Project Barn - Day Three-ish

"Project Barn" was abandoned with my big sis' arrival from Oz but in getting back to the grind my aim is that today and only one more will see me finished up with the must-be-done elements of the challenge.

Hubby and my Dad moved the (hastily emptied) craft cupboard from our house into the barn and Hubs also gave the desk-base a good clean. I'll be giving it a second going over today before positioning it, as well as figuring out where the trellis "walls" will go and completing a couple of loads of laundry.

Mostly though I'll be shifting boxes from barn to house today (weather permitting) and hopefully I'll have all our "stuff" moved back into the house by the end of the day and all the craft stuff moved out.

I'll need to brush up the floor around my laundry area and then once the craft cupboard/desk combo and trellis are in place I've only to attach the "curtains" to the back of the glass doors and refill the cupboard with my craft supplies.

So comfy clothes on and off I go.

P.S. Did I mention I've already fallen completely behind on my habits - drat - and another leaf is turned over...

Birthday Weekend: Sister Edition

Sunday, is my little sister's 30th so celebrations kick off tonight, with a surprise party which I'll be helping to set up, continue on Sunday, with a family dinner, concluding on Monday, with a girls only afternoon tea. The whole thing is made that much more special as my BIL kicked it off on Thursday with an overnight for little sis in a posh city hotel - only not an overnight with him! He arranged with our older sister (who lives in Australia) for her to be here and she and little sis shared a sleepover Thursday night before our Aussie sis surprised the rest of us on Friday.

We had a double celebration since we got to meet our new niece yesterday evening - she's so little and so cute! And James said "pretty" when asked what he thought of her - awww bless. Her big sis is very impressed with her too. She's in an incubator as her breathing and temperature regulation are a bit off but otherwise she and her mama are doing well. Can't wait for my first cuddle!

"Project Barn" continued yesterday though it'll be taking a break whilst we party and then whilst we spend time with Aussie sis before she jets back home next weekend. So thankful I've gotten a good start on it so I can set it to one side guilt-free.

So plans for today, Sunday and Monday are easily written - enjoy the celebrations and tidy as I go. See you on the flip side, or you know Tuesday...

7QT - The Project Barn Edition

1. "Project Barn" is not taking as long as I first feared thought, it seems when you try to keep "everything" in a big storage space instead of: a) binning it; b) recycling it; c) donating it or; d) finding it an appropriate home, it is actually relatively simply to clear most of the "everything" using those four categories. Multiple trips to the grey bin (rubbish), blue bin (recycling) as well as the four boxes ready to load into the car (donations) can attest to the former statement. The piles gathered in my had-just-been-cleared-dining-room demonstrate that the finding-appropriate-homes category is by far the most difficult!

2. Many of the items in the dining room are frames and artworks, yes MORE frames and artwork! Bless my husband, I think he visibly paled when he saw the new piles of pictures to replace last week's piles of pictures that we had JUST finished hanging. A couple of treasures unearthed include a brass rubbing of Madonna and child (that I did age nine and won a prize for), which fitted perfectly in an old (if sightly battered) A3 frame and has found an albeit temporary home atop our second fridge in 'the barn,' and a late eighteen-eighties (yes 1880s) somewhat damaged A3-sized print that I cut up(!), to fit the bit I liked of it, into a 6x4 inch frame. We still have MANY boxes and books to find homes for but all, except those frames in need of painting, are now in our house and out of 'the barn.'

3. Ripping up empty cardboard boxes is good therapy and clears a lot of floor space.

4. Dust plus dust mask equals a happy and productive mama. Sweeping out a very dusty space without a dust mask and with allergy issues equals a crabby, sniffy, sinus-y, much less productive mama. Just saying!

5. James is going through a bit of a cranky-testing-boundaries-irrational-behaviour period (aren't we all most days), so working on this very physical project has helped me get out a lot of the arrrggghhh. Just a half-hour last night of shifting boxes and tidying up was very therapeutic after about five hours of constant griping. Thank you hubs for allowing me to hand-off dinner time. The grousing included that classic toddler thing of asking for something (his trousers) and then screaming ("no") when given it (them); ah the delights.

6. On the note of tantrums, Mama had a very calm one, yesterday and cancelled plans for free play, at the gymnastics club, this morning. Gymnastics is the epitome of fun to James and our fortnightly outing is cancelled until behaviour improves - harsh but necessary I think. Instead a morning emptying the "top house," to unearth a desk base for my craft cupboard, lies ahead of us as "Project Barn" continues. Once the craft cupboard's in place, my part of the challenge will be (almost) at its end and I might finally have a laundry "room" to call my own.

7. On two completely unrelated notes, Wednesday saw me receive an email that my copy of "Something Other Than God" has a delivery estimate of 12-14th rather than the original 27-29th - yay AND we got a new niece/cousin yesterday, "Zo" is not quite seven pounds of cute and we can't wait to meet her - double yay!

Now jump back to Jen @ Conversion Diary for some more #SOTG news and giggles.

#14

Project Barn: Day Two-ish

Here is yesterday, short and sweet:
Russ began the day with an early morning run when James requested nunkies (a breastfeed) at half past six;
we delivered my BIL's belated birthday gift and a forgotten iPad (my nephews had left in our car - oopsie);
we talked a lot;
had a lovely visit with my Granda;
ate an inside picnic;
James managed a solid hour of napping while we had an impromptu drive through Belfast;
Mummy had a fairly quiet nosey round most of Ikea while Daddy and James enjoyed a dander to nearby Decathlon (and a look at canoes and tents);
we ate meatballs;
shopped (zip-lock-type food bags, MORE FRAMES and trofast toy boxes for the mini nursery makeover - i.e. the removal of the old school cabinet and all my craft supplies and stationary etc.);
drove home;
enjoyed a pleasant chat with my folks before putting the boy to bed;
surprisingly did not collapse into two puddles on the sofa;
went back to work on "Project Barn;"
wrote this and;
headed to bed.

