COVID19 keeping you home? Ideas to keep you busy!!!!

Okay, I am not here to discuss the Corona Virus. I want to focus on mood lifting, therapeutic things we can do while laying low and praying this virus vanishes! I actually just put the baby down for a nap, shut off the news, put my phone aside, opened the deck door and sat down with my MacBook. Since I have been home on maternity leave, my mind is already FILLED with ideas and projects to keep me busy so I figured, why not share them! 

Olivia (my 4 month old) and I have a nice routine going on these days. Part of our late afternoon involves running errands... UPS, Target, Homegoods, Lowes, Dunkin', Walmart, Marshalls... ya know, the basic stores in my town. My husband and I sat down last night and made the decision to not bring the baby anywhere... and then also decided to limit going out in public altogether. 

So, here we are. Home. Now, for those of you who have never read my blog before I focused ONLY on home decor but I have decided to extend my blogging focus... mom stuff, educational stuff (I am a teacher!) and of course, home stuff. I renamed my blog already and am taking advantage of this time at home to plan SO many new posts. So, please follow along! I find this to be one of the most cathartic things in the WORLD and am always amazed that people read and enjoy my posts. 

Now, let's get down to the good stuff! How do we keep busy for the next few weeks? 

1. Organize (ANY LITTLE THING!) Here are some visual ideas. 

 

Pantry, junk drawer, coat closet, bedroom closets, any drawer, under the kitchen sink, bathroom toiletries... the list goes on! I'd like to add that you don't need to spend $1.3 million dollars at The Container Store. My bins and containers are from Walmart and Target. If you can't get to the store, Amazon has cheap options. 

I am sure our fridges are stocked! Clean them and organize them! I don't have any fancy containers in my fridge but I definitely keep it somewhat organized. 

One day this week, I will for sure get in here and sanitize, purge and organize! 

2. Clean- Not your regular cleaning. Deep clean. Pull out the couches, move area rugs, rent a steam cleaner (I borrowed my parents steam cleaner and cleaned the sofa in the family room a few weeks ago- DIS-GUST-ING and Ohhhh so rewarding!), vacuum behind your bed and dresser (scary!). Clean heat/AC vents, dust trim and molding, pull out the washer, dryer and fridge. Trust me. This will take hours of your life. You might love it (like me) and you might hate it (like most) but I bet you'll feel good once it's done. Really! 

Laundry rooms are sooooo dusty! Get in there, move your appliances and clean! 

3. Purge- Get rid of all your crap. I have been doing a little every week and dayyyyum, it feels good. 

Our kitchen utensil drawer had SO MUCH unnecessary stuff. Literally, it was OVER flowing with crap. I emptied the entire drawer and made two piles. Keep and toss. 

When purging, you can either throw it all away (sad), donate (amazing!) or sell it if it's in good shape (ohhh yea!) I use Let Go and Facebook Marketplace to sell. Have made good cash selling, too! 

Clothes, shoes, belts... get rid of things you don't wear anymore! Buh-bye. 

4. Cook and bake! Who knows... you might love it!

5. Self Care- relax, read, mani/pedi, nap... ya know!

6. GO OUTSIDE- I went outside to weed and do a spring clean up in our flower beds and it felt AMAZING! I generally don't LOVE weeding and stuff but for whatever reason, this felt so great. This is a perfect example of how an activity that you normally might not love to do can still make you FEEL good. 

7. Laundry? I know, I know... but honestly, it feels SO GOOD to be caught up on laundry. SO GOOD! I hate nothing more than folding laundry but it's much less painful to fold 1 load a day verses folding 8 loads on a precious Saturday morning. Barf. 

8. Technology clean up- This one is sooo time consuming and I need to do it desperately! Emails, photos, texts... they take up so much space. I have WAY too many photos on my camera roll and some of them are ridiculous. Do I really need a picture of my manicure from 2015? That's a hard NO! Then my phone pics get "iCloud-ed" to my Mac and then I have these ridiculous photos in 2 places when they shouldn't even be in ONE. So, technology clean up! 

Don't do 50 things a day, either. Spread them out. I have learned to slow down a little and take in moments of my day vs. being a lunatic and doing hundreds of chores all within 5 hours. 

Hope this list helps! Feel free to add more ideas in the comments section. Stop by for MUCH more home, mama and educational content coming soon!! Thanks for reading and supporting. 

Basement Renovation: BEFORE & AFTER

If you don’t follow me on the gram, then you may not know that we recently finished our basement! We have been in the house almost 5 years and it was just time! It’s a small space (12x12) with an 8x4 hallway and then a small area that we left unfinished for storage. We had a relatively small budget so we did some work ourselves and then hired contractors (who were INCREDIBLE and so affordable) to do the things we simply couldn’t do. 

Rather than write 5 different posts leading up to the reveal, I decided it would be fun to squeeze it all into one post……….. That’s actually a lie... 

I just finally got around to blogging. Instastories are MUCH easier and I’ve been dabbling with those this summer. ;) 

Okay… here is what you need to know. 

1- I painted everything. Ev-er-y-thing. 

