Hello Monday

Heather - My Glittery Heart - Instagram

Johannah - The Sirois Family - Instagram

Lindsay - Lindsay's Sweet World - Instagram

Tanya - The Other Side of the Road - Instagram

After posting in Happy Homemaker Monday and my own Life Last Week, I've decided to make the switch to Hello Monday to recap our weekends (and sometimes a little longer than that).  My last post ended on Christmas Eve so here's what we've been up to since then.

We had a lovely, quiet, relaxed Christmas Day.  Fun presents, coffee and pastries, the Downton Abbey movie, Hallmark movies, LEGO, new books, and magazines, lots of laughs, quality time together.

Sophia and Vic cracking open Friends Central Perk LEGO while Spectra looks less than impressed!

Sophia left on Boxing Day for back to back house/pet sitting jobs so Vic and I began to work our way through the to-do list for the house.  When we bought the house, it didn't need anything done to it, but there were a lot of things we wanted to do.  I was off work until January 2 and although Vic originally planned to be here until January 9, he ended up having to go back today but that still gave us plenty of time.

First job was to tackle the laundry room.  He checked the washer and dryer connections, readjusting the hoses until they were the way he wanted them to be and then moved the two appliances into place so he could connect the new sink.  Then he installed the Elfa (from The Container Store) laundry shelving, drawers, and rod so the laundry room makes the best use of the small space.  I love it!
 

The new sink is to the left, below the drying mats hanging up there on the rod.  We ended up ordering a peg board organizer to hold the dryer vent brush, the broom and dustpan, and other things that can hang and I'm going to get one more drawer since there is room for it to the left of the top one of the two hanging above the dryer.  I've got clean rags and cleaning cloths in one, extra fabric grocery bags and other assorted cloth things in another, and the third will hold my Swiffer-type mopping, dusting, and polishing cloths among other things.  They are deep drawers, great for storage.

Next Vic attacked the Christmas closet.  We have a very deep closet in the hallway which I think might have originally held a washer and dryer, it's that deep!  It had ugly shelves so he ripped everything out, patched up the walls, repainted, and then added baseboards.  Now all the Christmas totes can be stored there as well as the ornament organizers.  I don't like keeping them in the garage as the temperature fluctuates so much.

The finished closet, will post a photo of it full as soon as all the Christmas decorations are put away.  In addition to decluttering, I am redoing my inventory so it's taking a little while to get everything packed up.

New dawn to dusk outdoor lanterns were next.  So nice to come home tonight and have them on already.  In addition, Vic ordered motion detector bulbs for the security lights and got everything working.

A trip to the attic yielded a no moisture, no sign of rodents or insects result which is such a relief.  He climbed up there on a day when it was pouring with rain so it was the best day to do it.  All the ugly brown wall plates for the light switches and outlets have been replaced, the guest room bed's headboard is secured, two shelves are hung, two pictures and two wrought iron holders with baskets are up, one tree is down and packed away (with the section without lights now shining brightly), all the nail holes from removing curtain rods are patched and painted, and the garage is completely organized and now has room for a vehicle.

It's been a very busy couple of weeks but we made time for the new Star Wars movie, quite a bit of Chinese food, Jamestown on PBS Passport, and Messiah on Netflix as well as lots of trips to Lowe's.

We finally took a new profile photo for Facebook.  It was so wonderful to have Vic home, now he's off again and will be back in the summer.  A new countdown begins.