I feel like we have *so* much left to do on the house before we can put it on the market. I've decided that putting up a list somewhere will help me feel like we're making progress. Of course, if things would stop BREAKING we could make more freaking progress! We also all need to stop getting sick...
1. Pack! (125/? done) 2. Laminate floors! (kitchen, dining room, living room, hallway) - DONE!!! 3. Carpet in bedrooms 4. Tiles in entryway and fireplace - DONE!
5. Baseboards replaced: dining room, living room, hallway, 2nd bath (maybe?), kitchen
6. Painting! Dining room walls, baseboards; Hallway walls, baseboards, doors; kitchen walls, baseboards; living room walls, baseboards; master bath walls, baseboards, new toilet bought and installed; 2nd bath walls, baseboards (replace and paint); master bedroom walls, baseboards; kids' room walls (remove wallpaper first), baseboards (reinstall and caulk/paint)
7. Redo floor in 2nd bathroom (in progress, 4 tiles left), replace 2 tiles in master bath 8. Light fixtures installed: dining room, hallway, living room, entryway 9. Test light in entryway and fireplace wall switch - DONE!
10. Replace all smoke detectors (2/4 done), purchase & install CO detector 11. "Transform" kitchen cabinets- in progress
12. Desk, and new crib in storage 13. Plants - get rid of, etc 14. Replace bad light switch in entryway
15. Because life is fun like this: replace garage door opener broken shade in living room.
16. Touch-ups of paint everywhere that needs it. 17. Install transition strips on floors 18. New range hood: hook it up to a regular plug and install.
19. CLEAN LIKE MAD!
10/3/14: On the upside, the dining room is virtually done, and the house is starting to not feel like our house any more.
10/30: Everything is done except the baseboards being caulked and painted and the master bedroom finished being painted. My project for the weekend. Yay!
We finally got around to putting up our new blinds (that we got way back in the spring with our tax return money...). I love the way our living room has been transformed!
We do lots of laundry in our house. I imagine that most families do, especially those with small children. As a result of this, a large chunk of space is devoted to the whole laundry process, including our diaper detergent, our regular detergent, our dryer sheets, the vinegar for rinse cycles, the baking soda for odor and stain lifting, the spot remover spray...anyway. Anything to help simplify the process is appreciated, and when the people at all® and MyBlogSpark asked me to do a review and giveaway, I was happy to participate.
C does most of the laundry (being a work-at-home-dad), and neither one of us has the time (or energy!) to go through every single piece of laundry (especially the kid's stuff!) and spray to remove stains before washing. The all® mighty pacs™ contain super concentrated detergent with stain lifters, so there's no need to spray anything. We have used all® free clear detergent in the past and we already were fans, but I don't generally buy any scented detergents. We received a sample of original scent all® mighty pacs™ and tested those first. I have been looking for that scent (sniffing for that scent?) for years. I dated a guy in high school whose mom used it, and ever since then I've LOVED the smell of that detergent but I had no idea what brand it was! Well, now I know. Heaven, I tell you. Anyway, if scented isn't your thing, the "free clear" ones work wonderfully as well. The detergent is super easy to use- you toss one pack in for small loads, and two in for large or heavily stained loads (kid clothes, anyone?). Because the pacs come in a bag (resealable, of course) and are 100% dissolvable, there is minimal waste so they are eco-friendly too.
We are very happy with how well the detergent works. The scent is not overpowering and lasts a long time. I was a little skeptical because the detergent inside seems so watery (unlike other all-in-one pacs I've seen, which seem very gelatinous), but they work very well to clean and remove stains. It removes stains as well as the spray we were using which saves us some serious time!
You can explore below for a $1 off coupon and some more information, too.You can print the coupon twice, and there is a Target coupon available as well, so you can save even more!
In addition to the two full-sized bags of all® mighty pacs™, we received a beach ball (which the kids have been playing with pretty much nonstop...), a beach towel, and a laundry bag (which actually is a great size for a wet bag for our diapers, I may be testing it out for that purpose).
