House of Horrors

We bought our house last March and moved in the first weekend in April. It was completely redone and i love it. I cant wait to do the landscaping but inside.... its getting to me. We had some plumbing problems and had to rip out some sheetrock (frozen pipes that were properly insulated by a bathroom vent and a leaky tub drain). So sheetrocking had to be done in the laundry room ceiling and the downstairs bathroom ceiling. Luckily my brother and sister came up, with a truck, and helped me get the supplies to the house. So the bathroom looks great- amazing- like nothing ever happened. And it didnt hurt that the contractors left the paint so there was no issue matching colors.

BUT the laundry room repair got out of hand. what started as a 10x 10 inch hole turned into a 3x4 ft hole!. the patch doesnt match up and we tried taping and spackling and spackling and sanding and spackling and sanding on and on and on.....

so it looks terrible...

once we get a different vehicle im starting over!

ohh and during the cleanup i broke a beer bottle (we store our alcohol on a shelf in there) and cut my hand made a mess and got glass in my foot and and my dog tried to lick it up and then pooped on the floor,..... it was BAD

And to make things better my broken stair that just keeps braking (despite my tyraid of nails- 23 to be exact) is broken becuase the main frame of the stair is cracked.

Maybe i should just quite my job and be a contractor.....
Ugh

Gardening Obsession

While my winter is filled with sheetrock repairs from frozen and leaking pipes and some quality closet and drawer organizing, I can't help but dream about my garden. Last year I convinced my husband that the old OLD bushes in front of the house need to go and that i will replace them with something more leasing (and that leaves more room for flowers!). Well while I was traveling for work, mindlessly surfing the internet for gardening tips while I rode the train, I came across a site that talked about app for your ipad that help you plan your garden!
Of course I couldnt resist and decided to downloan iScape. An app that allows you to design your garden by slecting a picture of your house. To say im obsessed is an understatement.
Heres the picture i stated with (yes my garland is still up - its been like 0 and the snow hasnt melted)


See the ugly bushes! there were more coming out at an angle from the house that ive already ripped out. Im saving the rhonodendron- yes its a little thin, but it blooms a gourgous color and with enough plant food and pruning i think it we make something of it ohh and Im saving the winterberry on the other side of the house, i prunned it hardcore last year so its not a pretty this winter as it can be but give me time...

ok so this is what i will have (ps the house faces north and is heavy shade)


all of the plants i've picked can handle the sandy acidic soil we have with heavy shade (well the sypress shrubs i have here will probably have to be american holly but i didnt like the picture they had of the holly).

OK im a dork but im obsessed and it will help me plan what i need to buy/split! hurry up spring!!!!!!

Perfection

"Have no fear of perfection you'll never reach it"- Salvador Dali

These are words for me to live by. I try so hard, so very very hard to reach perfection and I can't seem to get there. Just for one day I want my house to look like its out of a magazine. But alas, the dog throws up, the other dog shreds something, the pillows are on the floor the blankets are unfolded and the dishes always seem to be in the sink despite my constant running of the dishwasher. And, why when someone spits toothpaste, I'm not going to name names, do they do it all over the faucet and mirror and not in the sink where you can rinse it down? I would like one day where I look around and say yes, I've achieved this perfect home to match my perfect life. But lets not get started on my lack of perfect. Ohh well, a girl can dream, and then she needs to clean up after her puppy and husband....

A puppy

I have a dog. I had one coming into the relationship. I grew up with dogs, cats, rabbits, fish and whatever reptile we found in the road (normally turtles no snakes allowed). My grandfather raised hunting dogs, needless to say i love animals. But my husband never even had a fish. He wanted a puppy so badly, specifically a lazy bulldog. We work full time, he works a second job so I'm home at night (usually with someone but that's besides the point) and i have the cat and dog, and a new house... and recently a wedding. Needless to say a puppy was not my dream especially since my dog is younger and just getting calm. OK so back to his puppy, the bulldogs are crazy expensive and sickly, who would have thought they would cost like 3 grand?!

So, being from hunting dogs, i suggested basset hounds- me and my big mouth. After a long campaign which included him recruiting my father to butter me up, we got a basset hound, and I have to say i love her. Eleanor. So cute, but shes houstraining, eating everything, and keeping me up at night. Ohh i cant wait for her to calm down. because right now I'm ruled by the dogs....


PS this is not her, but i hope when shes older she looks like this when she runs lol

Dinners....

A Vent: My husband and I come from different families completely. My family is up in every ones business, loud and constant. His family is quite and less informed of each others lives. Along with our different communication styles we have different styles of eating. My mom was an army cook in another life. She cooks in bulk always, because shes ready for whoever drops in, we eat leftovers because shes too busy to cook another meal every night, and its so good why would we want her to. His mom cooks a small meal every night, a bit more basic.. and in my experience its generally pork. I don't really like pork for several reasons: they are cute and can be pets (think pot belly pigs), its greasy and fatty, and most importantly, they are most associated with humans. Yup, want to know how long a corpse has been laying in a field, well forensic scientists put a pig corpse in similar conditions to figure it out. Need a skin graph, you can use pig skin. There is also research that suggests we can grow human organs, for transplants, in pigs. it has been found, based on cannibalistic tribe information, that human flesh tastes most like pork. That's enough for me not to eat it. But i digress... we have different eating habits and likes.

So now that we are newly married and i have assumed the more traditional role in the household, which is fine because i have my masculine job during the day, i cook.  I'm not my mom, why would i be shes so good i never needed to. but I've picked up some of her simpler recipes and found healthy foods that i try to eat to fight the battle of the bulge. But he doesn't seem to agree. IN fact he refused to eat pasta because it makes him "gain weight" (I cook with the smart pasta that's full of fiber) but he can eat pounds of fast food and grease.



So the struggle continues, i want to eat lean fish and chicken, he wants fried and pork....

it seems that I'm making headway but I have to wonder, is this something unique to our relationship or do other new wives (esp working ones that don't have time for gourmet means every night) have similar problems?

Me and my Raised Ranch

                     (pic of the house before we bought it)

Now that the wedding has come and gone im focusing on our new house and my lack of landscape. Unfortunately, fall is not the best time. Yes i can put up corn stalks, get mums and pumpkins but outside I have to kind of live with until spring. *sigh*
So now I have to face inside. I love turqouise which may be driving my husband crazy and we have tried to meet his conteporary/ modern taste with my shabby chic, coastal taste (and our house is a bit transitional as it was remodeled before we bought it) so thats the direction we have taken. We have a dark couch, which helps with the dog, a open floorplan and dark granite counters which i love but now im feeling like i need to lighten up the house with winter approaching- so i dont feel closed in. I really like what i have in the common space but i need to arrange it right.
So cleaning organizing and redecorating here i come! Now only for some inspiration...Why cant I just make it look like the magazine!? Martha! Help!

The blog formerly known as "Aim to Organize"

Alot has happened since my last post... i had cancer, i survived cancer, my beloved grandparents have passed, my precious pooch has passed, i've moved, got a new job, bought a house, got married- what else could really happen, a baby maybe but dont rush me.

So im not going to write just about closet cleaning or painting lamps anymore but about doing all the things you love, my new life and my obssession with gardening and bringing elements of the outdoors into my new home. Learning to be someone's partner, run a household, having a career and still be yourself and have your hobbies takes work. And I'm just the girl to do it!

Yes, i will still blog about cleaning and organizing and DYI when the mood strikes me but Im not going to limit myself. I decided to continue my old blog, and rename it, rather than start a new one because I'm not starting a new life- I'm developing the one I've always had.