Brainstorming the bedroom 'issue'

Eesh, I just can't remember to do this every day, which means I can't get into the habit, which means I only do it on those rare occasions I remember. Blimey.

SO! The boys bedroom is DONE! dark bamboo flooring (that also goes out his room & along the landing), white walls, new skirting, and his awesome high sleeper bed with wardrobe, shelves, desk underneath. It leaves him plenty of floorspace to lay out his train tracks or hot wheels tracks, his clothes all have a home, some of his toys can live in his room AND he can tidy them away afterwards, and he has space for some of his books. As he gets older he'll be able to sit as his desk to do drawings or homework and maybe he'll eventually have a computer...when he's OLD. Because of the bed style, there's still space for an ottoman/blanket box in the bay window where his bedding & assorted cuddlies live, and we think there will be space for a narrow bookcase too. I'm *really pleased, and it looks really nice - I even put bunting up - red white & blue, and in the open shelves we have red storage boxes, blue bedding and curtains, and the wall is blue above the picture rail. He has a blue clock and a couple of star shaped blue lights on the wall (to go with the glow-in-the-dark stars on the ceiling) and of course the toys that are out on the shelves are all 'nice' toys - a red wooden ark, a wooden farm with a red roof, and so on. It looks smart and attractive and SO FAR (nearly a week) he's even kept it tidy by putting his toys away again after he's played with them - which of course was half the point.

SO! two more bedrooms upstairs. Our room is the smaller of the two (but it looks out of the gardens and allotments and the field beyond that, whereas the bigger room looks out onto the road and the houses opposite) and ours is alomst more junk-dumped than the front bedroom. That room is filled with J's guitars, amps, leads, pedals, and so on, and also his home-brew equipment - including some demi-johns with wine in - his CDs on shelves, three bookcases (which I colour-coordinated and they look so much better!) and the rest of the boys toys. Our room basically has everything else - one whole wall taken up by mirrored wardrobes - and opposite the bed, eek -obviously filled with clothes, shoes, coats etc. We also have things like photo albums, my almost-entire yarn stash (which obviously needs some whittling but I can in no way do that), my shoe collection, my nail varnish collection, my make up, two jewellery boxes (one for good, one for 'junk' jewellery) and also a jewellery manniquin on my bedside cabinet for everyday stuff. I've got a mini handbag with hair clips bands ties and flowers, we've got a chest with bedding and spare duvet. Under the bed is the suitcase, my camera equipment, my studio lights, tripod, etc, and we've got sleeping bags, backpacks, holdalls and I have just a few handbags ;) Then there's a box of fabrics I use for lining knitted bags or making cushion covers or what have you, a box of out-of season clothes - at the moment filled with swim gear, sun hats, and shorts, a box of cosplay gear - clothes that are needed for our costumes but really don't need to be in the wardrobe as we use them maybe 5 times a year in total (two Expos, one film and comic con, one usually-pirate party and one halloween!). There's my one and only wedding hat, a box of spare bathroom supplies - buying in bulk is the cheaper way to do it, but when you have no storage in your bathroom, maybe not the best - a box of sentimental stuff - childhood memories, things from our engagement, our wedding, the boys birth & some birthdays. There's a box of Jem dolls who are desperate for a place to live out on display :D oh and there's a box of birthday party stuff - pirate tablecloths, bunting, banners, balloons, paper plates etc. There's probably more but this is just using my memory...

I have to clear all this out before I can even *begin* to do my room. EEEEEK.

Okay - so some can go up into the loft, I suppose. Party box, out of season clothes, maybe even fabrics if we can guarantee that the loft is NOT damp (some of our Christmas decorations were not perfect when we got them down last year). We're hoping we can put in a dressing table type area, which will hopefully give my girly stuff a home - well, make up, hair stuff, nail varnish (I class it separately as I have a lovely sized collection and YES I do where them all. Sometimes 10 at one time ;)), jewellery boxes (one is a beauitiful silver box with indian elephants on, and one is my nans old jewellery box I used to browse through for hours playing with her trinkets, so I do have to keep both - useful, attractive, AND sentimental all in one. I'm hoping to keep the blanket box for duvet & bedding storage, but the suitcase can go to the loft as we holiday maybe twice a year - maybe with the out-of-season clothes in it as timing would be roughly correct. We could then use under the bed still for my photog. stuff but maybe also a clear underbed thing for my yarn..? sleeping bags, spare duvets - maybe loft. Photo albums want to be somewhere accessible - and I'm looking forward to putting so many pictures up in frames on the walls, once we've got rid of the different busy-textures on every wall - so they should also take up less space as there won't be so many to hang on to unframed. Studio lights can go in the loft (how strong is our loft!?) but the rest should be accessible else I'll never use them. Holdalls can also go in the loft as we rarely go away for short breaks and when we do we're likely to know about it enough in advance to get them down. Sentimental stuff should go into a beautiful box and maybe go on top of a wardrobe with the photo albums so it's accessible but not in the way, and Jem dolls can stay in the new wardrobes until I work out the perfect place. Bathroom stuff WILL go in the bathroom once I've bought a storage cabinet and maybe cosplay gear in the loft too. That way - my wardrobe can have shoes and handbags in the bottom of it, like a normal person.

Blimey. How strong *is* the flooring in the loft? Maybe we should lay proper floor down up there before we take all this up there.

We're going to redecorate...the entire house.

