Strawberry Shortcaked

Everyone went to the pool which means I get to stay home and enjoy some quiet time/work on projects...clean everyone's messes...
It was past time to clean and freshen #1's bed so I decided to switch it up a bit while she was out and not here to share her opinion. I know once I did it she would be fine with it and she was. So Hello Kitty took a break and my Strawberry Shortcake blanket went to work.

The blanket was mine from as long as I can remember.

The pillow and blanket I got in the box from the estate sale a few months ago, mentioned here.

Which reminds me, I did get the train hung in #2's room.

and apparently I cannot get this off of my phone as a rectangle so you can see the whole train and shelf and I definitely can't take a real photo in here with my camera at 11 o'clock at night so there you have it!

If I had truly been motivated I would have dug around my basement to find more strawberry pillows and stuffies but I'm sure they will migrate upstairs on their own eventually

Sink Repair Update (Finally!)

I'm sure everyone was on the edge of their seats by the end of my last post and then I left you hanging for...four months!? Here is a photo of my naughty mermaid to make up for it?

The faucet set fit with relatively little drama. My dad took his dremel and just cut off all of the weird 100 year old corroded on spout and drain pieces. After that, everything fit as it should. Yay!

The before set and before I vinegar-ed out the gross water marks on the sink - Yuck! The faucets looked OK until you started looking at them and realized the hot water said "waste." I do own the hot water...

But as you can see, the hot had seen better days and it is even worse from behind

As you can also see, the drain didn't work. I'm not sure it ever did with this set because the original spout was a porcelain bump out molded in the sink so someone wisely added a metal spout at some point to make it a less awkward hand washing experience. 

Eww, sorry, I know. But you get the idea. 

I scoured the internet trying to find something with similar handles, a long enough spout to fit over the awkward bump and in my price range - meaning the $600+ Restoration Hardware sets are out. This is the set I found and they were on sale for $120 on Amazon (I know, even that seems like it would be out of my want-to-spend budget if you know me!) 

They are manufactured by Kingston Brass and they feel pretty sturdy, time will tell I guess. 

A recap, when I moved in this is what I had to work with:

and now:

I *think* the sink is done (for now) so at least something is progressing. BUT when we hung the sink back on the wall I didn't notice it was off by an inch so now it isn't centered under the mirror. One would have to disconnect the P trap to scooch it over. Gah! It's always something! 

At least I have my naughty mermaid to look at! 

Potentially My New Potting Bench?

As my daughter would say "let's play a game of what's missing!"

If you said "bathroom sink", you win!

It all started when the sink was draining a little slow so I decided to get our little As Seen on TV drain snake and clean out the gunk. No problem, I'm digging around pulling up a lot of satisfying goo when...the little Velcro piece on the top of the snake falls off and into the depths of the drain.
Gah, a 5 minute project turns into me taking off the P-trap, fine! But why is it leaking when I put it back together!? Surely I am capable of this basic plumbing project? Yes, except the threads on one pipe are completely corroded away. We make a Menard's run only to have me remember my dad jerry-rigged something so the sink drain connects up to that new standard plumbing. The pipe I need doesn't exist. I need my dad to remember what he did.
So why did I rip the sink off the wall? This brings me to the fact I have had a new faucet set complete with drain but my dad has been dragging his feet on the situation because he is unsure he can get the new standard sized set to fit my weird antique sink. If he didn't think he could put it together, I sure wasn't going to try! (see above inability to reinstall P-trap) I figured this was as good of a chance as any to mess up the sink since he has to now figure out what he did to fix it before. Besides, if he can get the new drain set pieces installed, he wouldn't have to jerry-rig something to the bottom again so I took it apart (as much as I could) to force him to do it. hehe. I'm evil, I know.

The bottom of the sink with the weird drain where my dad had to cut and piece pipes together which obviously didn't work well - unless one wants to replace it every time someone drops something down the drain...

Here is a before, before of the sink. I can't find one sans stinky carpet, hmm.

