house
The last 3 days haven't felt like much of a weekend, but I'm glad we decided to do it on a 3 day weekend, because we otherwise would have had trouble finishing.
We started with the kitchen cabinets because we went from dark brown wood cabinets to all white cabinets. If we tested the wall color with the brown, it would have been inaccurate because of the light reflection.
The kitchen isn't done yet, and the house is still a mess. We emptied all the cabinets before we started sanding and painting, which was not exactly necessary, but helped keep dust on our glasses and dishes to a minimum. The reason I emptied them was because I wanted to wallpaper or contact paper the insides of the cabinets.
We still need to paint the walls and the trim on the cabinets, but we came a long way this weekend, and I think painting the cabinets was the most difficult and time-consuming part of the process. The paint on the cabinets isn't perfect, but we are planning to touch it up later. I'm sad that I wasn't more careful, but I had no experience painting, so now I know better.
Not sure when we will paint the walls and trim, but I'm excited!
DH put up some shelves in the living room in the niche in the wall. We have a niche like this on either side of the fireplace, and we're planning to put shelves up in both sides. We'll probably put a cabinet on each side underneath the shelves. When we put a TV in the living room, the cabinets will give us a place to put the peripherals.
DH also hung the guitars on the wall in the bedroom. They all look so cool up there, although now every time my nephew comes in, he wants to play with them. Hanging on the wall does them a lot more justice than being stuck in the closet.
We got a lot of work done yesterday. While we were at Ikea buying the shelves, we stopped by the as-is department and discovered that 3 corner sectionals were on sale. The first two didn't have covers, so we went to look at the covers. We couldn't find a cover for the exact couches that were on sale, but we found a cover for a smaller one and it was $300. So we decided to just buy the sectional one sale that came with a cover, which was only $24.75 more than the two without covers. The cover is very light tan floral design, which I don't particularly care for, but it'll do for now. I'll take a picture of the sectional once we sell the futon and clear up the living room some more.
We are really excited to have the couch and have found ourselves spending more time in the living room than we did before. Admittedly, our previous set-up was rather not conducive to hanging out. What I realized was that we had just gotten our apartment to the point where I was satisfied with the organization, and then we up and moved! Getting the apartment to a point where I was satisfied with it took literally years. I wonder how long organizing and decorating a house will take. I'm excited to find out and have fun in the process ♥
I was excited to get this picture of most of them eating together. Usually they fight over the same opening in the feeder, and I can't even get a decent picture of that.
Though I am a little concerned about the girl who was pasted up and another whose wing doesn't look quite right, I'm trying not to let my worry-wart nature take over. At first I thought that those two were getting picked on more than the others, but everyone seems to peck at everyone everywhere right now. The pasted up chick, however, took the liberty of pooping on DH's hand, so I think she'll be alright. Plus, everyone is eating and drinking, and they all seem to have a good amount of energy, all of which are a good signs.
Last night, I had nightmares about awful things happening to the chicks. I won't go into detail, but I will say that I hope I don't have any more.
Oh, and I'm no closer to making a decision on their names. I really like the idea of themed names for the flock, and I have some good ideas stewing, but I'm having trouble deciding. Right now the two top choices are the Royal Flush Gang names and the constellations names. I've given myself till next week to decide, but names are kind of a big deal to me. I've been thinking about their names since before I even ordered them, and naming just a video game character takes me a long time, so... yeah, we'll see about that.
Also, in my newfound chicken fanaticism, I quickly searched for vintage and handmade chicken-related things on Etsy and stumbled upon a copy of Betty MacDonald's The Egg and I from the Dark Horse Primitives shop. Upon reading the first page, I found that it was relevant in more than one way, so I bought it. I'm not supposed to buy new books until at least one of the bookshelves is up, but I'm happy to report that we have plans to set it up this weekend. We will finally be able to unpack our last boxes, and I will be able to buy some cookbooks, chicken books and gardening/composting books I've had my eye on. Exciting!
I spent 4 hours cleaning out the big shed in the back this morning, and this is what we were giving away out of the shed and the yard. These things are posted on craigslist for free, as well as the shed. Someone is supposed to come disassemble and take it away tomorrow, and I'm really hoping he shows up. He seemed serious, which is why I picked him out of all the people who emailed about it. I don't know how well the thing will come apart or get put back together, but he sounds like he knows what he's doing. I'm excited to have this all underway, and life feels a lot less stressful than it did yesterday.
This is all progressing nicely. Tomorrow, I will be working on the yard -- finally, the fun stuff! -- clearing out the corner where the chickens will live, though we still haven't decided in what orientation the coop should be. We will probably have to draw up a plan before we can make real decisions on the layout. Visualizing the yard without all the weeds and the two sheds is difficult, so the plan will help us decide where to put what.
Well, we did it. We moved into our first house!
Moving has been a little complicated because the house was my parents' home, which is basically a dumping ground for the various people who have lived in it. No one wants to get rid of the stuff they leave there, but they don't want to take it with them, either. I'm trying not to think too hard about the situation because it only frustrates me.
Instead, I'm focusing on the yard. We have plenty of space for all my plans, and I'm really excited to get started. Like the house, the yard needs a good cleaning before we can really get to the real work, but that is easier than cleaning out a house full of stuff that holds only sentimental value. Other issues have cropped up about the house that need to be taken care of, but I'm trying not to let that rain on my parade because having a yard this size means having all the things I want: fire pit, compost pile, raised garden bed and chickens!
Although we only moved in last weekend, I've already placed the order for my flock of 5 chicks, and they are scheduled to arrive the week of April 19. Aside from preparing for their arrival, I have a lot of unpacking and organizing to do. Because I have a date on the chicks' arrival, the items on my to-do list are now prioritized by time sensitivity. So far I have been sticking to the schedule, but the aforementioned other issues may delay me a little. Hopefully not, but we'll see how it goes.
In the back of my mind, I'm always thinking of potential names for the chicks. My first idea was to have 4 hens and name them after the Special Infected of Left 4 Dead (Hunter, Boomer, Smoker and Tank), but of course those seem more like boys' names. I also thought modifying the Survivors' names in L4D would be fun (Zoey, Frances, Louisa and Billie), especially if we painted the coop to look like a safehouse, but DH vetoed that idea. That whole plan was scrapped after I went and ordered 5 chicks anyway.
After that, I thought I could name them after Nintendo princesses, but I could only think of two names in that category (Zelda and Peach). That category could be expanded to include female protagonists in the video game genre, which totaled 5 (Elika, Jade, Samus) -- except that I didn't play Metroid, so I wouldn't want to name a hen after a character I never played. I supposed I could throw Zoey or Navi in there instead of Samus and that would complete my names. Hm, that's something to think about. I'd have to name one Paper Peach (not just Peach) because Paper Mario was one of my favorite Mario games.
I want to start keeping up with my blog again. I've been really quiet lately because I have not been crafting (something about being crammed in an office all day is really stifling), but I want to keep up with house and garden updates, and especially updates on the chicks. I am also becoming more and more dedicated to being Pescetarian, so I want to chronicle that as well.
Stay tuned!