That One Thing

I have a lot of good qualities.  Asking for help is not one of them.  I sometimes take on too much, but I always make it work.  Lately though, my life has been more chaotic.  Soon after returning to work from maternity leave I took on a different, more challenging and demanding position.  Two of my co-workers, whom I considered close friends, left before I returned, and it was harder than I imagined (to be fair, I had tried to not imagine it).  I had a new baby and everything that goes with that.  I was still trying to cook most nights, and between pumping, cloth diaper laundry, and attempting to get 6 hours of sleep a night, but realistically being up every 3, something had to give.   I cleaned what I could, because a messy house stresses me out, but it was a losing battle.

I really don’t know the last time my floor was cleaned.  My wonderful mother came over one day and cleaned the shower and floors.  It was amazing.  But I honestly don’t know the last time I cleaned the floors myself.  I’m thinking that happened in October.  October of 2016.  I told you it was bad.  So, I’m not good at asking for help AND I hate paying people to do something I could do myself.  After months of debating, I finally took the plunge and scheduled a time for someone to clean our house.  I had a referral from someone I trusted and I negotiated the price a bit, but still….it was a lot to me for something I could do myself.

Today the cleaning crew came.  I returned home to the cleanest version of my house that I’ve seen in quite awhile.  The bed was made!  I have no idea when I last made our bed and if I did make it, I certainly didn’t put those cute throw pillows back on.  The couch and chairs had vacuum stripes!  This is exciting stuff people.  Not to mention, knowing someone was coming to clean forced us to pick up and get that new office in order.  It was like when someone tells you they’ll be at your front door in 10 minutes and you quickly try to make the house look presentable.  It was just like that actually, but much more efficient.

I’m not sure how long this clean will last, but I can attest that it is so worth it.  I also am focusing on the concept of spending money so I can spend more time with my daughter, rather than my cleaning supplies.  As much as I love a clean house, I love my daughter so much more.

I’m still working on asking for help but I’ve decided that this is my one thing.  The thing I’m going to keep doing for my sanity.  The thing that lets me spend more time doing what’s important.  If you don’t have one of these things, you should find one that's important to you; it’s so worth it!

Office and Playroom Reveal

Over the past couple of years we’ve had so many home projects.  Our house was nice, but it needed a little work to spruce it up, and we wanted to really make it ours.  We changed out the dining room light fixture, bought new bedroom and living room furniture, built massive storage shelves in our garage, painted almost all the walls (many more than once due to a certain someone changing their mind), built 4 huge floating wood shelves for the living room, and ripped the carpet out of 5 spaces to put in hardwood flooring.  We did this all ourselves, which makes it feel even more like ours.  We put our time and sweat into this place. 

I like things organized and each time we take on another project it inevitably means that our house is a huge disaster for awhile.  When we refloored in the living room we had to level out the floor.  It was horrible and almost everything in the kitchen, living room, and hallway was covered in a thick, fine dust.  I thought it would take forever to get things cleaned.

We just finished a huge project; turning the cluttered office into an office/playroom.  The office had become a dumping ground.  We had random pieces of furniture and just kept adding things we didn’t have room for elsewhere.  We each had a desk, but both were typically covered in papers or things, making them impossible to use.  It was bad.  Luckily, I have pictures.

This summer, a month before school started, we decided it was time to do something about the office.  We also felt that Adeline needed a space other than the living room.  We decided that we needed a long desk and debated making it ourselves, but it was pretty clear that we don’t have the time to do this.  I figured I’d rather pay someone to make it and spend the time with our little girl.  

Mr. C moved everything out of the office the last week of July, a week before he had to go back to work.  He did the floor alone this time, finished in a couple days, and it turned out amazing!  The desk took awhile due to some changes, but we found someone who was reasonable and seemed to have great work.  We paid and waited.  In the meantime our hallway was full of stuff, our bedroom had random pieces, and a dismantled desk was by the living room.  It was a mess.  A stressful mess.  We bought a rug on clearance and found a chair also on clearance that was a final sale.  They sat in the empty room waiting to be used.  And then, at the end of September we got the desk and two matching floating shelves.

I drove home from work as the desk was being delivered, and I worried that it would look horrible.  We didn’t discuss what the cabinet doors would look like and I worried that we’d hate it.  I walked in and was floored.  It was so much better than I had imagined.  Over the course of the next couple of weeks we began bringing things back into the office.  I had to make some decisions about what to keep and what to let go, because I didn’t want anything in there that we didn’t really need or want.  This past weekend we finished the space, for the most part.  I still picture a little table and chairs for Adeline at some point, but for now we’re done. 

It’s a space I love more than I thought I would.  It’s actually my favorite place in the house, other than Adeline’s room.  The desk is beautiful, functional, and really perfect for what we needed.  The gallery wall pops on the teal wall.  The wall that used to hold the gallery wall is playful with letters spelling out “CREATE” and it’s the perfect space to display Adeline’s artwork.  It’s everything I hoped it would be, but so much more than I truly expected.

It’s so nice to finally have everything finished.  Well, almost….we still need to do the backyard.  And, a little bit to the front yard.  And organize the garage.  Okay, so maybe we’ll never be truly done, but the projects are definitely getting smaller at least.