Well, so we've lived here three years in March. It was always alright though and we've not done anything really with it - apart from fill it full of junk, of course - and we've worked out now that we want to change pretty much everything.
The boiler is 25 years old and has never been serviced, and we can't have hot water on without also having the heating on, and vice versa. Yes, our bills are lovely, thanks. In summer, we *really* need the ceiling fan.
The doors / windows / double glazing are nice - wide bay window at front, patio doors at back, SO much light in our through room, and when we park on the front we can see the trees in our back garden through the windows - for some reason I like this. It's also dark wood and leaded and I think it quite pleasing to the eye. It's rarely been weather treated though, is gappy and drafty, and front and back doors both stick in the damp weather, so it needs some work too.
The porch roof tiles are slipping and the gutters front and back leak something terrible when it rains (sorry mr postman).
The front of the house is ORANGE AND YELLOW. Yes.

Hallway! decent size but the wooden panelling below the dado rail is getting tatty, the wallpaper above the dado rail is *awful* (looks like nicotine stained pattern but I *think* it's intentional) and above the picture rail is textured artexing - a different one to the ceiling artex, and both of them clash with the pattern on the wallpaper.
Open-plan living/dining room has BUSY (but lovely) wallpaper all over it - TOO busy - as well as a crazy-paved fireplace and hearth surround, oh and the archway between the two rooms has a stone edging too. They've GOT to go. Once it does, we'll also have to replace the floor throughout as it's been cut (wooden floorboard style laminate) to fit the 'paving'. Alcoves either side of the fireplace - one is the boy's 'toy store' and other is tv / xbox area. Dining room has huge display/storage units to ceiling, my cluttered computer desk / yarn store area and a huge dining table that seats 6-8. This is rarely used for more than us three because...
Kitchen! - tiny, galley kitchen. Can't fit two in at once. Not much workspace, even less cupboard space, curruntly also boasts boiler cupboard. Old oven that doesn't really work, though the hob is okay. New! Washing machine and dishwasher since we moved in and new-to-us fridge freezer as well (which meant having to lose a couple more cupboards). Basically, one cupboard for cups & glasses and a so-called 'useful' drawer, one double cupboard for plates bowls pans etc, one double cupboard for foodstuffs, one narrow cupboard for baking supplies & spices and one end cupboard for storage of bulk & spares ie unopened rice & pasta, oats, dried milk etc.
Upstairs - one tiny bathroom, door opens onto the loo, sink nect to loo, bath next to that, one shelf underneath window, built in cupboard under sink is not enough space to store spare toothpaste AND shampoo let alone towels, mouthwash, medicines, soaps, bath products etc. Quite nice (balck laminate floor, white tiles, reasonably newish) but no storage at all so everything has to be out and clutters the room up to look even tinier.
Our room - smaller of the two double bedrooms but is out back - trees and foxes rather than cars and buildings ;). Opens to entire wall of mirrored wardrobes. Ugly mirrored wardrobes, too. Only storage in house but eesh. Also have bed (nice black iron look bedstead, bought with employees discount when I worked for a bed manufacturer), one ottoman / blanket box (dark wood, old neighbours antique-ish, needs a polish) and one chest of drawers which we bought when Isaac was a baby as a shelf on it folds out to a changing table - very clever AND a nice looking peice of furniture. Oh and two rubbish bedside cabinets. We have to edge around sideways to get anywhere. The above-dado rail wallpaper is awful and old-lady ish. The below-dado rail wallpaper is even worse Both clash with the awful curtains. They all manage to go really badly with the horrible carpet.
'SPARE' room - sometimes called Daddys room, sometimes called Isaacs playroom, this is full of toys, cds, bookcases, 7 guitars, assorted demi-johns full of wine, empty wine bottles, and boxes. Once in a blue moon, these things at least partially fit inside the wall full of mirrored wardrobes in here, but most of that is taken up with amps and guitars and so on. I've been informed this room has both carpet and curtains, and that they are both horrid.
Isaacs room - has a bed, a cubey-drawer unit, a clothes rail, and a bookshelf/blanket box area. Is about 3 steps long and one wide. Wallpaper has been torn off and scribbled on. Posters (dr Who, pokemon, dinosaurs etc) try to hide this fact. Bed - was COT, now converted - has not lasted 5 years - broken slats all over the place. Curtains are fine, but curtain rail is hanging off the wall.

It's going to take a lot of work, and I don't know where to start!

Wow. And to think, I wanted to post here at least weekly, if I didn't have time for daily. Heh.

2010. At the moment, it sounds kind of scary. As the clock was still chiming, I shouted 'welcome to the future' or something equally champagne-inspired (what? It's the bubbles) but it does feel kind of strange that now it's that year, you know, of that film. It sounded so far in the future 'back then'. I can't wait, though. It's going to be a really good year. Not because there's anything in particular I have planned, but because this year I'm going to improve on the things that were good from last year, and cut out the things that were bad from last year. I'm in a good place, and my boys are my world, and the allotment, and health and wealth and so on. We're moving in the right directions every year. This year? Bit healthier & fitter, house sorted rather than allotment (as we concentrated on clearing that for the last few years and ignored the house) and we're going all minimal/simple living / chemical free / and obviously some kind of japanese-meets country type interior. Clutter free and japanesey works, clutter free and country style does NOT, so we'll work out some kind of in between that works for people who grow & make their own as much as we do and will. We'll still like comics and x-box games and culty tv but I think evreything else is pretty much back to basics - growing and eating fresh and unprocessed foods being the main thing I'm looking forward to.

My house smells of home made bread as we speak. Mmmmmm.