Challenge Update

Journey to Homemaker

I just found out I have to have surgery on Friday. I will be in the hospital over the weekend, and recovering for a couple of weeks. I will still judge a winner for the contest, but it may take a few extra days to get the apron pattern sent out. I hope the winner won't mind. If you are doing the contest, please post a comment telling me what job you plan to do. I'm trying to flush out all you lurkers! ;-) I am going to post a picture of the pattern tomorrow. I'm still trying to figure out how. If I don't, you all have my permission to post a million comments bugging me to do it! :-)

I have not yet gotten to my kitchen, mostly because I got behind and it turned into a pigsty. My wonderful husband cleaned it up for me this weekend, and now I'm ready to tackle it. Well, actually I did start a little bit, because on Friday I started going through the piles of paper and putting them into in/out boxes, the stackable kind you use in offices. I have four down in the computer room and four in the kitchen, which gives each of us an in and an out box in each room. I cleared an entire counter of clutter, getting rid of the CD's (I got a new CD rack at a yard sale for a dollar, to keep in the computer room) the tapes, and a pile of junk that didn't belong there. It looks SO much better. That had been a major hot spot for months!

Tomorrow I will begin to pull stuff out of the cabinets. When we moved in, I just shoved stuff into them, unorganized and in bags and boxes. We actually have a lot of storage space in our kitchen, but it is under-utilized. I may try to paint the interior of the cabinets white, to make it cleaner looking and easier to see inside. Our cabinets are a very dark 1970's style wood. VERY dark. I may ask the landlord if I can paint the outside, too. I'm planning on repainting the walls no matter what. They painted them a very odd pinkish beige. It's the kind of color you can NOT match anything to, in decorating. Pinks are too pink next to the paint, beige looks funny, and so do most other colors, except maybe white and some greens. Trust me, it's wierd. I have a feeling it was in the "oops" section of discounted paints.

Plus, the landlord told me he painted with washable, scrubbable paint. Bless his heart, he's a nice man, but he doesn't know what he's talking about. The paint is FLAT paint, and you moms out there with a lot of kids know that flat paint is not scrubbable or washable, no matter what the paint can says. I need walls I can wash. I'm going to pick a very neutral creamy yellow that will go with almost anything. But I'm going to ask first about the cabinets, because painting them is a big deal. I want to paint them a semi-gloss white. I hate to spend money like that on a rental, but it will make me happier, and we have an eighteen month lease.

I can't wait to have my kitchen clean so I can start decorating it. I'm going to do before and after pics, it will be great! Just being able to have a place for everything, and know WHERE that place is will be wonderful! The challenge is helpful to me. I can't very well have a challenge and not do it myself!