Fall Cleaning and Down Sizing

If you noticed that I have been absent lately from the wonderful world of blogging you would be about half right. Many of you know that I have a condition that causes not only pain and fatigue but also some memory and cognitive issues as well. So I have been reading all my favorite sites and some wonderful new ones as well. But what I have not been doing is posting. It is not that I have done nothing with my time, it is from the fact that time has slowed down for me. Everything goes slower, sort of like island time in the South Pacific. Things get done when they get done. So this week my project of the week is to clean and organize my 19 year old son's room. Never an easy task and I am not sure I am up to it but I am willing to give it my best try.

But I am up against a very formital foe as you can see from these photos.  Mind you I did some cleaning before those nasty pictures.  It is just my opinion that there should be areas to use to step across the room without injuring yourself.  My son apparently follows a different philosopy.

There were places to step but you need to have really long legs.  I don't. 

I have found over the years that I want to start over each semester just like the kids.  I miss that fresh start  and that almost anything is possible feeling I used to get from the start of the new school year or semester.  I still want to stock up on new pencils, flash cards and a clean set of white tennis shoes.  As I have grown older I want a clean fresh start in my house too so instead of spring cleaning I always have fall cleaning. I clean out the closets, sort out books, restock stationary supplies and I clean and organize my children's rooms.  Courtney is away in her own little 'surf shack' so she is most likely doing her own version of fall cleaning. And that brings me around to cleaning my son's room.  Or as we have taken to calling it "the Cave".

The pictures just don't do the room justice.  Just before this picture was taken I cleaned all the change off  of my son's desk.  I found almost 20$ in loose change covering the top of the desk.  And he had a large jar just within reach for change on the shelf just above his desk. 

My son loves airsoft guns and games and spends a lot of time chasing his friends around in military type games.  If they could see his bedroom none of the armed forces would take him.

So I cleaned and tossed and organize throughout most of the day and I was kinda worried about what my son was going to say when he saw his room.  I am not anywhere near done in there  and it may take me another week but I thought he would notice the changes and he did.  He came in to the kitchen and asked if I had been cleaning is his room.  The tone was a bit sarcastic, and when I said yes I had been cleaning in his room he said thanks (very nicely) and went back to his room. 
Now all I have to do is finish it.


Thanks for reading,

Something New

While I don't talk about my health as a subject of this blog some of you may know that I have a neurological condition that the causes me problems.
So today I am trying voice recognition software so that when my fingers and hands hurt I can enjoy creating a post for my blog.

Now all I have to do is figure out how to add pictures using only my voice.

I picked the picture at random but I was able to add it to my post.

And I can see I'm going to have to name my picture files more concisely.

Actually this is a whole lot easier than I thought it would be, but I still have the same problems I would if I was typing.

Thanks for reading,

Quick and Easy Update for White Applicances

When we bought our house 5 years ago the kitchen appliances were quite a eclectic mixture. The stove was almond and did not work.  The oven was black as was the microwave.  The hood was a mess and your guess on the color would be just as good as mine but it didn't work either.  The frig was new and stainless steal,  finally something that worked and looked good.  And as my luck continued the dishwasher was new and also stainless steal. 

And then there was the garbage compactor.                   
It was practically brand new, it looked like it had been used once.

The only problem was that it was white.  We replaced

the stove, range hood, the oven and the microwave with new
stainless steal appliances.  But that left the new and
very white trash compactor.  After checking around a
bit we were surprised to learn that a new SS compactor
 would cost approximately $675. 

That seemed like a lot of mullah for just a color change, so here is what I did.

First I ordered a product called Soft Metal on ebay and I paid approximately $33 for this amazing product.  It goes on very much like a  window film.  It was very easy to apply.  The only hard part was taking the compactor out of its mechanism and taking off the parts I needed to spray paint black.  I sprayed the white hard plastic control panel along with the foot pedal that opens up the compactor with Rustoleum black spray paint.  Then I placed the metal coating over the white front panel of the compactor.  I have not been happy with the way the paint stuck to the foot pedal so I will be ordering a new black foot pedal but all the other painted pieces are holding up well.

The color of  the metal matched the other appliances perfectly.

 

Then all I had to do was put the compactor back together,  not the easiest task but I finally got it reassembled.

And here is the finished project. I was in such a hurry to take my pictures that I had not wiped off the metal film after applying it but unlike some stainless steal it does not usually show finger prints.  Since my dishwasher does show every finger print and water spot I am considering covering my it with the Soft Metal too.

And here is a staged version just for kicks.

Now doesn't that look much better than the white we started with....

I am linking up to

Thrifty Decor Chick Before and After Party

and

Remodelaholic's HomeSweetHome

Thanks for reading,

Shameless Coveting

I love Jan over at Bobbypins Boardwalk..  Her site is one of my very favorites.  So when she asked that I mention her upcoming giveaway on my blog, I had no problems.  But when I learned what the prize is to be I went from a short mention about the giveaway to shamelessly plugging the upcoming giveaway.  The prize is a something much coveted over here at Three Dogs At Home, an Earlex Paint Sprayer, with its smooth finishes and easy use.  The giveaway ends on August 14 , just 13 days away.  So get over to  BobbypinsBoardwalk and enter.   Click Here to Enter!


Thanks for reading,