Countertops Before and After

Here's some pics of the before and after of Kitchen Countertops (Week 1 of 52 weeks of Organization). Some of the before has lots of after cooking stuff... though... it was sitting around for a while before I took the pics... oops! ;)


Before!

 ooops! :)

Mailing station... another lovely mess

that was from lunch. haha. there's an espresso machine behind it too.

ewwwww... this has been bothering me for a while

Our dish soap

hand soap

                                                        under the sink loveliness

did I say lovely?

yay

 After!

 so this fell off, so I'm going to think of something else. I'm going to try again before I start using old kleenex boxes

I modge podged the color :D blue and pink.

52 Weeks of Organization-Kitchen Countertops and Sink

Hey!! Long time no see :)


I figured I'd try to write again and what better way to start than posting my mom's and my project of 52 Weeks of Organization! It's basically trying to get your house organized in 52 weeks. That way you don't over stress yourself, or if you do, it's only that one week that is the pain in the butt. This is the first week so if'you'd like to start with me that'd be cool! If not, you can either start later (since this isn't a "New Years" thing) or you can just watch and hopefully be jealous :D. I can only post my stuff since my mom is in a different state but if she sends me pictures I can upload! I know she wouldn't even dream of writing me a blog to post or doing one herself (she's not a fan of reading/writing, does enough of that all day to do for leisure). This is really good for people who have a problem getting rid of things, or keep things they've bought replacements for, or even those that just have multiples of good things they could give to goodwill (aka... me and my mom). Craig will be so happy afterwards if everything has a home and is of working and good quality


This week: Kitchen Countertops and Sink

My goals:

• shred all the stuff in our "shred box"
• find or create a hand soap and dish soap dispenser (thinking mason jars)
• find a home for excess counter stuff (ipod player, our knives, maybe even the coffee syrup)
• mail organization. it's not functional anymore. It was when we weren't married and I didn't take over paying all the bills, so we opened separate mail. Now, one is more for storage and the other is overflowing... It might be that I create a bill paying schedule to coincide with Craig's payday schedule.
• Junk Drawer: everyone has one, I'm going to put things in baggies and use a desk organizer I've had for a long time (bought it because it was cute and used it at work) and doesn't have a home. Hopefully I can give it one in there.
• under sink: it needs a redo... 
• sink: baby oil it up to shine it
• stove: figure out how to clean it

My mom's goals:

• clean all the counters
• wipe down the kitchen aide with an old toothbrush
• de-clutter
• go through the utensil container on the stove and take out what she doesn't need

Next week: kitchen cabinets and cupboards. this one will be easier and more of an asthetic appeal for the whole kitchen (for me) since we just moved and got rid of a ton of stuff that was expired or we no longer needed.

See the pattern, not too hard and easy to follow (until you get to what's really been aching you... for me, the garage, and 2nd bedroom)

Pictures to come in later posts (before and afters)

Week 15: decisions decisions

One of my many stupid hobbies I have is looking at new on the market homes and land, searching for that perfect spot we'll be able to build our dream home, or modify a close to dream like home. Our specifications:

• Large enough to have "me time" even when there are 4 people in the home. Space is necessary.
• open floor plan for kitchen, dining and family room. For those times where we will crave each other's company and not have to be in the same room. And so we can host things there.
• enough rooms to hold: us, our 2 kids (that's all we're working on for now), a guest room or quarters, a home theater, kid's game room (so they only have to clean it once a month or so), office/library, laundry room, amber's crazy idea room, Craig's gamer heaven, etc. I love the luxury of those.
• enough land to have a yard for our kids, horses (including but not limited to housing other's horses, training, trail rides, etc), have a barn where it can be rented out for weddings and events, maybe a bed and breakfast, a vineyard... to name a few things.
• a studio for my photoshoots and editing.
• a pool and pool house (pool included of course).
• and maybe even another small house or two (cute cottage) so when family comes to visit they can stay for longer without us bugging each other. Or maybe even for housing newlyweds.. Or house our ranch manager who will help hire and train horses. Yes, I've thought a lot about this.

The newest specification: in or around Hillsboro, Oregon.

All this time I've been watching the market for homes and land around Folsom, CA since Craig got on permanently; figuring we have a great place for Craig to work for a long while, lots of other groups he could work in down here... It's certainly cheap enough to build a house and for me not to have to work when we have kids (or at least a 9-5 sort of job).