Now, the part that you've been waiting for!
I'm
giving away one prize pack consisting of:
all® mighty pacs™
One 24-count of all free clear mighty pacs
One 24-count of original mighty pacs
Reusable laundry Bag
Beach Towel
Beach Ball
How to enter: Mandatory Entry:
Leave
a comment on this post telling me your least favorite household chore. You must include your email
address in your comment, preferably in this format (to keep spammers
from getting your info with their spambots): mamasmockingbird at gmail
dot com.
Optional/bonus entries (up to 7):
You
may do one (or none) or all of these, just make sure you leave a comment each
time to let me know you did so. You only have to include your email
address with your first entry, but please leave your name with each
comment so I can figure out who is who!
1. Follow my blog, or, if you already do, let me know you do.
2. Share your favorite laundry trick or tip to make your life easier
3. Blog about this giveaway, and link directly to your blog post.
4. Follow me on Twitter (@simplytena) and leave a comment with your Twitter name; if you already follow me, just let me know.
5. Tweet about this giveaway (include @simplytena in your tweet), and link directly to your tweet.
6. Share this on Facebook and leave a comment telling me you did so. For privacy's sake, you don't have to link to your FB post.
7. Like all® on Facebook http://goo.gl/H0KTM and leave a comment saying that you did so.
That's all! This giveaway will run until September 3, 2012, at 11:59pm MDT. Disclosure: The information, products and additional all mighty pacs gift pack was provided by all® through MyBlogSpark. I was given these so that I
could review and give away a prize pack, but opinions expressed here are
my own and cannot be bought.
I prefer fresh pumpkin to canned, any day. I have been baking and processing my own pumpkin since C got his first apartment, so I was about 18 at the time. My first homebaked pie was good, but since then they have only improved. The first time I processed pumpkin, I baked it until the rind came off easily, then mashed it with a potato masher to the best of my ability (neither of us had a blender). Since that first attempt I have refined my technique. The food processor works better than a blender, and draining the pumpkin is a must (it should look about like smoothly mashed potatoes when done- an amusing tie-in to my early attempts!). This year I tried baking the pumpkin in our dutch oven rather than wrapped in foil- for about 1-2 hours at 350 degrees. I am very pleased with the result. Do be sure to let the pumpkin cool before trying to scoop it off the rind (a large metal spoon works great).
I also brine the pumpkin seeds (nothing special, just add a bunch of salt to water and soak them for a few hours) and then bake at 250 degrees for about 1-2 hours. Yum!
As a "special" addition to this year's pumpkin, I added at trip to the ER (ok, Urgent Care, but ER sounds so much more dramatic!) between the pumpkins. Yep, that's right. I was making that first stab into the pumpkin and my hand slipped, and sliced open my pinky. Click here if you want to see a really big, blurry picture of my 4 stitches (taken with my phone, which is why it sucks. No, I still haven't gotten the camera fixed.) I find it pretty hilarious that tinypic suggests purchasing a mug with a picture of my wound on it. C was at work when I did this, and J was napping, and I didn't have a car or the car seat. I did manage to wrap my hand up in an ace bandage with a paper towel to absorb the blood. After a series of progressively calmer phone calls to family members that live in the area and have cars, I eventually called C at work to come home and take me to the ER. My poor stepdad was the first person I spoke to, I started crying halfway into my first sentence! After 2 hours in the ER, plus a few comments about how good I got myself, and compliments on my assessment of the wound (while holding it under the cold water I made sure I could bend my finger and had feeling) and my wrapping job, I got 4 stitches. I get them out on Sunday. Things seem to be healing pretty well, but I did manage to slice through a small nerve so I have a little numb patch on the back of my finger. I've been assured that it will heal and I'll regain feeling. Good times. I did make it to almost 27 years old before I managed to injure myself badly enough to need medical intervention, so that's cool.
Anyway...I made some yummy pumpkin-oatmeal muffins with a little bit of the pumpkin I got done. I'll post the recipe later. The moral of this story? Tena shouldn't be allowed to use knives when C isn't home.
