precariously perched

Done in the kitchen! (well, till I fix dinner)

I started on Saturday and did a lot more than I’d planned on, kind of like what happened last weekend with all my outdoor stuff. They are kind of crappy because not only can you not really see detail but I took my ‘before’ photos after I got started so you see that I already cleared out the corner by the sink, plus in the after photo there is stuff in the sink again, so sue me!

I really don’t feel like typing much and I tend to get too wordy so I’ll let the photos speak for themselves, but I half-assed the table, the end near the toaster oven has accumulated a bunch of crap I don’t feel like dealing with now.

I did a decent job on the floor and I am pretty satisfied with the state of the kitchen for now.  I do need to rearrange my pantry shelves and I also need to clean out my fridge. It’s not terrible but it’s bugging me.

TIME FOR DINNER

Unfuck You Habitat: Drawer Challenge!

My plastic container drawer was irking me so I got on that.  I still haven’t gotten to my damn kitchen table but this needed to be done.

I had a drawer full of chaos and more that needed to go in there.  (I used to buy those generic 3 pound tubs of vegetable spread and I kept them to store dog food and stuff in.)

and I somehow ended up with a bunch of extra lids. Some I know what they belong to but their containers are missing. How do I have 4 blue lids and NOT ONE container to match? Where did they go? I think they go to the Sock Black Hole. Other lids are recyclables and I’m pretty sure I can just get rid of them. I’ll do a little searching to see if I have random containers scattered around to match and then they will get the heave-ho.

This took me 15 minutes and with the last 5 I washed the few dishes in the sink (and a couple lids).

**unfucked**

(I have some before and in-progress shots of my living room and kitchen, I’ll save those for later. Right now I have to go clean off the damn kitchen table and the counter where those lids are and then I am DONE with the kitchen.)

Okay, other than Saturday when I was very productive getting a lot of outdoor stuff done, I haven’t really done a lot of major unfucking in months and I am barely even maintaining some semblance of clean.

BUT—I did 2 projects a few months back that I think I have maintained pretty well. Like I unfucked it and it has stayed that way more or less.

Let’s see.  Here is a post from January 20th when I unfucked my living room corner and even pulled up the carpet back there. There are before and after photos on there.  The first picture here is the end result.

The second picture I took this morning.

not too bad, huh? Didn’t gather too much crap and it’s still fairly neat.

Here is a post from January 7th when I unfucked my bathroom closet. 

The 3rd photo is of the shelving on the door after I was done in January.

The 4th one I took this morning (May 14)

The 5th is of the closet in January, and #6 is from this morning.

Not too terribly different.  It makes me feel a little better knowing I’ve been able to keep something unfucked for this long even though the rest of my house is a disaster.  I know that once I actually get rid of stuff and get organized I can keep it organized and the unfucking is much easier to do (I haven’t been this bad all my life because I didn’t always have all this crap).  My problem is that I can’t seem to make a lot of headway getting rid of stuff because a) there is so much and b) I have so much going on.

Unfuck what the neighbors fucked up!!!

Unfuck the honeyfuckle! I mean honeysuckle!

A week ago Tuesday I went into the back yard to find my honeysuckle, which had been growing at the back fence for about 7 years, lying in a heap on the ground. I guess the jerkwad neighbors behind the fence didn’t like it growing on their side and instead of just trimming it back like the law allows, they did whatever it was they did to dismantle it from the fence so that it looked like picture #1.

Now there was another vine, something of the weedier variety that had intermingled with the honeysuckle. I pulled out as much dead stuff as I could along with as much of the weedy vine as I found. Still wrassling with a giant tangle of vines is tedious to say the least but I put on my zen helmet, got my clippers, my staple gun, my wire, and my trellis and went to work. And that resulted in picture #2.  It’s not pretty, and it may or may not work, but I did what I could with what I had (basically, my arms, hands, and the equipment I mentioned).  The mass of collapsed vines had been lying out there for over a week, and picking them up, handling them, trying to untangle them and put them vertical didn’t do them many favors, a lot of the pieces snapped or partially snapped, and I don’t know how they will fare.  But it’s only the beginning of April so I think they should hang in there okay. 

After that I raked up all the shit I’d pulled out or cut off, then did a little weeding around my clematis trellis and the flower bed. I get these horrible wild violet (or something) viney creepers that grow like wildfire on the top of the soil and if you leave them too long they root in and choke out your actual plants. So I uncovered my salvia, and a couple other things I’d planted last year.

I don’t remember when I started but I think I was out there for the better part of 2 hours.

It’s Miller Time.

Day 2 of the 20 minute freestyle challenge.  Living room again. It’s getting there!

I included the first before pictures so yesterday’s after pictures became today’s befores. Anyway, #3 and #6 are the afters! (kinda crappy pics because I was in a rush to go to spin class.)

There’s that darn dog again!

I cleaned off some stuff from the sofa, finally got rid of the laundry basket (folded and put away the remaining kitchen towels away) got rid of some stuff on the table, broke down another box, yadda yadda…

Starting to look less embarraskin!

20 minute freestyle challenge B&As

This is embarrassing, my living room is a disgrace.  It’s still a disgrace but it’s a little less of a disgrace now.

Mostly I just broke down boxes, removed the address labels, and put all that junk mail shit into the Big Box Of Recycling (under the rest of the boxes in front of what you may or may not be able to tell is the fireplace.

I tied up the trash bag (it’s now by the front door to go out to the Outside Garbage Can) and replaced the bag, and put away a few things. Also, the boxes by the coffee table magically turned into a sleeping dog!

Twenty minutes.  Not too bad. Now I am going to the movies.

You know you’re a homeowner (and old) when stuff like this excites you.

My house was previously owned by a Drunken MacGyver who used to open a case of Bud and do home improvements (this is not even really an exaggeration from what the neighbors say). 

They installed a washer and dryer, heating and a/c unit, a hot water heater, added a workbench, and made a little pee closet in the front of the house and then walled it in. (There was a pool table in the larger part of the basement, priorities, people!) The doorway they left measured about 29” across.  And the washer jutted well out into that space. I had to lift the laundry basket higher than the washer to squeeze through there. 

It occurred to me last winter when I replaced my hot water heater that it would be a real bitch if I had to replace the washer and/or dryer, especially just the dryer, since the washer would have to be moved in order to get the dryer out of that space.  and the dryer, I should add is about 29” across as well.

I did replace the bilco door that leads outside from the basement and had the stairs redone so any basement appliances would not have to go through the house again, as the hot water heater did. (I live in a twin and everything is narrow, plus I have a lot of shit, it was a tight squeeze).

But anyway.  I had one of our company painters widen the doorway and I think my hideous dungeon of a Blair Witch basement looks like a thing of beauty right about now. I’m not even kidding.  I may actually clean it up a little and realize its potential a little, as a laundry room anyway.