Last night, Craig dropped a too logical request and desire to move to Hillsboro. It's only 3 hours away from family, there's another group like his there, it's just as big as Folsom (if not bigger) so the opportunity will be as great... And I can't fight against his reasoning. Stupid logic. I love California. The weather's great 10 out of 12 months of the year, there's sun!!!!, we finally have friends to hang out with, it's far enough away from family we can enjoy the visits...

But when we have kids, it'd be less of a burden for family to deal with to see their grand kids/niece-nephew/cousin and see them grow, instead of getting pictures and a yearly visit. At least, the close family.

And wouldn't you believe, I started my quest on trying to find something that will work for us for a while in Oregon. Unfortunately, since Hillsboro is right next to Portland, all the rich Portland people live in Hillsboro, making the price of property and homes skyrocket. For example:

California land (all or mostly usable): $29,000 to $500,000
California homes (on land of course 3+acres): $117,000 to $1.5 million.

Oregon land (all or mostly usable 3+ acres): $200,000 to $2 million
Oregon homes (on land 3+ acres): $500,000 to $15 million (no friggen joke)

Geez friggen Louise. Our tentative plan is to wait until Craig gets his first promotion, maybe even a year after then to go over to the Hillsboro office. Once he gets past that first promotion (they have a 2 year block on it at Intel.. for the first one only) I know he'll do great enough to climb from there. He's as determined as I am... just, his direction is better for us in the long run though. ANYWAY, we're undecided (depending on how long it takes us to save up) we may move in to a starter home on 15,000sqft lot or higher (boo) and if need be, fix it, save in the meantime. or we could (if we have enough saved) build/buy the house we'll be in for at least 25 years right off. It all depends. And once we move, I'll have to quit my job unless they let me work from home in Oregon (doubtful). I'll need to apply for a photography business license there too. either find a new job or join stupid get together groups to spread my business and make friends...

I really don't like tentative plans. It makes me frazzled. I like knowing the action we're taking. There's too many things to worry about with tentative plans. To many paths to go down or too many complications that could get in the way and change it.  All I know now is that moving to Hillsboro is a 95% probability and since it's friggen expensive, we can't buy the luxuries we have been. No more gadgets, no more clothes, no more excess food, no more going out to dinner, no more going out to movies, no more buying "frivolous" items. My favorite kind. I'll have to start making things more often... which will take more time (not food, but gifts and things we need, I already do that for food).

Tough cookie.

Week 10

Last week was a difficult one to get through. Mostly for Craig. Work stresses, being extremely tired, just no will to do anything.

Friday everything got better. We actually went to dinner and the movies, something that we haven't done in a few months. Not that we have anything stopping us, but we've been in a rut and a money saving stuff. But we saw Unstoppable. Even with all the cheesy stuff it was pretty good!

We went to the Verizon store and ended up buying us new phones! We'll need to wrap them Christmas Eve and open them in the morning, because that's our Christmas gift to each other :)

anyway! My heart feels better from the last couple posts.

Month 1

Week 4

Still feels like dating!!! Nothing feels changed. We've been married officially for 30 days. over the course of 30 days.... We just feel like normal. Our world hasn't been shifted. We don't feel this special link to each other that you just can't get while dating. I just don't feel it. Even when we fought while dating (it got rarer and rarer as we got older), we still didn't think of the break-up option. We knew that wasn't even a possibility. I mean, I feel bad that I didn't have a more giving or prosperous family to help me like his family did so we could be rolling in dough, but we both don't care. My family is what they are. Insane, crazy, looney, and completely involved in each other's lives. His family is disciplined, older, small, and completely involved in each other's lives. I couldn't ask for anything better.

Which reminds me, I was going to get a degree in something, but we decided that the only thing that could help me be a better mom would be to take some early education classes. I won't take them, though I may take some photography classes. But anything I quit my job to go do, is not going to help me be a stay at home mom. I won't be working at a 9-5 job, bringing in a lot of money. I will find other things to do so I can help bring in some cash for Craig and I and whatever kids we have. But it was really important to me to be a stay-at-home mom more than anything else. So, I won't even consider getting a degree until after my kids are in college too. And by then... what jobs could I get afterwards when I'm all crusty and old??

Anyway. I wanted to post some pictures for our three week project... but it's now moved to 3 weeks and a couple days. We have to return our original bedding because it wasn't what the picture showed. And then we bought different sheets because the other sheets we got only work with the original duvet set.

