Ellen! Please Pick My House to Redo!

Ellen! Here are photos of my house! I so need a home makeover.   Please send your team ( or at least Nate Berkus) to help me! Please!

The sleeping nook-very cozy, but not very exciting

 

The closet area-the only closet

The Bathroom

The kitchen-it's like half the house space and I have no counter scape, I'd love to have a little U shape kitchen area with a breakfast bar.

The kitchen

My office

The Stove

The living area-with  my free to me very large, very heavy TV that I can't move...

the back of the house

the girls!-you can see the lake!

the front of the house-you can see the lake in the background

I would love to win a home make over from your show.  I moved back to Connecticut 13 years ago and bought my little 450 SF house 450 SF and 2.5 rooms plus a bath.. It’s called a cottage, but I call it the studio house. I live here with my dogs, it’s a tight fit and my decorating scheme is what I call grad school design.

I’ve hit some financial, job, and personal issues, my job working as an assistant for a real estate broker has gone from full time to part time to less than part time (12 hrs). Heck, I did not even get a card on Administrative Professionals day this year.  I’ve lost all my benefits (paid vacation/ holidays, insurance) with the reduction in hours; I have picked up a second job on the weekends. I split my time ½ of the week here at home ½ of the time in Oxford ,MA. I am doing this to pay my mortgage, car payment, and life’s other bills. The reduced hours mean reduced pay and I’ve also spent my savings and emergency fund on the basics. And sods law, just when I think I am making a little headway, things like my car unexpectedly breaking down happen.

I know what you can do for the winner of the contest, do a beautiful home makeover, but this is what I do for you.   I can pay this forward.

 I can and will happily volunteer on a project to help another deserving person or family.

I can chip in by doing some of the work, I can paint and I can do demolition.

My house is very small, so you can also help another deserving person or family get a home makeover. Two for the price of one!

 I can cook for the workers, I’m Italian and I love to cook for people. I can host a BBQ at the end of the project for the workers, we can borrow canoes and we can all go canoeing on the lake.

I can blog about the renovation on this blog,

 I can post about this on my facebook page.  My friends and family would get a kick out of this

I hope you and your staff will give serious consideration and pick me for the Ellen home makeover!

Todays View

 

 

 

 

 

 

The View from My Window At Work

Today's Thought.

So I decided to participate in The Thirty Days of Gratitude project I saw Dogs Don't Eat Pizza Blog.    I've spent a good portion of my time recently feeling resentful about things in my life.  Things I have no control over, things I have control over that don't work out, and things in general. It really is a negative way of thinking and I wanted to change that.   

I read somewhere that it takes 21 days for something to become a habit.   I will probably need the thirty days!  

I woke up this morning in the most frightful mood. I feel mean and want to be mean to someone!  Yeah, that frightful.   Then I remembered all those people in New Jersey, on Long Island and on the CT shore that have lost everything-homes, cars, possessions, those people without power and won't have power for days more. Yikes, how selfish one becomes in a mean grumpy mood.

I am grateful that I woke up this morning in my own bed with my dog to a house with power and food in the fridge..


Makes you think doesn't it.

Chores

Hard to believe that fall is actually here. I spent part of today doing some of my fall chores. Today's chore was washing my windows. I managed to get all but one of the house windows done inside and out.   I have one window that will require me moving my desk and all the electronics.  It can wait until next week.  

The dog room is another story. I got the exterior of the windows done, I have to do an overhaul on the room, crates out, floor swept and washed, I can then clean the inside of the windows and make sure they are all in "their upright position".  It will also give me some time to think, yet again, about putting plastic on those windows or some sort of wind/cold/winter protection.  

Laboring Day

While the rest of the US had a BBQ, hung out, watched baseball, I used my one day off to get chores done.  The list of things to do is long and lengthy. I have been taking inspiration from DIYDiva and attacking my list of stuff that needs to get done.

The first chore was re-organizing the shed.  When you live in a house that is 476 sf with no attic, basement or garage, prioritizing what goes in the shed is paramount.  For me, it's the excess of dog crates. I counted, I have 21 crates of varying styles, types and sizes. I only have 4 dogs, but 21 crates?  Yeah a bit much

This is all the crap, uh stuff, out of the the shed. Under the blue tarps to the right are the rubbermaid bins I store other "sutff".  I pulled out almost everything, less the plastic shelving unit, that was easy to just stick in a different spot. I swept the floor, made a pile of stuff to go the town dump and pounded a few nails to hang "stuff".

Why do I have a photo of the rotted corner of the shed? Well that whole soffit was filled with nasty biting yellow jackets. I had dumped a full can of bee killer spray the night before. I saw them going in and nesting a few days before and I had visions of opening the shed door and getting swarmed.  

The right side of the shed, all the crates, chairs, coolers, tent, cones and the back seat to the Escape are neatly stacked. You can also see the Tule Rack I still want to sell.

The left side of the shed, on the shelves, miscellenaous things, to the left where you can't see it, all the rakes, shovels, brooms, pitchforks and assorted gardening items.


The whole process start to finish only took about an hour.  I should be able to keep this pretty tidy.  I could use a much bigger shed, but this will do for now! Maybe later this fall, I'll slap a fresh coat of paint on it.

Getting Back To The Blog

Since I've had to do a blog, facebook page, twitter, and two web pages for work,my own fun stuff has totally fallen by the way side.

Sooo, since I really love writing about ME. I'm going to start re-blogging here. Plus it's much easier to post photos of things here than on my FB page.