Home Making

Making a Temporary House Home!

That next level exhaustion has totally hit me as I can't seem to move today.  My hands look and feel super rough from the bleach.  I've had toilet seats and handles replaced, drains replaced, mailbox replaced, new towel bars and other bathroom things replaced and I'm currently sitting here while a guy power washes the exterior and patio.  I was going to start hanging art but...guess who left the hammer, level and measuring tape in the storage of 13700?  That would us-ie.  #JOY

My mommy-in-law is going to come see me today and I'm sure we'll sit a spell and get some rest because she'll want to help do stuff I'm not going to let her help do.  LOL!  She's just like me in that she just wants to help and be of service and comfort but I'm not trying to let her lift a finger.  LOL!  

The challenge of making this place comfy is actually pretty cool.  I'm getting real creative with furniture placement, etc.   Even rug placement is a study because you can use rugs to add color to a room pretty quickly so if you have a lot of color with other accessories in the home you can get by with a neutral rug but if the room has lots of light in it, with neutral walls, you should put a colorful rug in that room to add color.  I mean...I'm literally sitting in a room making a decision about a rug right now.  Since this room has lots of color already...neutral rug.  Cool huh?

The house has all of those el cheapo plastic blinds at the windows so I plan to replace them in the living room with a scalloped roller shade since that will be the room we're in more than anything.  In the kitchen...I keep them up during the day anyway to let in more light so it's not a big deal because they will be up and hidden under the valences when they are up.  When they come down during the night...yeah...I can live with it.  LOL!

Trying to strike the balance between what I'd do to my own home to be comfortable and what to do to a temporary living situation is a bit of a challenge too.  I like things to be nice you know?  I like to see nice stuff and I like the flower beds to be nice too.  Your home should be your haven...but what is the balance between doing things you'd do in your own long-term home versus a short-term living situation?  Any tips?  What would YOU do?  I mean...I'd like to have some curb appeal but we all know I can't take that with me.  I'm going to paint the front door black (Got permission from the management company to do so because after coming here and seeing how I do things they felt comfortable letting me.  LOL!) but should I do the flower beds too?  They will take a LOT of work.  Right now it's horrible (to me) so I'd need to build up the dirt to something porous enough to grow stuff and then I'd have to plant stuff.  I'm already buying pelletized lime to spread over the grass so the PH balance will allow better grass to grow.  Should I just mulch and let is look the way it is?  Or just add some bags of gravel?  I can add flowers by using crates and sitting seasonal pots of flowers like mums in them.  Kinda like this:

Tell me what you'd do.

Speaking of crates...look at this picture I found when I was looking for a picture of mums in crates:

Isn't that STUNNING?  I shall be recreating this soon.  LOL!  Although...I called a local florist today to check out their prices and was told that hydrangea stems are $10 each.  *BLINK*  Um...now say what now?  So I have to keep looking for a florist since I clearly won't be using that one.  They were talking even the common variety green ones.

No.

I'm really  happy to say that I've stumbled on resources I didn't even know existed in the world of temporary home decor.  From an obvious place but that I never even gave thought to...MILITARY WIVES!!!!!!!!!!!  I've found so many blogs by military wives who go through this often and they have lots of ideas as to how to make things nice.  LOVE.THAT!  I mean...these women are super creative too.  Me likey.  No...me lovey!

Those of you who have rented a house (not an apartment), have you ever had any issues with the landlord?  I'm still feeling some kinda way about some things that went down the first day here.  The things have been handled, of course, and the person I'm dealing with now is an extremely reasonable and lovely person but the way things started on Tuesday morning pissed me off so badly I was ready to put my ish back on the truck and put it in storage while we found someplace ELSE to live.  I'm not about to be dealt with rudely when I ask a reasonable question and it always astonishes me when people are shocked that the response to rude ish is...um...RUDE ISH!  Come at me rudely and yeah...it's about to go DOWN-T!  I can't stand nasty acting people.  No ma'am pressed ham!  (TiffanyInHouston 2008).  Yall know my saying...I'm a good person, but I ain't Jesus cuz if I was Jesus all that crucifying stuff would have gone down WAAAAAAY differently.  Idda been like...Father...they know what they do but...GET 'EM DADDY!  SMOTE 'EM!  GET HIM FIRST!  AND THEN HIM AND HIM AND HIM!  

I know...I know...that was bad but hey...yall know I can be terrible.  LOL!

Temporary Digs!

Needless to say...it is going to take a lot of work to get a one level rental house with ecru walls in shape enough for us to call home.  I'm already missing 13700 big time.  I need color in my life and rent houses just won't let me be great.  I was going to do temporary wallpaper but the walls aren't smooth.  They are like...textured.  Ugh!  Why do builders even do that anymore?????  Does anyone know?

We arrived around 9:00pm last night and got up at 5:00am to start unpacking the truck before Robby rolled out.  Shelly is coming on Saturday to help but yall know I will probably be finished by then.

Our bedroom dresser has two extremely long scratches across the top.  Joy.  It's not a move unless something nice gets messed up.  *sigh*

That garage is going to be straight up storage.  In our old house we had three living spaces.  In the temporary digs?  One.  I'm not about to recreate the furniture wheel when we move in our new house because I like my furniture.

Now...everyone hold hands and sing an old Negro spiritual with me because baaaaaaaaaay...ever since Day 1 of The Monnie & Robby Show, he has had a mancave.  Did you read the part where it says we only have ONE living area?  Yup.  Dude no longer has a mancave so that means all sports all the tie in the one living space.  *sigh*  We might kill each other in this house.

