Review: The Plan for Unemployment

Now that Unemployment (WINNING!) is over, I thought I should revisit and see how we did.  Here we go:

Project 1: Repainting the master suite.  As of my last writing, the only thing left was the water closet.  The only thing remaining is STILL the water closet.  (Something tells me we may have a mustard yellow water closet for a loooooong time....)

Project 2: Build a square foot garden.  2 boxes are built with soil in place.  2 more have boards cut and just need to be built.  Raking was accomplished and did serve as the bottom layer of the two existing boxes.  I am very pleased with this, honestly, given how crappy the weather has been.

Project 3: Painting kitchen cabinets.  I had estimated a week for this.  I am an IDIOT.  Woooooow.  I think when all is said and done, it ended up being more like 4 weeks of 4-6 hour days.  I used Americana Décor Chalky Finish Paint, and I ran into every issue in the book.  First, I discovered that it took me about 2 hours to paint out an entire 8 oz container, so I tended to work in 2 hour increments.  Second, one container will cover about 7 cabinet doors.  Third, it takes THREE coats to really get a nice finish.  Fourth, no one vendor has enough of this paint to accomplish an entire kitchen, so I went all over the freaking place buying all that everybody had.  I used Home Depot, Amazon, Michaels, and Hobby Lobby.  I found that when the paint was old, it really freaking sucked, and there was no way to tell from the container if you were getting nice fresh paint, or old crappy paint, so that was massively disappointing.  The older stuff is way gloopy and no amount of stirring, shaking, etc, was able to fix it, so some of my cabinets have a new and unexpected texture.  I'm trying to just get over it.  It is part of the charm, right?  RIGHT!!???  With the bitching out of the way, I'm really thrilled with the final look of my cabinets, and cannot recommend it highly enough if you have time and want a new look for any set of cabinets.  I think I did the whole kitchen for $500 - about $200 of that in paint, and $300 in new hardware.  Great way to redo a kitchen on the cheap!  (Now I just need new countertops and backsplash....)
Minor Project 1: Hanging work quilts. Done.

Minor Project 2: Setting up fish tank.  Got stymied by ordering new plastic thingies for the glass top.  Ordered wrong size, right size is backordered, yadda yadda yadda.  Will make an attempt to pick this back up shortly.
Minor Project 3: Getting stuff off floor in office.  Made serious progress.  Not entirely done but it is waaaaaay better.  This involved closet re-org and a better use of that space.

Minor Project 4: Distributing contents of boxes.  That really should have been a major one.  I did a little of this, but yeah... lots to go.

Minor Project 5: General clean and de-clutter.  Did manage the kitchen before starting to paint the cabinets.  Really need to find a way to KEEP it that way, which is the true struggle in life.

Minor Project 6: Box for AD light.  Fail, but have the wood cut.
All in all, I'm very pleased with how I spent my time off!  I was able to stay busy but I did also take a vacation and a few days here and there to be lazy.  Nice balance of productive and rest, and most importantly, for me, the mindless manual labor of painting was soothing to my rather battered (from the last job) soul.

WINNING!: the plan for Unemployment

We moved into this house over a year ago now, and there is a nice stack of things that I've been wanting to do, but have never had time.

Project 1: as you know, is to repaint the master suite.  We are at probably 95% completion on this now - the only thing outstanding is the Water Closet.

Project 2: build a square foot garden, and then actually clean up my yard, using all the leaves as the base layer before the soil.  I tend to think the buildout will be easy, 1, maaaaybe 2 days.  But the raking, oh the raking.  I'm allowing a week for this one.  (Might need only 4 days, but that extra day can go towards the Water Closet.)

Project 3: paint out the kitchen cabinets.  After we got wood floors put in and carried them through the house, the kitchen is a monotone of wood.  Lots and lots of wood.  The cabinets are oak with very dated hardware.  Some months back I took a class on chalk paint, and since it doesn't require sanding, I'm thinking it will be perfect for the cabinets.  Plus I think it gives a nice distressed look that breaks up the concept of just solid shiny white that white cabinets can become.  So that is project 3: paint and new hardware.  I'm guesstimating a week on this one too.