2- Brian did most of the wiring and electrical (except the high hats in the ceiling) and hung stuff (TV, curtain rods, etc) 

3- Contractors (Kenny and Benny) did the sheetrock, ceiling, high hats, floors, and trim

***If you need work done, these guys are incredible! They are affordable, skilled and FAST! I have never known workers to work so quickly when getting paid by the hour. Typically, they streeeeeetch everything out to get more $$$. Leave a comment if you’d like their info. 

Took 4 days for the guys to work… then about 3 days for me to paint and a day or 2 for Bri to do wires and stuff. 

I’ll share pics like this: before, day 1, day 2, etc etc. 

Ready?

BEFORE!

         

         

DAY 1 

Sheetrock and hung the track for the drop ceiling around the perimeter of the room. 

         

                             
DAY 2

Drop ceiling, high hats and spackle! Holy smokes! I loved this day because it started to actually look like a room!

DAY 3

Floor tiles! Ahhhhhhhhh :) 

DAY 4

Finished tiles, trimmed and added a door to the hot water heater closet. :)

We left one concrete wall as an accent wall. It might not be for everyone but we LOVE it!!! I eventually sanded that wall to make it smooth. Looks so cool!

At this point, the contractors were done! Total of 28 hours! If anyone has questions about pricing, please reach out. I have noon problem sharing the details. 

Here are links to the materials we used... 

Drop Ceiling ---- Drop Ceiling tiles
*We definitely splurged on these and it was SO worth it! Drop ceiling can look kinda "cheap" but these are beautiful!!!
*Then, all the frames and "kits" are general. The biggest investment are the tiles themselves. 

Floor tiles ---- Kaden Reclaimed Wood
*These tiles are a dream. I had others in mind but Brian suggested we pull the trigger on these and I am SO happy with how they look! Tile is so much easier to clean, too! 

Mortar (for floor tiles) ---- I THINK this is the one... We didn't go for the cheap one... That, I know for sure. Thin Set 

Grout ---- I THINK this is it... It's all a blur. Grout
*I know the color was Summer Wheat and it was $30ish a bag. Again, I was convinced to get the good stuff. Usually I would get the middle of the road stuff but ya know, I actually listened for once in my life. lol

Okayyyy... paint! My goodness have I had my fill of painting this summer. There is no "getting your feet wet" in my life. It's sink or swim! Did you see my kitchen painting project? Check it out here 

Some progress shots... I used Icy Avalanche from HGTV HOME Sherwin Williams BUT I used Valspar Paint because it was less than $30 a can for the "good" stuff. 

 Tapping off the ceiling of the stairs was ROUGH!!!! I was sweating my @$$ off! 

I can't find progress shots of painting... probably because I was delirious at the time so here are the afters! Ahhhhh so clean!!!

Then it was time to do these filthy stairs! I chose, ummmm... a dark gray! Ahhh I forgot the name but I'll try and find the paint chip. I do know 100% that it was a Valspar color AND a semi-gloss finish. Because these stairs are a high traffic areas, semi-gloss was the only way to go. 

The prep wasn't too bad. I used painters tape along the trim and just banged this out one night. Legit from 9pm-12:30pm I just painted these stairs. Started at the top and worked my way down. I did learn that semi-gloss paint is much less forgiving than matte paint but if you make a mistake, it's easier to wipe clean. I worked on the top step, then did some trim while it dried, then did the second coat, then did the second step, worked on more trim while the second step dried, then went back to do the second coat on the second stair, so on and do forth. Get it?!? 

 The banister was a pain... but I figured it out. 

 Found this rug at Homegoods for $25 and it's literally the softest rug I've ever felt.  I did some searching online and found the same rug, different pattern here at Kohls. I actually LOVE this one and it's on sale! Might need another!!!

And so begins the making of a man cave... a new QLED TV. I was able to salvage that Raider sticker from his old upstairs man cave which made me happy. Ya know what else makes me happy? The fact this our football team is black and silver... I feel bad for Greenbay fans or Eagles fans or Dolphins fans... actually ANY other football team that isn't black and silver. ;) Goes so nicely with our basement colors. 

Another shot of the stairs. Added this mirror from Homegoods ($25) and it really brightens up this narrow stairwell.

Brian took this 1940s chest from his dad and made it into a media console. He sanded and used a heat gun to get off all of the old paint, then spray painted in matte black! LOVE how this turned out. The cable box and PS4 and other "stuff" is inside and he installed a sensor for the remote to work even though the cable box is hidden. No wires. No mess. Love. Plus, it looks so clean! 

 Covered the doorway to under the stairs with a curtain from Walmart! 

 

Here is a better pic of our concrete accent wall. I just think it's so different and cool!  

 All the wires are hidden behind the sheetrock! ahhhhhhhhhh

 The curtains straight ahead hide a small, unfinished area that holds our shoes, water softener and a bunch of other crap! Out of sight, out of mind!

 We just had a sofa delivered and it's truly a man cave's dream sofa! I actually like it so much! Hint... it reclines, has a billion buttons, LED lights in cup holder, outlets and HDMI ports. Yea, it's no joke! 

Once we completely decorate, I'll post another blog with pics and details. 

Thanks for stopping by. If you have any questions, feel free to leave a comment below! 

xo Cyndi