1. C and I have started implementing a "cleaning list" that I found on the Nest. Seriously some awesome stuff there. It basically breaks down the household cleaning so that every day there is one room to clean, and some stuff that happens every day (dishes, etc). Today was the kitchen, and while it's not perfect, it's a far cry nicer than it was! Sparkly clean appliances make me happy, apparently. They are just all nice and sparkly. Except the fridge..that's kind of ecru and dull, but it's clean, anyway. I even cleaned the washer and dryer, and the outside of the trash can.
2. J did not want Pooh Bear to go in the dryer. I had washed him because during a nap this weekend J peed on him (hahaha, he peed on Pooh...). J saw me toss the "Beaw" into the dryer, and immediately said "Beaw!! No!! Wet!" Puzzled, I fished out the bear, gave him to J, and watched as J laid him on the door of the dryer, proclaimed that he was, indeed, wet, and proceeded to march around the house clutching the slightly damp bear in a death grip until bathtime. By the time J went to bed, Pooh was dry, but boy did mama learn her lesson!
3. My iPod makes a handy phone, if a certain boy wants to call "Gma House" (grandma's house). In the future, however, I will be sure to lock the iPod before J tries to call any other edifices, as he managed to change the time zone and some other settings before he got bored of his game.
BabyAge is giving away the ultimate backyard set! Click here for the entry form and details. There will be one prize awarded that includes all of the following, valued at over $14oo! The Ultimate Backyard Prize includes Picnic on the Patio Playhouse ($254),Clubhouse Swing set ($684), Patio Playhouse ($306), Sand and Sea Play Table ($118), Easy Store Large Picnic Table and Umbrella ($90), Adventure Wagon ($83), Cozy Coupe 30th Anniversary ($67), Mulching Mower ($31), 2-in-1 snug and secure swing ($16).
Also, on a totally unrelated note, Albertsons LLC stores have blueberries on sale through Tuesday (so, tomorrow) for 5/$5, 11-16 ounce packages. So yesterday I went and got 5 pounds of blueberries for a whopping $5! I think I will be making some syrup and some jam, probably one jar of each, but who knows? I will update on my weekend domestic projects later.
Number 36 on my To-Do List is done!! Yesterday I touched up the paint and installed the hardware in the master bathroom! I think it looks quite lovely. Word to the wise, however. The drywall screws that come with the bathroom stuff suck. They went right through the drywall. It's a good thing we had another kind of drywall anchors around, or my project would have been a lot more irritating and more difficult. It is so nice to actually have toilet paper on a holder though, after almost/about 2 years of not having it there...Anyway, here are pictures of both our bathrooms, which we've redone, including the floors. Sorry, no before pics. Pretty much just picture white walls, and beige carpet. Yep, carpet. And ugly shiny towel bars.
Master Bathroom:
The lovely long counter, and my basket-o-toiletries.
The long-awaited tp holder :-)
View from the door. I absolutely love the color I picked, and it comes through nicely in the photos. I think we need new towels. Scratch that, I want new towels, but C doesn't think we need them. I guess ugly faded and unraveling towels are good enough for him. Ah well. I do keep an eye out for super bargains in the colors I want, but no luck yet.
The floor, peel and stick tiles all the way, baby! Apparently the flash did something funky, I don't know what that streak is. Usually there's a rug there, but I am not really as much of a fan of it now as I was when we bought it, since it doesn't much match the finished bathroom.
The Second Bathroom:
The floor, again peel and stick tiles. This was my first experience with them, and it's really not perfect, but it'll do til we want to sell the house. Then we'll redo the floor in this bathroom. In the meantime I think they look pretty nice!
View of the teeny shower and the towel rack. Not sure why the towels look blue in this picture, but they're really green.
The sink, and a better picture of the towel rack with green towels. I got the dolphin sculptures from Mexico, one was my mom's and one an old boyfriend gave me in high school.