Today James and I will head to the optician's and keep plugging away at 'the barn,' as we work through the day-to-day laundry, habit-building, food prep and finding homes for all the randomness that has needed to return to our house from the barn clearance.

*Must remember to wear my dust-mask today as my allergies have not appreciated the dust one iota - sniff-sniff*

Project Barn: Day One

So today is day one of "Project Barn" and I hope to check off at least the first three items on the following list (not to mention do some laundry):

• Dust windowsill, clear and brush floor area on the backside of trellis at the freezers.

• Organise and declutter the top of our second fridge.

• Organise and declutter the handyman open shelves.

• Organise and declutter dresser shelves, three drawer unit and clear and brush floor area.

• Clear and brush thoroughfare to laundry area.

• Have Dad attach the tool organiser to the wall at the thoroughfare; this will gather together mops and brushes neatly.

• Clear away carpet from laundry area, for positioning in the sofa area.

I also need to:

• keep up with my daily habit building - drinking two litres of water, reading my Bible, praying constantly, moisturising and beginning the day with worship music;

• play catch-up with household tidying - the dining table has been unearthed from under all the frames (three more hung up and three more marked out), but there's a pile of clean laundry to be put away as well as new purchases which need to find homes;

• play catch-up with my personal grooming - those eyebrows won't shape themselves, I need to get my hair cut and book an appointment for a up-do for my best friend's wedding and;

• stay on top of Mama duties - keep working on the transition to proper drinking cups, nap/night dryness, consistent calm disciplining and booking an appointment to get new glasses to replace his almost outgrown current (and spare) pair.

So here goes nothing...

Project Barn: Overview (Removing)

We interrupt this broadcast to bring you this special announcement - the space known as 'the barn' will be required for a fundraising coffee morning on Saturday, June, 14. Therefore the accumulation of household detritus, dirt, dust, randomness, homeless items, possible charity donations, excess furniture etc. all needs cleared, chucked, recycled, rehomed or donated. Aaaaaaahhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!

So, with a very good cause in mind, it's time to roll up my sleeves and dig in. There is an ulterior motive I must admit to though; this is also good motivation to get my handyman Dad to wall off my laundry area (finally). Okay not exactly with walls since it'll be with trellis and loom state fabric but it'll still grant me an actual space that I don't need to dismantle for coffee mornings et al. I can't wait!

So here's the goals for this project:

• Dust windowsill, clear and brush floor area on the backside of trellis at the freezers.

• Organise and declutter the top of our second fridge.

• Organise and declutter the handyman open shelves.

• Organise and declutter dresser shelves, three drawer unit and clear and brush floor area.

• Clear and brush thoroughfare to laundry area.

• Have Dad attach the tool organiser to the wall at the thoroughfare; this will gather together mops and brushes neatly.

• Clear away carpet from laundry area, for positioning in the sofa area.

• Organise (use orange/blue baskets) and layout laundry area, brush floor, declutter Dad's detritus from shelves. Set up former lounge rug in the laundry area for James.

• Remove outside toys to the playhouse and gather inside toys in the laundry area.

• Go through possible donations (from RHS main area and sofa area too) and load up the car. (This project should help me reach my yearlong goal to declutter 2,014 items from our home, the count is currently at 537.)

• Stow homemade firelighters for winter.

• Remove black MDF desk from 'top house,' clean thoroughly and set in place.

• Empty my craft cupboard and relocate to above the desk, have Dad brace desk and cupboard together.

• Clear space for Dad to set-up trellis "walls."

• Pile up (already relocated) craft boxes for refilling cupboard/desk in the laundry area.

• Remove "future sandbox" to under the nursery bed.

• Relocate all frames/artworks to our dining room except the one to be hung up in 'the barn,' have Dad hammer in a nail for it (I have no skill with hammers AT ALL).

• Remove and flatten (and potentially recycle) all empty boxes. Any to be kept should be stowed behind the trellis at the freezers.

• Remove "baby items" to our attic (wrapped in bin bags).

• Declutter, organise and clear other belongings/furniture in the main space (RHS).

• Declutter, organise and clear sofa area.

• Declutter, organise and clear behind the trellis at the boiler/wardobes.

• Gather our "excess" at the boiler area.

• Dust remaining windowsills.

• Replace craft boxes inside the craft cupboard/desk combo.

• Set up a play/reading space in the laundry for James.

• Stow remaining indoor/barn/excess toys under the dresser shelves or in our attic.

The remainder of brushing, clearing and empyting duties will fall to my Dad. this is because items such as the old car, lawnmowers and tools are all very much his and he's probably the only one of us strong enough to move the orange sofa.

My beloved will be dealing with his busiest time of year at work, not to mention training for the local half-marathon (just two weeks after the coffee morning), so he will be in charge of cleaning the bathroom (and perhaps a few windows) in preparation for the big day.

My Mama of course is in charge, she's management not staff!

This project will have to become my main focus (aside from James of course) as the time available before the coffee morning is very limited (about 17 days) and I am a very inefficient worker. This plan will help a lot I suspect

Wish me monsters, well defeated dust bunnies anyway...