The Tale of a Closet

We've lived in our tiny house for almost 7 years now (at the end of November) and until now all of our love and attention has been paid to the common areas. We've redone a bathroom, put venetian plaster in our library (don't...take my advice, and just don't), and painted. We've also put in a new fireplace. But the one place that has had no attention is our bedroom. We moved in, hung up our clothes and put the furniture in appropriate places.

I hate the colour of our bedroom. It's a nasty shade of brown, with a lovely little border that has cherubs all over it. In case you are wondering, I am not a fan of the cherubs and the paint is not only a cruddy colour, but it was put on with streaks and such. It's driven me a little crazy since we moved in, but I didn't know what to do with it.

Well, I know now.

So we started with the closet.

We have a tiny little walk-in closet with a window in it. Sounds weird, but I like it. My uncle put a light in it for us when we did the bathroom reno. Even better. But it was old and badly done. So that was the first thing on my list.

This is the before.
Ray's half:

My half:

Decidedly mediocre. (Check out the colour and the border on the outside.)

So we peeled off two layers of wallpaper, including a layer on the ceiling. Then puttied it up and sanded. And puttied and sanded and puttied and....yeah, you get the picture. Then we painted.

At which point, we went shopping around for different closet solutions. We made a sight-seeing trip to the Home Depot. They had some decent options, but since our closet is an odd size, we thought we'd check out a specialty store. What a bust that was. Worst.Customer.Service.EVER. In the end, we went back to the Home Depot and bought our stuff there and Ray trimmed it all up to fit.

First pics of the new colour and there's the top bracket in!

My side, on top:

Check out the shoe rack on the bottom!Ray's side:
All that was left was to put in the clothing.
My side:
And Ray's side:

So, that's the tale of our closet reno.

Spring Clean Out

Liam is a few months past two now. When Xander was two, we knew that we wanted another baby. Liam is two and we are both more towards the no end than the yes end. But Liam has been a hard little nut to crack, in terms of food and sleep and just generally settling life out. I could change my mind, but the more I think about going back to having a tiny one and doing all of that all over again, the less inclined I am to make that journey. Only time will tell in the end, but if you are betting, my recommendation wouldn't be to bet on another child here.

So I am sorting through clothes and getting rid of the ones we are done with. I keep telling myself that they are just clothes. A few I have kept, because the memories are so strong of the moments when the kids wore them. But most of the 12 month to 18 month clothing has now gone to a new home.

The best part about this is that they've gone to our daycare provider, K. She has a little boy, Nick, who is almost a year(and he is the cutest thing...don't tell his mom that I just want to kiss his cheeks all the time!) Plus, Liam thinks that Nick is a combination of his little brother and his best friend. (Funny enough, Xander and Lexi, K's daughter who is only a few months younger than Xman, think the same thing of each other.) What I am driving at is that we are fortunate enough to have K and her family as good friends, who feel a lot like extended family. And it feels good to pass things on to them. Like just passing it through the family.

Even when you know you are over 90% sure you are done, still there are hesitations. But as I am going through and passing clothing on, I find that it feels great too. A little more space. A few less things. Somehow, it seems like clearing things out is giving my brain space to be creative and think and go forward.