LexieCat

Spent the morning with my NEW personal organizer. What a PERFECT FIT. Once again, the universe gave me what I needed. I totally LOVE this lady--much more comfortable for me than the first one. I liked the first one, but she PUSHED a bit harder than I was comfortable with. This one is much more relaxed in her style, and seems to think a bit more flexibly. We brainstormed different ways we could set things up, and we worked together just great. She is about my age (maybe a couple years older, but not much more), and we just really clicked even with our personal chitchat as we were working. We worked for five hours today and got a LOT accomplished. I've already paid for a total of 18 hours, so we will have three more days of 4-5 hours each.

I also got everything rolling for my new floors, which will be done over the course of the next 3-4 weeks. I have an AA friend (carpenter) doing my tile work, and Lowe's doing the carpet. (The carpenter tiled my fireplace a few years ago and he is awesome). I was getting cross-eyed looking at carpet and tile samples, but I'm really happy with what I picked out. The last thing I have planned for THIS year's projects is having blinds installed, which I will choose once I get the flooring done.

I am going to feel like I'm in a brand-new house when this is done. Maybe next year I'll redo the kitchen counter/sink and bathrooms, but this will make my place fit to have friends over.

firebolt

Yay!! I bet that feels SO good!

wicked

I am so delighted you shared this, LexieCat.
It has been an inspiration to me.
How exciting, picking out tile and carpet!
I am not sure I would be good at that, making a decision.

Are you still taking pictures or are we waiting for the final Architectural Digest spread?


Beth

LexieCat

LOL, yeah, I'm taking pictures, but we mostly worked on closets and a bit of clearing out rooms today. When I have a good before/after I will post.

spiderqueen

This is fantastic, good for you! I actually do this job for folks. One client calls me his Chaos Manager. My problem is separating paying jobs from the ABF chaos...

LexieCat

Heh, she got a big kick out of my UFYH app on my iPhone--she had never heard of the site, but it cracked her up--that right there is to her credit.

My one dilemma at the moment is getting rid of my pool table. I put it on Craigslist for a song, and a guy told me he wanted it, and would pick it up Thursday. I warned him how heavy it was, and he insisted he wanted it. Now he's not returning emails, so I may have to pay somebody $245 to haul the damn thing away. Made a few calls to see if it could be donated (it's in good shape), but nobody will take it. I can change the listing on CL to "free" just to see if someone will swoop in and grab it, but if worse comes to worst, I will have to pay to get it out of here.

Argnotthisagain

Goodwill won't come pick it up?

I'm surprised. I've had them come and pick up tons of stuff when I moved.

Looking forward to seeing pics!

Hammer

Loving it.

LexieCat

Goodwill doesn't do pickups here. There are a few charities that WILL do pickups, but a pool table has to be painstakingly disassembled even to get it out the door.

dandylion

Lexie---changing to "free" may do the trick---people love to get free stuff. Make sure to put a good picture with it.


HAMMER---I'll take all of them!!!!!!!!!!!
OMG, they are so cute I could overdose on them.....


dandylion

DreamsofSerenity

That is so great, Lexie. I am very happy for you. It is so nice to have the habitat fixed up.

I was jealous and took a hammer and chisel to my bathroom tile this past weekend. It might not have been the most prudent move but it was a definite leap in the right direction.

LexieCat

I've got good pictures of it up. I am giving the guy the rest of this evening before I do that. I emailed him today and said if I don't hear from him I will make "other arrangements." LOL, maybe he's waiting till it goes down to "free"--he knows I want to get rid of it!

amy55

I'm sure you feel so good about yourself now. You are doing terrific. I remember how good I felt when I actually got decent subfloor down, then when the kitchen was done, and bathroom was done, and actual carpet put in. It's the greatest feeling in the world.

Can't wait for the before and after pics.

Pool table --- biggest problem with that is that is has to be taken apart. That means the felt gets ripped up, then it has to be replaced. So for anyone taking this, it means they know they will have that expense. Also table really heavy. That is slate. Before paying to get it hauled away, offer it for free. If you weren't so far away from me, I would take that off your hands in a minute.

You're doing really good. Proud of you.

Edited to add: Rethought that. My daughter had taken a pool table, but it had to be moved that day, really fast, taking it apart was the only way to do it that fast, and with other things on the moving truck.

PeacefulMe

Pool table.....try posting on FreeCycle. freeCyclers will take anything and usually the person getting the item does the picking up. You can google the organization and there are different lists for almost any town that you are in. People post things they are looking to get for free and people wanting to give things away will post an item and if you get multle requests you can chose who gets it. I have gotten rid of a lot of things this way.

LexieCat

I checked FreeCycle, but there are very few listings in this area, so it doesn't seem too promising.

OTOH, I changed the listing on craigslist to "free" and within 15 minutes had five "takers"--hopefully one of them will take it off my hands! I said in the ad if it wasn't out of here in one week it was getting hauled off as trash (which would be a shame because it's WAY too nice for that!). I also mentioned in the new ad that the style might be called "retro"--it looks like the ones in pool halls from the 60s or 70s. I looked up the manufacturer, and they went out of business in '81.

LexieCat

Dreams, I did the EXACT SAME THING with the mirrors I had around the fireplace. The people I bought the house from were Italian, and apparently mirrors are a big thing with them. One entire wall in my bedroom was mirrored (yuck), I have a curved wall in my dining room that alternated strips of wallpaper with strips of mirror (double yuck), and the fireplace in the living room was completely surrounded by mirrors (barf-o-rama). Every morning I would sit in my ratty t-shirt with my hair sticking out while I had my coffee, and this mirrored fireplace was DIRECTLY in front of me.

So one day I put sheets all around the floor, put on safety glasses and gloves, and grabbed a hammer and knocked all the mirrors to bits (I think that's when my foundation problem was discovered--I may have to wait a few decades for the bad luck to wear off). And my friend the tile guy put slate tiles all around it. This was done about four years ago, but I do have before and after shots of that:

This one is "before":

LexieCat

This one is "after":

DreamsofSerenity

Lexie,

That looks so good! Sooooo much better..

Those mirrors would have driven me batty as well. The last thing I need is to feel like there is someone looking at me all the time, even if it is myself! It's crazy making. Plus, I think too many mirrors are bad Feng Shui.

My hammer and chisel moment was about wanting to not be able to turn back, leaping as you said in a post somewhere.. Of course now my bathroom is torn up and I don't have a plan in place yet to fix it. I'm not sure I can afford a massive remodel either. Oh well, I've got to live on the edge in some way. Better dance with tile danger than abusive alkie danger.

Fandy

Lexie i just wanted you to know that i find your deep cleaning very inspiring. i plan to follow you in removing some of my own *stuff*...i have a taker for all my smaller items, the church youth group, i just load up my trunk, they will unpack...the tax receipt is no clutter.
congrats on all your hard work. clean is serene!

Seren

I'm so glad this is working out for you, Lexie. Good luck in the coming days! We'll wait for more pictures