But our bed is epic! I LOVE it!!! absolutely love love love it. It's huge, and imposing, and comfy! aww, so nice :D. I've been sleeping all through the night. I only had to crack my back the first night. It's so great. Love to sit on there and watch shows... or read... or... just lay there. lol. :D

Craig didn't like it at first.. but Rogue comes up more often now. She loves her heights! And since our bed is waist high, she loves it. She can sit at the head or in the middle and Isis has no clue she's up there. Isis jumps better now, not high enough to jump on Rogue's kitchen counter perch, but high enough to jump on the bed frame then up on the bed. So awesome :D

Next weekend I'll post some pictures!!! :D HOPEFULLY! As long as the new bedding works. lol. ugggghhh!

Week 2

This was such an emotionally charged week.

It started with excitement. Then went to depression. Then excitement. Then depression. Just in one day.

I guess that's what I get for being a passionate person. It's both good and bad. Good when it's excitement, bad when it's depression. Sounds bipolar. But I don't hate on people when I'm depressed. It's just turned inward.

So by the middle of the week I started getting better. Craig helped a lot. Plus, I was FINALLY starting to get over my 2 weeks of sickness. Craig and I started doing P90X.... ... I want to kill the disc. It's so tough. The best part of the video is that the guy says that if you can't do any more, take a break. My favorite thing to do while exercising :D. Plus, Craig doesn't get on me for pausing for a bit since the leader-guy says we can!

We also got approval for vacation and bought our tickets to visit home :) (sorry, can't say when on here, it's the Internet, where bad people roam. Ready to rob us blind if we let them)

Friday I braved Babys R Us and a few baby sections in cheap-o places like Marshalls and Ross. I walked in excited, and as soon as I saw everything in there... panic attack ensued. I'm not expecting, I was trying to find cute stuff for a newborn photoshoot next month. I had a nightmare that night from it, where no one would pay attention to me and Craig wanted babies and was so upset that I didn't want to. Well, I definitely don't want a baby. That much is apparent. But the good thing is that Dream Craig is not like Real Craig. Real Craig is just like me. No babies for a long time.

After my scare at Babys R Us, we went to the new Buffalo Wild Wings in our old town we lived in Cali and it was pretty nummy! One of our friends is obsessed with the place and since it just opened there she REALLY wanted to go. Good thing it was nummy :D! Not good enough to go every single week like she said she's going to do... but nummy enough for once a month?! Or every other month.

Saturday we decided to look for a new bedroom... everything. New mattress set, new bed set... new bedding. Oh boy are we spending a lot. We decided to get the extra luxury line of Stearns and Foster. And we moved our decision from upgrading from a Full to a Queen, to upgrading to a California King. We went home and measured our room to make sure it would work. It'll barely fit!!

The reason we decided to do the Cal King is because we would have to re-buy everything when we buy a house... and we highly doubted that we would have the money to do that after putting a huge down payment on a house. So! We will cramp it for a couple years. :D We went to several furniture stores on both Saturday and Sunday and priced out every little option. Since we are having to get rid of 1 desk and our sofa in our bedroom, we only have room for a bed and 2 nightstands, so we went to Target and picked up 3 2drawer and 1 cubby-hole thing for our shoes to move our drawer clothes that are in the bedroom, to our walk in closet. Craig LOVES it because it looks cleaner in our closet now.

So, we dedicated this whole weekend to a new bedroom. :D Even though when we came home from our last try on Sunday Craig said he would prefer not to do it all, he changed his mind at 9pm that night, he was just so tired. So! The search is back on!

I did a lot more pictures for Justin and Saranade's wedding. I HOPEFULLY am going to be done VERY soon! So I can start on downloading on a CD and do the book. I keep buying movies (the $5.00 and 4-$9.99 kinds) so I don't get super bored while editing.

I gave a couple people at work business cards for free photography.. To build my portfolio! It was awkward. I asked Craig for help on trying to set up the business licensing and stuff too. He was really sweet and got right on it. So hopefully!!! by October I'll have a business license (eeek!) and a business plan and terms and conditions and invoice and all that junk... and a general theme of how I want my business to look. I dunno. I'm excited, and extremely nervous.

Okay, that was week 2 of Craig and Amber Deitering! Still no marriage license yet, but our emergency officiant did get the revised one.. he said he signed it and it's in the mail to Sac County, but it does take forever for mail in sucktown. It's very confusing for me to figure out what I should be signing. I can't legally sign Deitering I don't think, but then if I sign Andersen and the license is backdated, then that means it's not valid. ugh. so confusing! I just can't wait to get the license, change my social security information and then finally my license (next week for that!! eeek). Alright.. thanks for reading!