dear uncle sam

Yesterday I had every intention of preparing my taxes for my accountant. I was sans children for the majority of the weekend so it was the obvious time to get it all done.

BUT. As you can see it was a big but, it did not happen. Life has been a little tough lately, as it is meant to be. If you sail along on smooth seas all the time you cannot appreciate them so every now and again rough 80 foot waves have to batter you for a while and between school, people, and a litany of complaints I needed too escape from reality and decided that Uncle Sam could wait a bit longer as could chemistry and anything else on my "to do" radar as I was running away for the day.

Earlier in the week I was driving the girls to school and I spotted this and somehow it ended up in the car. Yeah I don't know how either:

For such a germaphobe I don't know how.

And it passed the termite test immediately.

It had never had any finish at all on it so it was the easiest project ever to do. A little sanding to rough it up ( and clean it) then I painted it. I have a thing for hearts, I love them and my accent colour of the week ( that is what it seems to be around these parts) is red. I was tempted to paint it red and just have one red chair but then I thought I'll change my accent colour soon and I'll be stuck painting the chair so I painted little red hearts on the seat where they cannot be seen as they are under a cushion but I know they are there. It was done in no time. It is now my desk chair and is the perfect size.

transformed

yes that is a white heart because, why not?  this total transformation cost $3

That didn't take very long at all. It was waiting for it to dry that was time consuming but I started at 6am. Read prior post about sleeping LOL

 I have had an idea in my head since we had the professional photos taken and yesterday I searched Pinterest for the solution. I wanted to mount photos on canvas so it looked like they were printed on it. There HAD to be a way to do it. There is -ish. I have no aversion to getting them printed on canvas by the pros but you know me I like to do stuff myself. The only thing I did different was I don't like artist canvas I like just flat canvas so I chose that.

Shortly after I started this project I received a phone call from the girls, can we come home? It got put on hold and then restarted as a family affair.

attach photos to canvas with mod podge

leave for an hour to dry

coat photo with a healthy and even coat of mod podge then sandwich another canvas on top and peel off immediately

result is a bubbly scary mess that you think is a disaster.

see the bubbles

I sort of like the look but I love the photos

Lily didn't use enough adhesive and pulled some of her photo off but it gives it a vintage look

I just did this because I had the stiff and I liked it.

I had a fantastic day and felt a lot better about life in general although I suppose I'll be in a proper panic when I try to get all caught up tomorrow.


Dear Uncle Sam, Sorry, not sorry.

my house lost it's resale value

I will never EVER be able to sell my house as it no longer has any resale value at all.

True story

When we bought it the contractor that we used was also the realtor and he was, to say the very least, not the kind of person I enjoy doing business with. The "then husband" liked him, a lot, thought he was a great guy and a fantastic business man. Each to his own, I say.

Once we did the walk through I started with my list: tear this down, build a closet here, open up under the stars, rip out all the mirrors, oh wait, just gut the damn place it's condemnable. So as we started to rebuild I said, no tub in the master. He said, you MUST have a tub for resale. I said their will be one in the kids bathroom.

No plate glass mirrors, I said, he said, you have to them for resale. He won, sort of. He put them in I ripped them out after we moved in.

No towel bars under ANY circumstances. He laughed and said....well by now you know what he said.

Seriously got on my last nerve. This was my house, I was paying him but he wouldn't let me do everything I wanted. And some of it was the most ridiculous stuff imaginable. I could understand if it was off the wall crazy but not so much.

And so it went, on and on and on.

As you know I have been painting and doing and changing. I have ruined my house for ever. I will never ever be able to sell it as I changed every last thing that contractor man would not I am such a rebel.

Befores:

serious yuck factor

seemed like a wonderful idea

This I suppose is an after not a before as they are already off of the wall. And you are telling me that these insanely cheap and nasty things will help me sell my house? Bite me.

Afters:

Hah. I love it

White satin paint against black wood

Much nicer

Not finished here. I am taking it down again and mounting it on wood then putting it back up.

So there you have it. I wrecked my house and all for under $30. Oh and I have barely started. Next weekend I have help and we are really going to trash the place.

my bedroom

I'm still doing bits here and there but for the most part my room is done. It was really important to me to declutter. Clutter makes me tense and feel out of control. Years ago I had a larger house with a lot less stuff and I loved it that way. I do not like "things" however 2 little people that live with me lurve things.


