RJ's new favorite toy, cornhole and organizing office

Other than decorating, we have taken a break from house updates so RJ can focus on another summer project. Making cornhole boards!

After much discussion with the Saw Expert at Lowes, he picked out this beauty:

I think it's love.

He's working on three sets of cornhole boards: one for us and one for each of our <awesome> Dads as Father's day gifts. 

The other major project we've been working on is my office. I am admittedly a little bit disorganized (I can already imagine the laughter from that understatement) so I enlisted RJ's help.

With the nature of the art program, I have tons of art stuff. I bought a bunch of bins from target and RJ helped build me some shelves to put them on.

And this weekend I had the idea of putting a magnetic strip along the bottom. Renee gave me these cool magnet strips from Ikea last August and I finally decided how I wanted to use them. That is why I have trouble getting rid of things - genius ideas can take awhile!

So while the idea was good I wasn't sure if RJ could pull off drilling the magnet strip along the bottom of the wood without splitting it.. but he did! Mr. Handy. So now along the bottom shelf I can hang up pictures, kid's drawings, etc!

On the shelves themselves I also have bins for materials to stay organized. With RJ's help I am slowly becoming a more organized person. As he says, the first step is admitting you have a problem.. so he's proud of me for taking that step!
  

My office closet is getting better too - I got some shoe organizers that will help.

I'm still working on it but it's getting there!

Weekend Projects: Basement, Shed and Sticks

We were fairly productive this weekend despite taking Saturday "off" to celebrate our anniversary! We went on the Art Walk in Cleveland's Little Italy and also walked around Coventry Village and got dinner there.

 It was a great day and on Sunday we were ready to tackle some projects!

Project #1: Basement 

 Since moving in our basement has basically become the "catch all" area. Cluttered and disorganized doesn't even begin to describe it! We finally decided enough was enough and it was time to tackle the craziness.

Before:

We made a big dent in organizing but it's hard to tell. Our vision for the basement is to have it divided into a "utility area" (treadmill, free weights, cat stuff and washer & dryer, storage shelf) and a "hobby area" (RJ's music stuff, the dart board and my sewing table). We got everything moved into it's appropriate side and corner, so that was a big step. We also hung an old sheet that is acting as our temporary room divider. We went through a lot of our extra stuff and decided what was going to stay and what was going in the garage sale pile. After moving all the garage sale items to the garage the utility area looks a lot better! We got a utility shelf to put extra tools, paint, etc. on.

After:

So as you can see it still needs a lot of work.. but we did make a good dent! We also bought a new night fixture to hang in the hobby side so it doesn't feel so much like a dingy basement.

I should backtrack a second and show you the great sewing machine/sewing table combo RJ picked up for me! It's in good condition and the sewing machine tucks down into the table.

The chair opens up for extra storage and it came with a bunch of cool accessories! The girl who sold it to RJ told him it belonged to her Grandmother and she used it all the time.

Both Halley and Renee gave me sewing books for my birthday - I can't wait to try out some of the projects!

RJ also had to get some work done on the roof - scary right? It wasn't so bad.. he started with the shed roof which isn't too high. The insurance company wants us to remove all the moss from both the shed roof and house roof.

He did a good job - it looks much cleaner!

He also cut up a bunch of the big branches and sticks we had in a huge pile in the backyard. Collette (the 4 year old neighbor) came out to help break up sticks. She was a little down because her sister Chloe (the 7 year old) was at a birthday party and she wasn't invited because it was for "big girls only". The girls love the cats and the cats like the extra attention. Harvie too of course. We really like having them as neighbors - they are very entertaining!

The stick pile is slowly getting smaller as we're trying to have fires often. We have the back set up with our grill and patio furniture and got a few tiki torches, so it's really become a great hangout area.

I got some all white meat turkey dogs at the store and RJ can't get enough fire cooked hot dogs. I can handle a bite or two but I'm not a huge hot dog person - even if it's turkey. We've been having the best weather for grilling out and fires. I can't get enough grilled corn, zucchini and grilled portabella burgers.

Harvie hoping RJ will share his hot dog..

More soon!