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(If you haven’t figured it out by now, most of my post titles come from song lyrics; today’s is courtesy of one of my favorite rainy day songs).
Well, the weekend didn’t turn out quite like I’d planned. It was mostly because of the rain (pouring all. weekend. long. with big, fat, chilly droplets that only made me want to curl up in bed). But my Dad and our neighborhood handyman, Tony, also had to cancel their trip over to the house, so all of my outdoor improvement plans have to wait another week or so. No matter, though. I spent a long time simply standing in my dining room and contemplating the order of my to-do list.
Do you ever do that? Standing around the unfinished room doesn’t really feel like much is being accomplished, but it helps me to get my thoughts together. I was gathering a full list of activities:
- add casing/molding around the doorways that lead to the kitchen and living rooms
- add casing around the large picture window
- repair any draft/old caulk issues from the same window
- add picture frame molding to the lower half of the walls (below the chair rail that already sits in place)
- find a light fixture for the room
- switch out the old dimmer
- switch out the old thermostat (can anyone tell me more about the Nest thermostats? I’m a bit of a review freak)
- hang plastic sheeting around the doors and sand down the walls (I’m sort of dreading this, sort of excited about it)
- paint the walls
- move the furniture back in
- hang the 2″ white blinds and curtains
- etc. etc.
Not in the correct order, of course. But during that time, I also managed to re-organize all of the furniture so that the living room couch, chairs, and dining room table/chairs fit into the living room (since everything has to go somewhere while I finish the dining room). For the longest time, I’ve simply been walking around the poor placement (under the false assumption that this would be a quick makeover), but now that I know I have to hang plastic sheeting and clear the doorways in order to sand down the walls, I got my butt into gear.
I’m diving back into the dining room project mainly for two reasons: in order to go any further with the living room repainting, I have to get all of the dining room furniture out of the way, and there simply isn’t anywhere else to put it. I don’t want to move it back into its rightful place until the room is ready to finish because I know myself too well; if I just move it back, the room will never get done. And since I’d really like to have my graduation celebration this December at my home (reason #2), the dining room has to be finished by then in order to welcome guests. Besides, I have a break off from school this month, and it seems like exactly the kind of motivation I need to get home tonight and hang that sheeting: a deadline.
I guess getting rained out isn’t necessarily a bad thing when you already have too much to do for one weekend. How was yours?
Ask Kenz (Interiors By Kenz) about the Nest- she got one for Christmas and is kind of obsessed with it ;)
Hi Sarah, Long time reader and lurker finally coming to the light. I spent just last week standing around my living room just staring and thinking about what needs to be done to finally make it feel like it’s my own. I’m fairly certain both my husband and dogs thought I was a bit crazy, but hey whatever works to get my ideas going I’ll do it.
Now about the Nest thermostat my husband and I absolutely love it! We just had to adjust the temperature for the first week and then after that it remembers it and adjust it automatically. A huge energy saver for us since we tend to forget to change the temp until hours later. Also it will notice when you are not home and adjust accordingly without you having to do anything, plus how can you beat turning the heat or a/c on when your still in bed from your phone?!
I often end up taping a piece of paper to the wall with the to do list on it. Sometimes that looks overwhelming but it helps keeps my confused brain from wandering too much.
Solid tip. I sometimes tape a mockup of what I want the room to look like. If I’m in a doodling mood, that is.
We have a Nest thermostat and we absolutely L-O-V-E it!! It really did start “learning” our schedule after the first week, and the smart phone app that comes with it is SUPER handy. You can adjust the temp while you’re away, and it also gives you all sorts of stats like how long the heat/air has been on, graphs of when it kicked on and off, etc. My husband spent forever researching the different types of programmable thermostats (there’s one by Honeywell, I believe, that advertises the ability to link it with other stuff in your home, like lights) but in the end he settled on the Nest. We highly recommend it!
Boo for rain. We had a pretty productive weekend – our mudroom is finally looking better! It is on my blog today if you want to see it. I’d link it here – but honestly that involves cutting and pasting and opening a new page and man…I’m not feeling up to it right now.
No worries. That makeover before/after is worth the jump!
ahhhhhh, banana pancakes. as soon as i saw the post title i got all laid-back, relaxed, and ready to go to the beach. gotta love Jack Johnson.
Darn weather and it’s plan changing abilities! We had a nice weekend in Jersey that involved lawn raking, weeding, fertilizing, seeding, watering… oh fun!
Just wanted to give you my thoughts on the nest- We got ours earlier this year and LOVE IT! It does take a week to “learn” your schedule and is fairly accurate, but you can go back and adjust your temperatures as you see fit. My favorite part is being able to adjust the temperature from anywhere… for example… from bed if it’s hot or cold… from work if I feel hot or cold and want to make sure the dog is comfy at home… all sorts of scenarios. You can literally track the energy it’s taking to keep your house at your temps and adjust as necessary. We haven’t been using it long enough to actually compare energy savings, but i can actually see it helping over time!
Rainy weekends are like weekends on call. I have no excuse but to stay at home and get something done [assuming I don’t actually get called in… then I get to sleep the rest of the weekend].
Throwing another “love it!!” into the Nest comments mix. We’ve definitely seen a cost savings since we started using it. Hubby swears by the app, though I think he just enjoys playing with it, since the Nest now “knows” our schedule and controls the temps accordingly. Installation was very simple, completely DIYable, and accomplished in a matter of minutes.