Summer Chores

I had grand plans for this summer as far as things I was going to do around the house - so grand, I have forgotten now what half of those plans were. I did, however, get some things accomplished that just needed to be done as part of up keep of the house. Honestly, I can not believe I am going to share one of these, but you know I don't mind just keeping it real.

Ever since we moved in our home, I have wanted to have our grout professionally cleaned. But then I decided that I would wait until after I redid the kitchen (which I was supposed to do 3 years ago). So of course, nothing has happened with the grout. I saw on Pinterest that you could use Clorox toilet bowl cleaner and put it on your grout lines and it would have results as if you used the professionals.

Well, since I am all about doing it myself and saving money, I figured I would give it a try. I placed it on the grout just as it said, let it set and then took a brush after it. After I wiped it off, it did appear cleaner, but so did the edges of the tile where the cleaner got on them. So I ended up putting it on all of the grout and tide and scrubbed away. As you can tell from the picture, it was quite the difference. I was appalled at how dirty my floor truly was!!! But I can tell you, after several days of being down on my hands and knees scrubbing every ounce of the floor, it seems a lot brighter and cleaner in my kitchen!

While the boys were at my parents for a week, we got all the baseboards down stairs painted. When we had our new floors installed in October, they placed new primed quarter round down and we have been saying we were going to paint them, but it just never got done. Shane and I made a great team getting the job done in a reasonable amount of time. 

Another things that has been bugging me was our driveway - it has needed a good power washing. Luckily, my brother-in-law has a power washer and he let me borrow it and boy howdy, that brightened up the outside of the house! I ended up power washing all the siding on the back of the house, the back porch and the side walk in front of our house. I loved doing it. Heck I would have enjoyed power washing the whole neighborhood!! (Crazy, I know). I never took an 'after' picture, however I took a 'before' picture after I wrote the boys names on the driveway.

I have had an old table (actually dating from the 1930's) of my grandmother's that I wanted to do something with. Since I have read all sorts of things about chalk paint, I decided to give it a go myself. I made my own chalk paint using some $2 samples from Lowe's as well as my own dark wax and gave the old table a face lift.

Before

After

Camden also decided to do something to clean up his room. He has always slept with about 30 stuffed animals. After I would wash his sheets and make his bed, I would always be in trouble with him because I did not put his stuffed animals in the right place. Who can keep up with where 30 different stuffed animals sleep in his bed??? Well, he has finally decided that he would like to make his bed everyday but realizes that it is not an easy chore with all the stuffed animals. So, we went through his stuffed animals, he picked 3 to sleep with (his idea) and put all the others on his book shelf. Since doing that, he has made his bed almost every morning right after he wakes up. Don't you know that makes this OCD momma very happy!

The other thing that has taken a lot of my time this summer, however at this point I have nothing to show for, is furniture shopping. The furniture we have in the living room is Shane's that he had prior to us even meeting and, well, it is in dire need of being replaced!!! So I have been steadily looking for the 'perfect' furniture that we can both agree on. But, if you know me, I absolutely suck at interior design and despite knowing what I like, I just can't ever seem to put it together. I do think I am getting closer to finding things that we can both agree on with the help of some friends, and hopefully in the near future will be able to share some pictures of an updated family room!