House Tour

Because our house is one big circle and mighty confusing if you don't live here (so I've been told,) I thought a pictoral house tour may help.
I'm only including the dowstairs since we don't live upstairs yet.
Let's start at the front, shall we?
We come in the front door:

Turn to the left, through a doorway and enter the living room:

Walk behind the loveseat to see the rest of the room and down the looong hall way type situation:

Let's walk through that door way - and you'll find my "closet" and where I'm supposed to work out:

We'll continue down the "hallway situation":

The door way to the left in the above picture is the master bedroom:

The doorway to the right in the master bedroom is the master bath which is dirty and I'm not showing you.  Privacy, please.

The doorway at the end of the loong hallway situation is the laundry room and my shoe closet:

Now, lets go back to the front of the house and come in the front door again:

This time we're turning to the right and through another doorway:

Step into the room and look down another looong hallway type situation:

Let's walk through this door way and find the dining room:

Continue down the "hallway situation" to this:

Through the door on the right is the downstairs bathroom:

And through the door on the left is a cut through to the other hallway, the one with the red runner just past the room with my closet and workout gear, and a door to the creepy, flooding basement.  No picture necessary, not really much to look at.

Past the bathroom door is the breakfast area, where the "china cabinet" lives, which you cannot see in this picture:

At the very back of the house through the last doorway down the looong "hallway situation" is the kitchen:

I called all the walkways "hallway situations" b/c all it really is a walk through a bunch of rooms.  I've left out the stairway doors (one in the landry room and one in the workout room) since we're not visiting the upstairs today.  It's much too cold up there, we only keep the heat set to 45 degrees since we don't live up there yet.

So there you have it, a tour of the Ringger Hudson Compound.  Hopefully, this will help you follow along when we start making changes and I start talking about where the new kitchen, new dining room, new living room, etc will live.

Other Furniture We've Acquired

Over the past few months we've been fortunate to acquire some new pieces of furniture from my Dad's side of the family.
A buffet and the clock sitting in the middle of it:

Currently residing in the odd little aside to the living room that we don't know what to do with.

Another buffet and hutch - you might call this a china cabinet except we don't have any china:

Currently residing in the breakfast area, where we never have breakfast....or any other meal for that matter.

Dining table:

This table will unfold and we have leaf for it too - perfect for Thanksgiving dinners....except that I don't cook Thanksgiving dinners.  Cooking turkey scares me.
It currently resides in the breakfast area, keeping the "china cabinet" company.
Bonus points if you can spot the puppy in my picture. 

And every great table needs chairs:

We have 5 of these and 1 with arms.  They currently reside in the dining room with the big table we found on Craig's List for $75, b/c the Craig's List table will not fold down like the inherited one.

We're very thankful to have this furniture from the family and with some of my own history.  Bonus that it's pretty and in great shape.

This is what happens -

What happens when you have nothing in the fridge and you haven't menu planned in months?

This is what happens:

Pepperoni pizza rolls.

Honey ham and cheddar cheese pinwheels.

Hors d'oeurvres for dinner - that's what happens.  Nary a fruit or vegetable in site - nothing but carbs and cheese here folks.

One Fantastic Wardrobe

I've been living closet-less since we moved in - September 26, 2009.
That's a long time for a clothes horse like me to fold and stuff every piece of clothing I own into my 5 drawer dresser.  Not good times people, not good times.

Enter this wardrobe.

She's beautiful and I kind of love her.  Matt and I carried her into the house from 3 houses down the street on a 2 wheeler, dodging traffic and cracks in the sidewalk one Saturday afternoon.  Hilarity.

This inside left something to be desired:

So we did something about it.
Some batting, fabric, trim, a staple gun and glue gun later - my love now looks like this:

How freakin' awesome is THAT!

2011 Resolutions

There are a ton of things that we need to get going for the house but there are also some things that I'd like to accomplish this year for myself.
I'm writing them down so hopefully that will keep me accountable.

Work Out -
No really.  I always start and I always stop, for no good reason.  Unless you count wine as a good reason.  This year my goal is to consistently work out for 9 months of the year. 

Read More -
Matt gifted me a Kindle for Christmas.  I highly recommend one.  It even has Matt reading for pleasure now - no ordinary feat when a brand new, shiny Wii is also available.
Now there is no reason not to read - I don't have to go anywhere to get new material.

Begin to learn Portuguese -
Matt's family is from Brazil.  Everyone but the grandkids can speak it fluently and Matt can understand it - he could speak when he was younger but lost it.
I asked for Santa (Mom & Dad) to bring me Rosetta Stone for Christmas.  I'm looking at Level 1 right now.  Here's hoping I can make it through.

Make family and "family" a priority -
Matt and I have been pretty lax about seeing the family on both sides lately.  We should/need to fix that. He doesn't know it yet but this is one of our shared goals for the year.
And with the changes going on with the "family" (tight group of friends,) like the Vecchiomistersons having a kid, Sakah getting hitched, Mike being in Columbus, and the rest of us being lazy about making it a priority - we don't see each other very much.
We need to get better about seeing the important people.

I realize I could probably go on and on and on....but I'm trying to be realistic here.

Not So Fun Must Do House List for 2011

There will be no fun, pretty, before and after shots of this stuff.
It's just down and dirty must-be-done maintenance for an old ass house.
We're planning to it all ourselves except the tree tending. 
Matt and pole saw = Very Bad Idea.

• Insulation in basement and attic.
• Clean the outside of the windows (there are over 30 windows in our house.)
• Install the attic door
• Seed the lawn
• Have trees tended (they're getting more and more top heavy)
• Continue to clean out the basement
• Fill gaps in the basement foundation and walls
• Test for radon.

Fun Before and After House List for 2011

In the last few months we've been discussing the big reno, how to pay for the big reno, and what we can do now that won't seem wasteful when the big reno comes around but still will turn this house into OUR house.
Here's the plan:

• PAINT.  Paint.  And more paint.  The next room on our list is the bedroom downstairs, currently the master.  
• But we're only painting the downstairs b/c we live down there and it just doesn't make sense to waste energy and time on rooms we never see.
• Hallways, the laundry room, the breakfast area...there are plenty of rooms still left down here.
• Plant a garden.  Brown thumb and all, this year we're planting a vegetable garden.  Raised beds on the side of the house that won't be touched by any reno at all.
• It's all about the accessories kiddos.  Even though we have a millions rooms, every room has a purpose and we should change the decor to fit that purpose.

I know that doesn't seem like much of a list but it really is b/c with all that paint comes a ton of prep, putty, sanding, trim, etc.  That first bullet up there is gonna be quite a doozy!