Hopefully we can get it pieced back together and up and running again, I'm not sure how well it would work as a potting bench by my garage. Plus, I'm not really good in the plant potting department so it would probably be wasted on me.

Estate Sale Adventure

Whew, don't worry, you haven't missed anything because I haven't been doing anything exciting with two little ones around. Unless anyone wants to hear about the projectile vomit I was dealing with for a week? Yeah, didn't think so!! Though I believe I have a backlog of a few projects I should post.

My parents were down for  a few days. Friday we were driving to lunch when we happened to spot a garage sale sign and I was driving (not my dad) so I had the power to turn and follow the sign.  I rarely go out to garage sales at the moment because when you have to get two small children in and out of car seats, convince the preschooler we don't need to buy every plushy we see and carry the other one it just sounds exhausting. My dad volunteered to stay in the car with the baby while my mom and I "quickly" checked it out but 45 minutes later....
It turned out to be the estate sale of the year and the lady had lived there since 1956. She was a very organized and clean hoarder also add on the fact very little had been done to the house since 1920 so it was hard to pull ourselves away! My mom and I even went back Saturday morning just to make sure we didn't miss anything, see what else had surfaced and just to browse and dig through boxes without the pressure of knowing my dad is sitting in the car. I only spent $13 but this was days #3 and 4 of the sale. I don't want to know what we missed out on or how many people were crammed into that house on day #1. On the plus side, everything was half price and then some while we were there.

oops, I forgot about my Coke crate I was in the middle of washing.

She had things organized in 1000's of various containers. It's hard to remember the days before the existence of  coordinating plastic bins when one would *gasp* recycle and work with what they had on hand to organize their stuff!?  Though I am guilty because I am gradually replacing my cardboard boxes and feel a great satisfaction while looking over my clear plastic bins neatly stacked in the basement.

She had all of her candles organized in Pringles cans. I opened one labeled girls and boys to find a stack of Gurley candles. Most were warped/scratched and I almost put them back until I realized I liked the pre-barcode Pringles can. The nursery safe plastic Vaseline container is dated 1967 and has cute critters all over.

Band Aid tins and jelly jars seemed to be her favorite organizational devices.

I had a few pieces of this set in with my play food growing up but this tray is huge, they had it in with the regular kitchen stuff because it looks like it should hold real food. The original box sold me and I always like odd things to blend in with my Pyrex.

I think this can be filed under pointless kitchen gadgets of the 1970's.

This odd 3-Dimensional? latch hook kit. It is an Erica Wilson design but I'm not sure I trust her judgement in this case. For .25 I might try putting it together, in 20 years when I have some free time.

Before I knew everything was half price I had this box for $3 because I thought the train was cute. Don't ask me were I will hang it. I don't have a clue - return in 30 years for my 80's Strawberry Shortcake/My Little Pony themed guest bedroom! 

and my...er, um, my daughter's? Sesame Street Little People are now living it up in style because I found a console television for them.

Hopefully next year I will be able to get out and about to some sales. Though it helps in the clutter department not bringing a random box of stuff home every week!

I hate starting my posts with the stereotypical "I am still alive" but I guess it is true, I am still alive! My current project: window shades for child #1 and that has been happening for 6+ months now? Ha! I figured I better check to see if my blog still existed and check in.

I spotted this in my constant snooping of area house listings.

Check out the listing here: https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/1106-S-20th-St-Lincoln-NE-68502/6574879_zpid/?fullpage=true

It is a beautiful house and it is huge but I didn't realize just how huge until I came to an attic photo:

What!?

I read the listing and it states there are 1750 sq ft unfinished space in the attic!? That is more square footage than my house! (maybe a little less if you want to count in my gross basement space) I can only dream about what I could organize and store in this amount of space! Fifteen Christmas trees of various colors and sizes? 283 boxes of troll dolls which are currently at the back of my closet? Plus it looks like the attic has its own attic if I needed MORE space.

Anyways, I hope everyone is doing well and I do manage to get out to a garage sale or two on the weekends so I am able to leave you with this:

Toy Proofing an Antique Vent

Does anyone else have this problem? Surely someone else has this problem.

