flippin’ sweet (flipping the office and guest room)

The past few days have been cra-aaaaa-zy around here. I’m so sore and tired. My joints are aching.

Wanna know why? Well, too bad, I’m telling you anyway. :)

Besides deciding to start a rigorous running program (I’m serious, don’t laugh!) Ben and I spent the last few days flip-flopping the office and the guest room. For a point of reference, here’s our floor plan with each room marked.

Before the ol’ flip-a-roonie, the office was “bedroom 5″ and the guest room was “bedroom 4″.

HoH_master_floorplan_1st_floor_bed5  HoH_master_floorplan_2nd_floor_bed4

Before we started, our office (bedroom 5) looked like this:

Okay, okay, that’s on a good day. Most of the time the office really has looked like this:

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and this…
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Aaaand this.
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There are names for this. Hoarder comes to mind. Slob. Pack-rat. Um, ya.

…which is why we wanted to flip rooms with the guest bedroom (bedroom 4). You see, the guest bedroom is a lot bigger than the office, which is obviously our biggest issue with sharing an office – we just flat-out don’t have enough space for all the crap.

And it’s also on the 2nd floor instead of the first, so visitors can’t glimpse inside it as easily as they can on the 1st floor. (Most guests don’t go upstairs, but they do go to the bathroom which is right next to the current office, allowing a horrified peek inside the office.)

Only problem with doing a big flip? If you thought the orange office was uninviting, the guest room is far worse.

We’ve affectionately named the guest room, “the smurf blue room”. Can you guess why?

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I pretty much quit going into the office as much as possible because the orange was so horrible to look at. I just couldn’t work in there. But now, smurf blue? There’s an even smaller chance I’ll go into that room!

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I’ve been wanting to flip rooms for awhile, but besides the daunting task of carrying an overflowing office full of crap upstairs, and the guest furniture downstairs, I also knew there was no-way-in-hades I’d agree to move rooms until we painted the smurf room first.

By some fate that can only be described as a miracle, I actually talked Ben into painting again. And so it began. The great guest room/office flip.

Doesn’t he look so thrilled to be painting?
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Ben and I have a pretty good system worked out. He rolls, I cut.

Fortunately we had a 3rd helper to make the job go quicker.

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After about a day we were totally finished puttying, painting, cutting, rolling, and edging.

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This kind of overhaul really tears apart the entire house though. Here’s the piles of crap we had to maneuver around for the past few days. Matter of fact, we are still maneuvering around all this crap.

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Why do things have to get worse before they get better? Check out or b-o-r-i-n-g bathroom off the gameroom (bath 3).

It usually looks like this (extra boring, I know):

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But the past few days it’s been spiced up:

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I’m sure Silhouette would freak if they knew I was storing my Cameo next to the sink. ::bag over head::

And while I’m talking about random stupid crap totally unrelated to painting, can I just point out the main reason this room was never even considered for either kid?

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Hello sneak-out-route! Please don’t tell me you never crawled out a window and jumped off a 1st story roof. This is just asking to be snuck sneaked out of. So ya, hopefully my kids won’t ever read this post and figure this out. Because my Travis, he’s a monkey and would probably jump off the roof tomorrow (at 9 years old) if I let him.

So, back to the post. Where was I? Oh, painting. Right. In case you are wondering about the color, I chose it in about 5 minutes off the Martha Stewart paint card. I wanted something similar to my gray in my living room, but even lighter and super neutral.

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So, are you dying to see the big reveal? Ya, me too! I wish it were done! ha. But for now, I’ll at least show you the not-as-messy “progress” report. Here goes nothing.

progress:
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before:
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progress:
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before:
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progress:
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before:
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progress:
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before:
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progress:
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before:
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One of the new additions is this hutch that I just stuck on top of my current ikea desk. So far it has worked out great and I’m really diggin’ it.

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It is suppose to go on top of my son’s dresser, but I got sick of cleaning piles and piles of legos off it, so I took it away and moved his dresser into his closet. He loves it because now he has more floor space for even more lego messes. The hutch has sat in the guest room unused for a few months, so I decided to try it out on the desk, and I love it!

Here’s the dresser/hutch combo in Travis’s room before I took it all apart and moved it around. (I’ve never showed his room before, so this is a first!)

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I love having easy access to my craft supplies.

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As for the previous office/future guest room, it’s lookin’ like a fool with it’s pants on the ground still needs a lot of work. And a lot more moving.

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So there you have it. Besides a nice dinner, this is pretty much what Ben and I did for our 13th wedding anniversary – we painted and moved. Good times.

before:
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progress:
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I’ll update as I continue to get this mess cleared up and organized. I so want to paint the orange room now (previous office/new guest room), but I have been promising Kinsey I’ll paint her room *next*, so until her room is painted, I’m not painting any other rooms!

What did you do over the weekend? Hopefully something way more fun than painting and moving!

* linking to Thrifty Decor Chick’s house party


     

How to create Perfect Vacuum Lines; with a vlog tutorial

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You asked. I listened!

Here are both video and picture tutorials on how to make perfect vacuum lines on your carpet!