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This is going to be the office so I was wondering if I should just bite the bullet and make it a mancave.  Only problem with that is that the house is so small, this room is behind the living room so I will hear his games anyway.  LOL!

I'm sure the question everyone wants to ask is...Where is poor old Jaru and how did he fare on the trip?

Humph.  His stankin' azz is posted up.  He walked around confused for a minute looking for stairs.  Then he came back talking some...THIS IS?????  I can't stand that dog.

The micro patio is going to need some major creativity to get it right so I can get my outside chill on.  Once I do the powerwashing I think I will be able to make it uber cozy.  Since it is on concrete I can do a firepit thingy.  I've always wanted one but Robby wouldn't let me get one on the wood deck.  Go figure.  Humph.  He spoils all the fun.

The neighborhood is super quiet but, as always...one house stands out in particular.  They park a car on the lawn.  *BLINK*  WHERE THEY DO THAT 'ET?????  There is a two car garage with an adequate sized two car drive up to the garage.  Why in the hell do you have a car on the fuggin grass?  Come on people!  Have some class about your azz!  I'm sure I will meet them soon enough, smooze them and then gently ask WHY in a nice lady way that makes them question the same.

The drive was ecruciating and I am not looking forward to packing and moving ever again but baaaaaaaaaaaaby...in 16 months I am going to shoot up outta here like a cannon!

Okay...gotta go do the mandatory move-in Home Depot / Target run.  Oh...and MUST.HAVE.WINE for 5:30 on the dot so MUST.FIND.WINE.STORE.STAT!  If yall hear that I'm in the hospital for an infection, it won't be Ebola, it will be from bleach poisoning (which is a very real thing that I found out when Shelly got bleach poisoned disinfecting her house from her renters).  Send flowers.  You know...of the hydrangea variety I love so. (Reminds me...have to find a local florist.  UGH!  And a hair stylist!  DOUBLE UGH! AND LORD!!!!!!!  A BROW TECHNICIAN!  KILL.ME.NOW!)  

QUESTION:  The last time you moved...did anything nice get messed up or broken?

Scenario From Real Life

Your home owner's association is getting to be super damn annoying.

I mean...you get it.  They exist for a reason and in some cases...they can make you want to stare off into space for an hour just contemplating apartment living and how peaceful it was back then.

So...they amp up their process and start sending out annoying emails, letters and ish that you go ahead and mark as spam so you never see them.

You maintain your home well and never have problems anyway and you don't want to see/deal with the bull they have going on.

One of your neighbors asks you if you got a letter about powerwashing the siding on side of your house.  

You tell them no because you just powerwashed the side of your house that Spring.

The neighbor states that they got a letter and that your house has as much grime on it as theirs does and that they sent in an email saying exactly that.

You:  Wait...so you told them that my house SPECIFICALLY has the same amount of grime on it that yours does?

Them:  Yes.

You:  Well ain't that about some bullshit.  Who does that?

Them:  What?  I mean...your house is always nice so I just wanted them to see that ours is the same.

You:  How the hell you gonna pull me and my house into the bullshit you have going on with them people?  You know I can't STAND them people hell!

Them:  Oh.  I'm sorry.  I didn't think...

You:  You know what...lemme go.

You mad?  

Or would you have done the same?

Pinterest Secrets

A friend just asked me if I still used Pinterest because she never sees me post much over there anymore.  I was confused because I post on Pinterest all the time lately.  More than ever it seems because I'm dream house dreaming/planning.

Then I remembered...oh.  LOL!  

I kinda have those boards locked up.  LOL!

Do you have secret boards on Pinterest?  What do you tend to put in them?

Me on Pinterest:  http://www.pinterest.com/creoleindc/

How to Deep Clean an Area Rug!

I needed to deep clean the area rugs on the main level and didn't want to pay someone a few hundred dollars to do it.  I scoured the internet to see what other people did and then figured out how to do it on my own.  

GO ME!  It's easy enough to do...just time consuming!

Before I headed out to rent a powerwasher (I rented an electric one because I didn't want to deal with gas.) from Home Depot ($35 per day), I vacuumed the rugs and sprinkled them with baking soda letting them sit for a couple of hours.

One thing I learned was that everyone had their own version of solution to use.  Because of Jaru, I wanted to use a stain buster and a deodorizer in my solution so I seriously just mixed stuff up to include Oxy Clean, vinegar, LA Awesome, and Dr. Bronner's peppermint liquid soap (finally finished using that bottle up after realizing I couldn't used it for bubble bath after that tragic disaster...LOL!:  "Like Mother...NOT Like Daughter."). 

Make sure you do this on a day when you are going to get a couple of follow up days without rain.  I did this on Friday and the rugs weren't completely dry until Sunday.

It should be noted that the rugs I was cleaning were 100% wool pile so they weren't super expensive rugs.  If I had super expensive rugs I would definitely let a professional do them.  It should also be noted that I didn't have a problem with replacing these rugs if I screwed them up so I scrubbed them down something serious.  I would test an area first with your cleaning solution to make sure it didn't discolor a rug you wanted to make sure you didn't ruin.  

I made a quick video showing the process and I'm happy to say my rugs came out wonderfully clean and clean smelling!  GO ME!  Check me out getting my rug scrub on!

Question:  How do you deep clean YOUR rugs?  What solution do you use?  Do you make your own, or do you buy one?

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