A pretty, decorative vent. On the floor of their small child's bedroom. A small child whose favorite toys include tiny Legos, miniature doll houses and we're also starting to get into Barbies. Basically, anything which will fit down the vent. I have access to the bottom of this vent but it is behind the buffet in the dining room so who wants to move that every time Barbie loses a shoe? I needed some sort of preventative feature which didn't involve completely covering the vent or *gasp* replacing the vent.

The vent pops off pretty easy. It has louvers which open and close that screw onto the back. I guess I didn't get a photo of them but you can hopefully picture them.

I was thinking window screening might work, and probably will but I was worried about it getting clogged with fuzz and fur. I had some square chicken wire (1/2" I think) I used in the garden last summer already which is sturdier than window screening, maybe a little easier to keep clear? I did double it up so what you are seeing is two layers. I just cut it, and then the louvers screw back over the top and keep it in place. Why didn't I get a photo of it with the louvers?

 Here it is set back into the floor. It looks better than I thought it would and has saved a Littlest Pet Shop tea cup so in my mind it has paid for itself already.

The Beginnings of a Pink Victorian Bedroom

Last spring I quit my part time job with the intent of getting some much needed work done around the house and maybe think about adding child #2 to the mix after a few months. I put in my 2 week notice and discovered I was already pregnant. Whoops! So much for being productive, I spent my new found free time staring blankly out the window from the couch. That is all said and done now but my free time is spent on feedings so I have have gained negative free time since I quit my job. I did get some non-toxic work done around the house last summer, mainly cleaning out the spare room since we now would have 2 children to house. Sure, they could share (and #1 really wants to share) but who wants the baby waking up the pre-schooler and vice versa?

Cleaning out a spare room isn't a problem for a normal person. Get rid of that futon, the desk, shelf of knick-knacks and maybe some old college books. On my side though it meant cleaning a room which I stuffed everything I didn't know what to do with for the past 5 years - another reason for the kiddos not to share since we weren't REALLY using this room for anything anyways! I had already boxed up some of my trolls here because I definitely am not one to have empty shelves. 

Here is proof the room did indeed look like it was straight out of an episode of hoarders. Minus the rotting food and feces. The trolls are packed away under the eves in the back of my closet and a bunch of stuff went to the garage sale. Though don't go in the basement!

I asked #1 if she wanted to stay in her room or pick colors for the new room and move. She wanted to stay in her current room but paint it pink, get new curtains etc. I told her only one room was getting painted and since the green room was the only bedroom which has been painted in the past 30 years, it wasn't going to be that one. She must have really wanted a pink room because she opted to move down the hall. 

This is the repair work I did do to the walls/ceiling.

The insulation holes were still showing! So those are officially patched. What I didn't do at 7 months pregnant was strip off 3 layers of wallpaper with 3+ layers of pain over the top. Which is OK because the wallpaper does a pretty good job of covering any plaster cracks! The ceiling had fresh drywall on it already so that looks good. 

The room is painted BUT not much else has been done. She also was very specific and wanted her "new" furniture to be Victorian. We went shopping in my parent's garage and since the furniture I grew up with in my bedroom was from that era, we just dug that out.  

I haven't had time to do anything else! This side was my wall of troll shelves. My sewing machine hasn't even left the room. Poor kid. Luckily her sister isn't officially in her old room yet so she still goes back and forth with her toys. Plus she is four so does she notice she has no pictures or shelves up? It doesn't seem to bother her any! She's got some new Trolls sheets and some Hello Kitty Christmas lights hung up as a night light so she's good. She picked out the color herself and I was hoping she would opt for something other than pink but nope, I painted a sample on the wall and she declared "it was beautiful!" so that was it. I was afraid it was going to look like a Barbie Dreamhouse in there but I actually like it. 

Yep, no staging here. This is it! Hopefully some decorating will happen. I imagine myself carefully staging everything, getting some good lighting and taking some fancy photos...oops, gotta go! Someone is having some juicy gas across the room and I'm hoping it's the baby.