Welcome 2011 - Better Busy than Bored

School is back in session - at least for the kids.  As for me...not until the 11th to teach and the 18th to attend.  So, it is project time!

While I love the lack of routine of a break from school, I do so love to have it back!  The only problem this year was that I have had this huge love affair with my mattress and my alarm woke me up far before I was ready to say good-bye!  Oh well....off to the daily routine of school.

After the kids were off I headed to Menards for round 2 of my project purchases.  I think I don't have to go back again (we'll see).  I have undertaken the Mud Room (call it what you want...some say a utility room, my kids call it the shoe room.  At any rate, it is the room where we come in from the garage and go through it to get to the kitchen and rest of the house).  It is usually cluttered....back door friends are the ones that don't judge me by the looks of that room....that I can hide from everyone else.  The cubbies are there to hang coats and backpacks, the pantry for extra food, ETC ETC ETC.  Scott got home today and said it may be the nicest room in our house when we are done.  I have ripped up the carpet, primed and repainted the walls, sanded and repainted the trim and baseboards, and tiled. 

I am excited to have it done.  Now....I have to put everything back.  We have come up with a plan that will make it more organized (hopefully).  And then....I pray it stays that way for at least a month.  Scott says he will be the backpack/coat police when the kids get home each day.


My mom used to use the phrase "better busy than bored" all the time when I was growing up.  I'm not quite sure why...but I suspect that it has a little to do with the fact that if I wasn't DOING something I was bored.  And sometimes I would complain about being so busy.  This is when her phrase would come up the most.  "Better busy than bored," she would say.

And while I have to agree...sometimes I would like to just TRY bored.  But this is only when I am in those CRAZY busy modes.  Like this moment (or at least this week).  I have had a month off from school and I haven't been bored ONCE.  When the kids went back to school this past Tuesday and I think I went crazy on the inside.  Instead of taking a well needed BREAK (something I won't get again until maybe Christmas of THIS year) I decided to remodel our 'mud' room.  I completely gutted it...took out the carpet, puttied the holes in the walls and repainted, took off the baseboards...sanded and repainted them too.

A gutted room with puttied walls

Yes, even the baseboards came off!

Primed walls ... ready for a coat of paint (or two)

Freshly painted walls (I love the color - and why wouldn't I?  It's called Baseball Mit :)

THEN...I tiled it ALL BY MYSELF.  This is the first time I endeavored this all by myself.  I usually have my dad here to help ... help me measure and cut, etc!  I was set!  I had tiles from a friend that have been sitting in my garage for a LONG time...in fact, I used them for my bathroom.  IF I had NOT used them in the bathroom, this project would have been A LOT easier (I think).  You see, I didn't have enough to finish the room so I decided to buy some darker colored tiles and sort of make a hodge podge cool look.  Only they didn't have the same sized tiles (these tiles from my friend were an odd tiny bit smaller size) so nothing would have worked out perfectly.  Instead of spending more money I spent A LOT more time.  Someday I will learn that MY time is worth A WHOLE LOT of money!  But no....I like to do it myself!  And so I did!  I chose 18" tiles and spent a couple hours laying it down to get the right pattern (ish) before I started 'for real.'

FINALLY (see, it's DARK outside)...ready to be grouted!

The finished product after MANY mopping sessions

Nothing ever works out JUST the way I plan, so ... 10 hours later I was finished laying the tile.  It was FREEZING outside so the tips of my fingers were raw and very sore, I was freezing (the wet tiles from the wet saw would freeze to the table out there....scary), dirty, and VERY sore and exhausted.

sore fingers

dirty pants - I am grateful to be wearing CLEAN clothes now

Scott asked if I needed him to stay but really all I wanted to do was yell that I wish my dad were here!  So....

It is finished and now ... after the grueling moments measuring and cutting then grouting and mopping, mopping, mopping, mopping, mopping (did I mention mopping....all that grout had to be completely cleaned off - only to have the dirt and snow from outside NOW tracked in there) ... and I have undertaken some electrical today.  I did it!  Only to get frustrated that the light would work but now NONE of the plugs would.  After heading to Menards in complete frustration WITH 4 kids (I pity them to be with me in THOSE types of moments) and coming back it is very sad to report that a breaker had tripped and THAT is why the plugs didn't work .... dangit!  The frustration was mostly because the plugs were connected to the SAME circuit as my fridge (the one in the kitchen AND the one in the garage - this crazy wired house), the microwave AND the TV and Internet!  Jeepers!!!!  I can do without the TV, internet, microwave....but NOT the fridge!  All the food ... I was crazy inside!

But now I am fine....and just need to wait for my kids to get OFF the Wii to finish the 3 way switch and a new light fixture and all is good.


NOW....after we clean out the cubbies and make them look presentable again (as well as re-organize the food pantry shelves that Cody decided to play in today) we'll take a new pic with the new light fixture ETC and post that....

I LOVE projects!