February | 2014 | Home on 129 Acres

Matt and I went on a shopping spree this weekend, hitting up three Value Village stores (a big second-hand chain here in Ontario) and bringing home a decent haul of thrifted items. Looking at my purchases, I am forced to conclude that I am a very eclectic shopper.

Clockwise from top left:

Black velvet blazer – A garment I’ve wanted for awhile and that I know will be handy.
Eagle statue – This is going to be a “hawk,” the mascot at my work. I’m going to spraypaint it and display it at my work office.
Chandelier – Going to try and transform this into a light fixture for the foyer.
Cutlery tray – Fits perfectly in the drawer of the dresser I made over for a nook in my office (a post on this project will be coming as soon as I get the drawers organized)
Binders – I organize all of my recipes in binders, but the ones I have are pretty full. It has been surprisingly difficult to find very plain simple binders.
Flags – Ontario (which we’d like to fly every so often) and Canada (which we fly always)

How do you approach thrifting? Is it a free-for-all, or are you looking for specific items? What is your favourite thrift store?

It’s the first post of February and time to for the rubber to hit the road… Or to put my money where my mouth is… Or my plans into action… Or whatever the appropriate cliche is.

Back in January when I posted about my Home Goals for 2014, I talked about breaking down my projects, setting timelines and sharing more of the progress.

So, in an effort to live up to my promise… and maybe actually accomplish some projects around the house, I’m going to start the month with a post about what I’m hoping to accomplish over the next four weeks.

Painting the main floor hallway and kitchen was at the top of the home goals list, so that’s where we’re going to begin. The universe has demonstrated its support of this plan by sending me a Benjamin Moore coupon.

Here are the steps and the timeline:

~~Mop the ceiling to try to remove the soot or dirt or whatever has turned my white ceilings grey~~. Done at the end of October.
~~Remove the pictures hangers, nails and screws from the walls.~~ Done in November.
~~Sand all of the walls so that they don’t feel like sandpaper anymore.~~ Done in November.
~~Patch holes and rough spots and sand the patches.~~ Mostly done in November.
~~Sample paint.~~ Done in December.
~~Choose a colour.~~ Done in January.
~~Buy new light fixtures because Matt will not live with pig tails longer than he has to, and I won’t reinstall boob lights. By Jan. 31.~~ Ordered 3 and thrifted one Feb. 1.
~~Remove the chair rail since I decided in January I don’t like it enough to cut around it.~~ Done Feb. 2.
Patch and sand holes from chair rail. First coat went on Feb. 2, but I’ll need at least one more.
Wipe down the trim. By Feb. 7.
Buy paint. By Feb. 7.
Remove cover plates on plugs and switches, take down old light fixtures and install pig tails. Feb. 8.
Paint the ceiling. Feb. 8.
Prime the walls. Feb. 9.
Paint the trim (baseboards + 9 doorways… ugh. But no chair rail… yay!). By Feb. 14.
Paint the walls (two coats). Feb. 15-17 (a three-day weekend).
Install new light fixtures. Feb. 22.

My big problem last year was finding the motivation to start, continue and complete projects. This year, I’m hoping to find motivation in a few places:

One, I’m very deadline driven, so a schedule–as long as I stick to it–is usually a good thing for me. The only thing that might throw me off this month is that I’m a huge Olympics fan, so I may be distracted by the television a bit more than normal.

Two, I’ll be posting updates as I go and holding myself accountable to all of you. Hope you’re ready for in-progress posts like you said you were.

The biggest motivation will be thinking about the result we’ll be working towards. A freshly painted, clean, bright main floor. Maybe we’ll even be able hang some pictures on the wall and make the space truly feel like ours.

What’s on your to-do list for February?