I’m Still Here!

Oh, hey there! Remember me? 😀 I’m still here. I hadn’t exactly planned on being away from the blog for two weeks, but the week of Thanksgiving just seemed like a good “take it easy” kind of week after finishing the monumental task of finishing up the tile in our big new shower (I still haven’t finished the grout…ugh!), and then that “take it easy” mindset kind of bled over into the next week. 😀 And now, here we are, well into December with another holiday (or holidays) and the year’s end right upon us.

Do you have a hard time staying motivated at this time of year as well? Or is it just me? It’s generally that time of year that I want to hunker down under my down comforter with some hot chocolate or coffee (even though our temps here in Texas are in the 60s, 70s, and 80s this December), scrolling PInterest or Instagram, while watching cheesy holiday rom-com movies. (What is it about those? They’re all the same story line, and I can’t tolerate the ridiculous story lines at any other time of the year. But come December, I can’t get enough. 😀 )

Anyway, I’m not quite ready to wind things down completely for the year, but I have resigned myself to the fact that I’m not going to get anywhere close to meeting my amended goals for the year, which were to finish the master bathroom (ha!! haha!!!) and the home gym (hahahaha!!!)

So as of this morning, the status of the master bathroom looks like this…

And the status of the home gym looks like this…

And you know what? I’m totally okay with that. While I didn’t get as much done on these rooms as I had hoped, I’m actually content with the work I’ve gotten done this year. I’ve been thinking about this quite a bit over the last two weeks. This year (2021) was my 16th year of blogging. Sixteen years! Wow! And while my first couple of years weren’t much to brag about, once I found my real love of DIY, I went full steam into remodeling our little condo, and then full steam into this house. And I remained at that full steam pace for several years.

Then 2020 hit, and the world changed. I didn’t handle that very well, and I retreated from the blog and from my projects. Last year was kind of a wash for me as far as home projects went. But it was a great year for me in learning that downtime was something that I had really missed in my life.

So this year, I tried to find a balance, trying to be consistent with working on projects, while having more downtime for myself, more time with Matt, more time with family, and more time for being involved in things and with people outside of the house. It’s been a really good year for that, and while all of that other stuff makes my home projects take longer, I’ve learned that there’s way more to life than working on the house all the time.

So all of that considered, and especially following the insanity of 2020, I’m really very content with the progress I’ve made on these projects, and there’s no way I’m going to beat myself up about not finishing or taking them slower than I would have pre-2020.

And obviously the year is not over. There’s still time to make more progress on them, if I so choose. But do you know what I’d really like to spend the rest of this year on? Deep cleaning my house and getting things organized and ready to hit the ground running on January 3rd. I love the beginning of a new year, and there’s nothing better than starting off the new year with everything clean and organized. And to be quite honest, my house hasn’t gotten a deep cleaning (the kind of cleaning where you actually wipe down all of the trim, dust off curtain rods and rings, remove the glass from light fixtures and wash them, etc.) since way before the bathroom remodel even started. And that bathroom has created a whole heck of a lot of dust and mess.

So starting today, that’s what I really want to focus on until it’s finished. I’m going to start with the walk-in pantry, which was used as Cooper’s “den” where he slept every night during 2020 when Matt and I were without a bedroom, and which hasn’t been deep cleaned since then. It’s gotten the normal cleaning — shelves wiped down, countertop wiped off, floors mopped, etc. But it needs a thorough deep cleaning from top to bottom, as does every other room in the house.

And along the way, I’m also going to tackle some little projects that either never got done, or need doing now. For example, in the kitchen, the wires for the sconces on the back wall of cabinets have come undone and are hanging down so that they’re visible. (Those sconces are plugged into outlets.) I keep taping them up, and the next day, they’re back down again. And I have a piece of baseboard that evidently never got painted after I stained the floor years ago, and another piece of baseboard that never got nailed in place and keeps falling over.

So I’m going to focus on things like that, and get my house thoroughly clean with all of those little nagging projects fixed up and out of the way. That way, our house will be cozy and comfy when I take off that last week of December and spend some downtime with Matt, as has been our custom for the last few years, and I’ll be ready to hit the ground running in January with a clean and organized home.

I’ll keep y’all updated on the progress. How about some before and after pics of each room when I get them done? I’m not sure that all of my dust and cobwebs will show up in the before pics, but I’m always up for showing off pictures of my clean rooms when they’re done.