Those are the 3 major, and I will not commit to any more.  But there are a number of minor projects, some which I've already started or completed, which I'd like to mention.

First was hanging my work quilts in the guest bedroom.  They look lovely!  I need to post a picture.

Second is getting the fish tank set up.  We carried it outside the other weekend and got it all cleaned up.  I removed all the rocks and gave them a nice rinsing and got them back in the tank.  We've bought a new filter, and we are almost ready for water, except we need one little part to come in first.  The plastic hinges for the lid had cracked so we need new ones, but the fish store had the wrong size.  I won't fill the tank until I'm sure we can close it because I'd be too worried about the cats.  I am so excited to have a fish tank again!  I can hardly wait!!

Third is getting everything off the floor in the office.  I'm not sure if I'll do that or if I'll stand over P with a whip, but it is a goal.

Fourth is distributing the contents of ALL remaining boxes that are IN the house and not in a storage-type position (i.e. in a closet or in the attic).  I feel that if I can get this done while I'm on break, then I could slowly start working through the garage, one box at a time, without cluttering up the house again.

Fifth is a general clean and de-clutter.  ESPECIALLY the kitchen, where the bar seems to be a magnet for all the things that don't have homes.

Oh and one more!  Sixth would be to build a little box stand for the Aunt Dollie light that I'd like to put in the guest room.  It is a tension lamp and our ceilings are too high to install it, but I think that is an easy fix.

This is a lot, I know that.  I've had several people tell me they were surprised at how much I've accomplished so far.  I think for me right now it is important to keep busy, but it is also important to know that I'm not just working straight through every day.  I'm kind of moseying through the mornings, being relaxed about getting Z to school and eating, then working a bit, then taking a nice long break for lunch, then working til P gets home.  Then sometimes I stop, sometimes I make him help me.  But either way, there is a good amount of downtime, but at the end of the day I still feel like I got something done, so it works!

Day 4 of Unemployment

I got a hilarious text from my mom on Monday that said, "How does it feel to be a woman of leisure?"

LOLOLOLOL!

It feels like damn hard work is what it feels like!

I chose this week as the Repaint Master Bed/Bathroom Week.  Uuuugh.  Let's start it off by letting you know I have a two gallon bedroom, oh yes I do, and with high ceilings on two sides.  We are going from a "Dijon mustard" yellow left by the previous owner to a nice cool "Pensive sky" gray, so we were talking a two coat minimum.  I must say that it has a tad more blue in it than I was going for, and than the paint chip showed, but I'll take it over mustard any day.  I actually really like it for the bedroom, but in the bathroom, I chose one darker on the paint chip, "Rhino" that I was hoping would bring out the gray inclusions in the granite we have in a very brown bathroom, and the blue is more contrasty than I was hoping for.  But still better than mustard!  I think.

3 full days completed on this project, and the bedroom is completely done, except P needs to do a second coat on the cut-ins that I absolutely cannot reach, even with the ladder.  The bathroom has had one coat, mostly, and I actually think I may be able to get away with only one coat in there, since it is a darker covering color, as long as I look for the little patches where yellow pokes through and give them a quick second.  Still need to finish cutting in on that first coat - have basically half of that done, but with some of the hardest bits remaining.

I'll post some pics when we are all done!

Day 1 of Unemployment

I am switching jobs, taking a month off in between.

Yesterday was my last day at the old job. Very bittersweet.  I have been there almost a decade and I will miss it.  And it is scary, change.

So Day 1 of Unemployment, lol, is starting off with a bang.  Before I even got out of bed, I could tell that all the crying from the leaving has turned the little snot factory I've been brewing into a full sinus infection.  I feel terrible.

Then I get a text from the husband - the mortgage payment, which is supposed to deduct on the FIRST got pulled today, and we were overdrawn.  CLASSIC.  How is that even possible??  If you authorize auto payments and you set them up for a particular day, how is it even possible that they pull them a WEEK early!!????  Arg!

So Day 1 of Unemployment = WINNING!  Lol.  Here's to knowing it can only go up from here! ;-)