172 - Starting to look like home

Took a break from websites and spreadsheets today to finally start organizing the house. It's been hard with everything going on (both good and bad) to focus on it, but I'm tired of looking at piles of mish-mash. So today, I did this:

Hung a shelf on the wall and arranged a few things. It hangs behind one of the loveseats where there would otherwise be a blank wall. Blank walls are boring...

Finally hung my coffee mug rack and... pictures? They're 3-dimensional so I don't know what to call them, tiles? Moved the baker's rack closer to the tv, which centers it more... I need to figure out how to deal with the cords. The dvr was kind of hanging off the side sitting next to the toaster oven before and it just didn't work. So I rearranged things and now it doesn't call so much attention to itself.

Moved the parsley and cilantro outside and balanced everything a little better. The blue bottle adds a little height, a little interest.

Put the screen behind the Hooker. Yes, Hooker. I love my Hooker, she was expensive and she's beautiful... one of the first quality pieces of furniture I bought on my own since most everything I had was hand-me-down. And when I say that, I'm not complaining, I rarely buy "new" things, if it wasn't directly handed down to me I usually found it at an antique store.

Not so exciting, but I hung stuff on the wall. The paint color doesn't excite me, but it will be a while before I decide what shade to replace it with, or can afford to. Whenever we find the hardware I have a shelving unit that will sit in the corner on the other side.

Zoomed out pic of the living room wall. The vacuum cleaner really ties it all together I think.

This is now a pretty shelving unit, but it was an organ that belonged to my grandfather. I zoomed in because there is a motorcycle seat sitting where the other shelf will go. :) There was a lot more crap sitting on it, we just sort of sat things where we could find a spot as we unpacked, so even if you can't tell, it's less cluttered than it was.

I decided this will now be the temporary bathroom mirror. It's still not perfect, but at least the room will look like an actual bathroom instead of a temporary room.

But it needed to be painted first.

So now I wait for it to dry.

And this is the guy who thinks he's going to sting me every time I walk out the door. He has apparently made our welcome mat his home, and when I step out I hear angry buzzing and he goes on patrol. It's cute. For now. I try to imagine him as a Disney character and it helps somewhat. If he stings me I'll kill him as he's dying, just so he knows it was because he stung me. So far I've made it past him about five times without incident.

I can't blame him, there is a tomato plant, some lemon thyme and basil in that corner. He picked a nice spot.

In the meantime I cleaned up the buffet. Trust me, it looks better. And yes, those are all cookbooks. I love to cook, and I love books... you do the math.

New bathroom. Looks almost like someone lives here. It doesn't look this cluttered in real life... And actually I hung the towel somewhere else and that helped. The towel rack is behind the door, and if the door is open, it's pretty useless.

It's level(ish).

The entry. I got a cowboy hat rack so we'd have a place to put (some) of Mike's hats, and the floppy garden hats are hung on a smaller rack next to it. The table was my grandparents', I like having stuff around with history, stuff that belonged to family. Makes me feel like they're still with me. And it makes a perfect place to put shoes and keys.

And nothing says "welcome!" like kitty litter!

So that's it for now. I think I've earned a little R&R and I'm going to take advantage of it.