First off, the video. I think it’s easier to explain how to make nice vacuum lines by showing you, so if you have time watch the video I recommend going this route. (plus I’m always entertaining! lol).


(click here if you can’t see the video)

Here’s a recap of how to make perfect vacuum lines on your carpet:

How did I create these pretty lines?

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Step 1:

You always want to start in the far back corner of your room. You push the vacuum forward in a straight line. Only push as far as you can lunge – don’t take steps forward or backward while you are vacuuming each row. This is Row 1.

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Step 2:

Pull the vacuum backward at an angle. You want to be lined up next to where you started.

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Step 3:

Repeat Steps 1 & 2, pushing the vacuum forward, then pulling backward at an angle. Work your way from right to left for the first row.

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Step 4:

Now it’s time to begin Row 2. Pull the vacuum backward and begin the same process with the vacuum; push forward, pull back at an angle. However, this time you are working the opposite direction; left to right.

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Step 5:

Continue working from row to row, back and forth across the room, until you have finished the entire room. It may take 4, 5, or even 6 rows before you finish your room.

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A few tips:

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And a quick overview one more time:

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1. start in far back corner
2. push forward
3. pull backward at an angle. only push and pull as far as you can lunge.
4. work you way from right to left across the room.
5. when you get to the end of the room, pull the vacuum backward to start on row 2.
6. work your way from left to right while on row 2.
7. continue working back and forth, pushing forward and pulling back at an angle, until you have worked your way out of your room.
Never step on any carpet that has already been vacuumed. Otherwise you will have a nice footprint.
To keep the carpet uniform looking, don’t take steps back and forth for each row. only push and pull as far as you can lunge.

Happy vacuuming!


     

My dirty rug’s now looking so fly

This is my foyer.

This is my foyer with a filthy rug.

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Any questions?

The moral? Don’t Do Rugs. Or wait, isn’t it Don’t Do Drugs? Um, ya. Never mind.

I couldn’t resist stepping back into the ’90s for a minute there. Or was it the ’80s? (“This is your brain on drugs” – remember that campaign?) Okay, I’ll stop now.

Moving right along… ::whistling::

So if you hadn’t guessed by now, I have a really dirty rug in the foyer.

What dirt? Seriously? Did you really just ask me that?!

THIS DIRT.

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Even the poor rug was begging me to clean him.

I’ve heard though that you aren’t suppose to wash rugs. Old Wives tale? Truth? How the heck do I know. All I know is that my cheap-@ss $15 indoor/outdoor rug from IKEA has it’s mind in the gutter. ‘Cause this bad boy is dir-ty!

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We won’t even talk about what the brown spot is. I.have.no.idea.and.I.really.REALLY.don’t.want.to.know. (Probably dirt from some kid’s shoe.)

So anyway, how on earth is one suppose to wash a rug?

Take it out back, give it a good beating, then hose it off? That sounds like rug abuse to me.

Drop him off at the dry cleaners? Seriously? That will cost me more than the rug itself. Might as well buy a new one for that.

Use a carpet shampooer? Well, I tried using my Bissell Little Green Multi-Purpose Deep Cleaner, which is awesome by the way (This is an affiliate link, fyi), and it worked pretty well, but the rug is big and it was taking too long.

So I did what any PMSing sane person would do. I threw caution to the wind and shoved that sucker into my washing machine.

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Now I’m not necessarily saying to shove any rug into any washing machine. Use some common sense. First off, this thing was cheap. Don’t go stuffing your Persian rug into your washer. Secondly, I like to live on the edge. If you don’t like to live on the edge, play it safe and protect your washer. I’d hate for you to ruin your agitator or something.

But anyway, I washed it. I think I put it on the bulky and delicate cycle. No funny noises were heard. No smoke came out of my washer. No plumber needed to be called.

BUT, and I repeat. B.U.T. Please don’t put your rug in the dryer (no, I didn’t, thankyouverymuch. I’m not that dumb). The back of the rug is rubber. The rug itself is some type of polyester or plastic something or other. THE DRYER WILL PROBABLY MELT YOUR RUG!

After I washed it, I took it out and draped it over the railing on the deck to dry. It dried really quickly believe it or not.

And now…. {{drum roll}}…

AND NOW… for the big reveal of the washed rug! ::GASP::

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Now it’s lookin’ so fly like a G6.

My husband HATES that song. He says its dumb. I LOOOOOVE IT. Makes me want to dance!

Here’s the song if you have no clue what I’m talking about. People that hear this song will start actin-actin like they dru-uh-uh-unk :)

And on a plus side, washing it helped relax the edge that kept curling up. Now it lays flat.

Wasn’t that just the most riveting post you’ve ever read? I know, I was on the edge of my seat as well. You are welcome.

And on a side note, is it just me or is that door begging to be painted? I’m really not digging the brown. I’m thinking black or white. Thoughts?

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I’m sorry, but this Chipmunk version is just plain wrong. I am starting to think that the Chipmunks have covered pretty much every song ever recorded. AL-VIIIIIN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

No go feel fly like a G6!


     
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