even more floor space for vacuums and such.

I have a LOT of Christmas decor. I love it but sometimes just want to get rid of half of it. But I do write this thing called a blog, and my son is still young and very much into holiday decorating. I figure in just a few years I’ll be begging him to help with decor so for now I deal with the bins and don’t sweat it. In no time at all we won’t use half of it and I’ll be wanting these days back. :)

Well, I don’t know if it’s just me, but it seems like till about March I’ll find little bits of Christmas around the house. And because I’m lazy busy I just throw them on top of the bins instead of putting them away. So the Christmas closet became this:

Earlier this year I took some advice from my friend Carmen and took some of the items out of the bins and hung them instead. (Check out her awesome holiday closet here!) It did help – I hung some of the bulky greenery up on hooks and ended up getting rid of a ton of bins between this and purging.

But it wasn’t enough. It still became a mess because of my laziness being busy and all:

So fast forward to some progress in the basement that happened last week – we had the cabinets for the kitchenette installed:

More glorious storage! Whoot! I’m still not sure if we’ll do small uppers or not. Next up I need to buy and install the countertop and sink and then trim out and paint the cabinets. Even with all that still left to do I’ve already started filling them. ;)

And not even two minutes after they were installed I stood there and realized I had completely spaced it – my plan for years (YEARS!) has been very specific for this space – I had planned on a regular cabinet (for the sink) and then an under cabinet fridge with a smaller cabinet on the side.

Well I totally, completely, just plain forgot, about the fridge. I’m getting old remember? Argh. There wasn’t much we could do about it either – we couldn’t return the cabinet that had already been installed.

So, I had to come up with a new solution. Our dream has always been to have a fridge down here, for snacks and drinks during movies, or for hubs to grab while he’s working (his office is down there). So I got to thinking about that messy closet – and came up with a new idea for the space.

And after hours of cleaning out the garage and moving stuff around and dragging a LOT of bins up and cleaning of the storage area, I ended up with this:

There’s a bonus to my mix up – to install a fridge under a counter you need to get a a specific one that vents out the front, and those are not cheap. The least expensive one I’ve found is $400-something at Home Depot. And the more I thought about it, I knew we’d want a fridge for more than just drinks (the version at HD was just for beverages). This one is just a standard mini fridge ($100-something instead) with space for food too. And a freezer!

For PIZZA ROLLS.

Awwww yeah.

This closet is actually nearly 50 square feet of storage space – and I LOATHE wasted space, so I wanted to make it even more functional. I picked up a couple super cheap bookcases ($17 each) and put them inside as well:

Our built ins in the family room down there are awesome but not wide enough for games, so this is a perfect solution. Now all the games are in one spot and easier to find (I had them in a dresser before).

There’s still a few things I’d like to do – I still need to get an outlet installed in here (I have the fridge plugged into a heavy duty extension cord now but hope to have the outlet installed this week).

And I still feel like the vertical space is wasted – so my plan is to stack the bookcases (securing them to the wall of course) where the fridge is now, then placing that off to the left. I’ll have room for a little cart or something next to it to hold plates and such. I won’t be able to move stuff around till I get the outlet installed.

That way the fridge will have even more room to breathe in there – it’s got more than enough clearance around it now but it will have more moved over (with the open space behind it).

I did my research before moving the fridge in this space – make sure you do the same before doing something similar. It’s a large closet and we don’t keep clothes in here obviously (not a good idea near a fridge). You want to make sure there’s enough breathing room around it. (I asked numerous electrician friends/my dad and all said it was fine.)

Eventually the microwave will go out the kitchenette, but for now it will stay in here. This is like a new room in our house! The Bub and I were SO excited about it last night, we may have made some pizza rolls to celebrate. :)

Check out the before and after:

See why my back hurts now? I think I moved about 12 bins up. We don’t have quite enough room for one more big one in the garage so it’s still back there in the closet. (We have a door in hubby’s office to access that side.)

I’ll show you the garage organization soon – that space is still a pit and next on my list after the house is decluttered. One step at a time.

Do you have a little storage space like this under your stairs? I always think of all the possibilities – a wine cellar, a hide out for the kids, bookcases – all of it sounds awesome to me. Now ours is a bit of Christmas/storage/game/kitchenette room. Love. What do you do with yours?

Winner and birthday quiz answers

Well thanks so much for joining in on the birthday fun with us last week. Some of you did really well! Some of you, notsomuch. But we still love you.

We’ve got a winner! For that name and the answers to my quiz questions, read on:

Chris is freaked out by The Wizard of Oz and can barely watch it.

TRUE! Man you guys are good, most of you got this one. And I know, what the heck, an American classic! Although the monkeys still freak me out to this day too. Shiver.

Sarah and her husband have been married 18 years.

FALSE! My hubby and I have known each other for 21 years but Chris and her hubby are the ones who’ve been married that long. The answers on that one were pretty split down the middle.

Chris and Sarah’s sons have the same middle name.

FALSE! Stumped ya, bahaha! Most of you thought that one was true. Although I had a moment of panic and had to double check with Chris after I used that question. :)

Sarah loved high school more than college.

TRUE! Yeah, totally used this one last year. Told you I was boring. But even so most of you thought it was false. I LOVED high school. So easy breezy fun. College was were I worked my behind off. Still fun of course, but the high school days were my favorite.

Chris hates attending weddings.

FALSE! So apparently I used this one before too? I don’t remember this. My mind is obviously going. This one was neck and neck! I guess “hate” is a strong word but attending weddings really isn’t my favorite thing. I know, what’s wrong with me?? I should say that once I’m there and watching the bride coming down the aisle and crying and all, I’m enjoying myself. But by the reception I’m ready to get on home. I’m sure I’ll get tons of invites now. ;)

We’re in trouble next year cause I seriously can’t think of any more questions for another quiz. I guess I have a whole year, it’s a good thing! You can see the answers Chris’s questions here.

The winner of our $100 Target card is Marita who got 6 out of ten right. Congrats Marita, I’ll be emailing you and sending out your gift card this week! :)

I’m letting the HomeGoods giveaway run through the weekend so be sure to check that out if you haven’t yet. Hope you’re having a great weekend!!