Our house was getting cluttered, and needed some changes, but we were waiting for the right time to declutter. We were waiting for the right time to paint the walls, and complete the many other "Honey Do" tasks that both Don and I had on our lists.
Well, if you want a quick way to start doing those things - a form of motivation, you could say, well add another four legged crazy puppy to your house.
If you've seen the movie, Marley and Me, you know how destructive puppies/dogs have potential to be. No, we don't have Marley, but we may have Marley's distant - slightly better behaved - cousin. Junior is adorable and you'd never know from some of the pictures, that he is a nuisance, but let me explain how he has helped expedite our home improvement list.
Let's start with the clutter:
Our coffee table used to have piles, and stuff just pushed underneath - now, it's never been neater, and nothing rests on top. Notice the baskets underneath - he tries to get into them, but isn't very successful.
Next, our video games/DVD's/Blu-Ray's/etc. used to be in an open shelf next to the TV - nope, not with a puppy that gets bored easily.
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| Notice the very nice, new cabinet WITH a door that we got to house all of the "fun" that we have. |
Our kitchen counters we are place to store food things, or put "stuff" that we would need later. Nope, can't have anything on the counters with "Drive By Junior." He jumps up, scopes out what he wants, gets yelled at and gets down, then comes back for the quick attack.
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| Our kitchen counters have never been so clean and uncluttered. |
Saving the best for last.....
1. There's probably an unwritten housecleaning rule somewhere about how often you should take down your curtains and clean them...well, I can guarantee we haven't followed that rule. Thanks to Junior, the shears in our front room have come down and will be cleaned before being put back up again. He got a little frustrated that the curtains were blocking his view of what was happening in the front of the house, so he pulled at them and the curtain rod was a little unstable, so he pulled the whole rod out of the wall. Once he did one window, he realized he needed to do the other window also.
The curtains remained intact, though the curtain rods were a little bent and there were some nice holes in the wall...but,.....
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| He definitely has a good view of the front driveway! |
The sheers will be going up again soon, after they are cleaned and new rods are installed.
2. We had (emphasize had) a nice coat tree that sat in the front corner of our foyer for guests to hang coats on, and admittedly we did clutter it up with our coats and hoodies, and hats, and umbrellas, and.....
Well, that was taken care of when Junior did a drive by and grabbed a coat that was dangling from the coat rack. He pulled and the entire coat tree fell over - put a small dent in the hardwood floor and broke in half.
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| Goodbye coat tree and goodbye front foyer clutter. |
Next, when we lost the coat tree, we moved to hanging our coats on another coat rack that Don hung on the wall behind the front door. It looked a little cluttered, but our coat closet is very small and it was an alternative to the coat tree of yesteryear. Well, Junior didn't like that either. He did another drive by and with his mighty 85 pounds of strength - grabbed one of the girl's hoodies hanging on the wall and pulled.....pulled the darn thing right out of the wall - yes the coat rack that was anchored into the wall - OUT OF THE WALL.
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| He pulled this out of the wall - it was full of spring coats and hoodies. |
So,....a wall in our front entryway with 3 giant holes in it. Also, one of the only areas in the whole house that was still the builder's white of 12 years ago. Though not so white anymore, more like a dingy gray with lots of touchup spots over the years.
At the bottom of our list was finding someone to come in and paint the entryway - but we hadn't gotten to that yet. We were too busy saving for vacations, and finding other adventures to take up our time.
We were in a quandry, do we rehang the coatrack or clean up the wall a little and do something different.
It's summer, I get bored very easily and I had 5 weeks until we leave for our first vacation. So...thanks to Junior - I decided to tackle painting the front entryway myself. Don agreed, as long as I didn't involve him, so off I went.
Day 2 of summer vacation and the front hallway was painted. I did accent walls, because I couldn't paint the whole two level entry area by myself.
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| This is the wall where the coat rack was hanging - with 3 big holes! |
But, we're not done....If the hallway was painted that cappucino color, it would clash with the girl's playroom which was still the peach color that was color coordinated with a sofa that was in there years ago. So, the playroom had to be totally repainted and changed to "grow up" with the girls. Thanks Junior!! :)
I am just about finished painting the playroom and de-cluttering that room. The girls are excited, because it looks more grown up and I am excited because it is a complementary color to the hallway color.
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| the peach color being replaced by Light Mocha |
The room is done, the furniture is put back and all that is left is to buy new curtain rods and put the curtains back up - hoping Junior will not drive by again.
He's such a cute dog and we know the stage will pass, but until then....we continue to do more home improvements...the planned and the unplanned.
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| He loves chairs!! |
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| After a walk in the rain. |
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| He used to fit in that bean bag - yep, our 85 pound puppy! |
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| Bad picture - but, yes he is in the hammock. |