I don't have any before photos, again but I did find this one of Rosie in my bed and you can get a general idea. Dark, drab and sad. And green more old people green.

I have stripped the walls of all photos, and pictures with the exception of 3 very special ones. One is the sign the girls made for me and the other 2 are sayings, or as I like to think of them, single Mama, mantras.

The other is identical to this but is the saying from my blog header.

The other very special piece in my room is a box, with contents, that belonged to my Grandma. My daddio restored it and gave it to me.

The colours in my room are the same as downstairs. I love the brightness and freshness of the gray and call it, English summer sky.

Note to self: fix wonky lampshade

My box

lily is hiding in the bathroom.

It looks a little sterile from the photos but it isn't at all. I still get quite giddy every time I walk in there. The best part of all is that I now have a massive closet all to myself.

a glimpse

I have finished painting. I do have a little bit more work to do on the trim but the big stuff is done.

OMG, I love it. I hadn't realised how dark and dreary the house was but my life was dreary so it all just blended. I'm not even sure which room I like the best but I know one thing for sure I will be showing them all off. Right now the dining room is a catch all for my purged but not yet removed from the house crap, so you won't be seeing it.

I don't take before pictures. Most of the time I suddenly just decided to do something and it isn't even planned so I don't think of it in, before and after, terms. and the other reason is, I like to move forward and look forward, not backwards. I have been scouring my blog looking for some good before photos but there aren't any. I realised that I hated the way the house looked so I would pull the subject matter in close so as not to include a lot of background. But now, things are different, Oh yes, very different.

Before.

the beige colour in the entrance and heading upstairs

The Old People green

More old person green.

These aren't very good before photos as i have already started work but you can at least see the colour. This is the new colour and it is EVERYWHERE, even upstairs. One stop paint shopping. This is the colour.

After: 

We love it

The wooden sign was a gift from my seester 

I love hearts and found these irresistible 

The girls made these as a Valentines craft but I love them and think I will mount them to some wood and leave them up.

As soon as I knew my divorce was going to happen I started buying and hiding little bits for the house. I have had a great time uncovering all the new things that I have collected for 2 years. Most of what I did came from different rooms in the house and was re-purposed for use here. I used a lot of spray paint and creativity to make it work on my new single status. The cushions covers are $4 ones from Ikea. They didn't have the colours I wanted so I bought felt for 99c and made them the ones I wanted. The little glass hearts were Christmas ornaments, not now! The tiny shelf was in my closet for 18 months since my sista from another Mista left.

Spray paint is my best friend.

I was shopping at Aldi months and months ago and I spotted the clock. I have been eyeing the big clocks but they were not something I would spend that kind of money on. This one was a bargain.

Now when I open the front door I am so happy to be home.

Next up, my room.

slam, went the door

For the first time this weekend I was alone. The girlies went to their dads. GULP.

I stayed super busy with painting and decorating. I was up at 5 on Sunday morning and got to work. By 9am I went outside to spray paint something and closed the screen door behind me without looking, only it wasn't the screen door it was the slider and it was locked and that was that!

I walked to the front of the house to see if any windows were open but the only ones that were were locked at about 4 inches. Damn. Upstairs were open, wide wide open but how was I going to get up there, a trampoline maybe. My friend CF has my keys but she was in Philly for the weekend. I could have walked over to her house to get them but her keys were in my house, locked in.

I had no choice but to call the ex but first I needed to figure out which neighbour to ask. That was answered for me when the lady down the street came home from the gym so I used her phone. Urgh. My first weekend alone and I had screwed up and he was going to know about it and be all judgey. Crap. He said he had just fed the girls so he would leave them there and bring the key. Hah, I knew there was no way the girls would miss saying hi and I was right. His car had barely stopped and they both flew out and jumped on me. Warmed my mummy heart.

House was unlocked he came in and looked to see how I had managed to locked myself out and and then they left. Rosie called me 26 times on Sunday. 26 times people. Many of those times she was in tears but one time when I answered this teeny tiny whipering voice said:

Mama, could you lock yourself out again?

I laughed, out loud. I said that would be a very bad idea and that I would see her tomorrow.

I have now taken care of the key situation. I wont be getting locked out again.

I will be dealing with the new front door very soon cos as it turns out "he" has more keys to this house than me. yes really!

I'm nearly done with the painting. i'll be back latwer this week with photos and a post. thanks for you patience. Oh and I found some more things in a trash pile.