Rearranging the House on My Fifth Anniversary
Sunday, January 25th was my five year anniversary in the Cape of Dreams. I celebrated by moving everything around for what seems like the thousandth time. Remember last August when I completely rearranged the basement. No, well Douglas does, and he was not thrilled about doing it again. Luckily, he loves me.
To be honest, I was not very happy about moving everything around again either, but I loved the idea of getting the basement cleaned up again. Over the past three months that I have been coaching, the clutter has slowly been taking back over our space. Here is what it looked like before we started on Saturday morning.
First, we had to move things around in the storage area in order to make room for the white bookshelves. This caused a fight that threatened to derail the entire project, but we were able to work it out. Things did not fit the way that we planned, but we finally got all the furniture in. Then, we started moving over all of the stuff that we were taking out of the other cabinets.
Next we moved on to the other side of the basement. The china cabinet moved to the wall recently vacated by the bookshelves.
The last move was to bring down the other cabinet from the living room. Menderes and Douglas were the ones moving all of the furniture. My job was to take out all of books and other objects residing on each shelf.
Once all of the furniture was relocated, the men were done, and it was my time to go to work. The basement was a disaster, but I was in my groove. I had all of the books on the shelves by the end of the night and was ready to get back to work on Sunday morning. I did not take any pictures since it was dark and I was tired.
By noon on Sunday, the storage area was totally cleaned and organized. I was particularly proud of how my shoes fit on the shelves. They will be much easier to access now.
A couple of hours later, I had finished organizing the living space in the basement. Well, that is not entirely true. I did not get a chance to put away the blanket on the floral chair because I did not want to disturb Kahlua. Blanket aside, I am loving the new look.
However, I cannot fully revel in the success of the weekend. Although, the basement is looking great, things are not as good upstairs. We cannot put the new antique together until we paint the baseboard that will be behind it.
Also, the workshop area of the basement went from bad to worse. Hopefully, Douglas and I will get a chance to work on that in the next couple of weeks. I only have two more weeks of coaching left, and then I will have a lot more time.
Not wanting to end on a bad note, let’s go back to the other side. Happy anniversary, Basement!
Happy Homemaking!
I am a teacher, traveler, artist, writer, homemaker and a whole lot more. In January 2009, I bought the Cape of Dreams. It was the second house that I had ever owned, but it was the first that I bought by myself. I now live in the house with my husband Douglas, our dog Kahlua, and Crème de Menthe, the cat. Because, what life is complete without a little Kahlua and Cream? I love arts and crafts of all kinds, and I refinish furniture as well. We are slowly redoing our entire house. You can read about my projects on my blog www.CapeofDreams.com
Wow! So much work in a weekend!
This morning my legs were aching, and I could not figure out why. Then I remembered how many times I had gone up and down the basement stairs in the past four days, and I knew what the cause was!
I’m just so impressed that you have made livable space out of your basement even though it’s unfinished! It looks quite cozy!
So you have to paint that baseboard, huh … GOTCHA! 🙂
We have considered finishing it, but then we would lose a lot of space around the edges and end up with a smaller room. I forget that it is not finished when I am down here. Douglas did complain that I have turned his “man cave” into a living room. He likes it even if he doesn’t want to admit it!
Love the shoe storage. You worked hard and it paid off. (Having 2 strong helpers isn’t bad either.) Jo @ Let’s Face the Music
Thank you! I keep my rarely worn and seasonal shoes down here. Every spring and fall I change out the shoes that I will wear.
I could not have done this without my strong men! Even Douglas and I would have struggled.
I like Crème eyeing her cat platform in the last picture. Great work! Basements always seem to go wild after a few months, even when you think you’re on top of things!!!
I guess that I should be glad that it is only the basement that gets that messy. Better to have the mess down there where guests are less likely to see it!