Saturday, January 12, 2013

New Year's Resolutions

TJ and I aren't really the resolutiony type. Anything we've said we'd do, agreed to try, promised - it never happens. And we're okay with that. Usually. TJ's okay with that. Sometimes I am not. Anyway, the point is - we have to make some house resolutions for the New Year, and this is maybe a safe thing to do, because it's stuff that we NEED to make happen. If not, well....we'll be forced to live a certain way. You know, with giant holes in the bathroom wall, and windows that make whistling sounds because they're not really finished properly. So these are safe resolutions. Ones that will probably happen. Maybe.

Resolution One: 

FIX THE HALLWAY

Our house has a giant secret. It's called the BACK HALLWAY. And also THE PORCHES. These are the areas we keep hidden, because we've done absolutely nothing to fix them up. Well...maybe a little. The sunporch has a new refinished hardwood floor. The guest entry has a new laminate floor. The back middle hallway has a new laminate floor. The reading porch has...boxes. Anyway, aside from the floors, nothing has been done in terms of making these hallways and porches into livable and usable areas. We try not to let people look at them. Except it's sort of difficult, because these are all the entries into our house, so if you come to visit, you have to go through at least one of them in order to enter our home. So again, we ask that if you come to visit, you do the polite thing: pretend you don't notice.
Our resolution for these areas is to GET THEM FIXED. Starting with the back middle hallway. Currently, it looks like this:

L: The view looking out from the kitchen
Center: Looking around the corner from the red dresser
R: The view out to the laundry room

As you can see, it's a mess. But some day it won't be! Because of the resolution: Fix the back hall! Our plan is to move everything out, tear off all of the tile board, pegboard and other undesirables, then cover it all up with the same wooden boards that we have in our laundry room. If you click on the picture and make it larger, you can see the wooden boards in the last photo. Then, we'll paint the boards (including those in the laundry room) with a greyish wash and all the trim will be painted with the Silkworm paint used for the trim in the rest of the house. Then we'll be able to move in a freezer and a bed for our someday puppy.

But then there's this:

The pantry area. This will be torn out and rebuilt. The back will be lined with bead board, the shelves rebuilt with a more usable design, and then doors added to close it all up so our someday puppy won't be able to break in and eat all the sugar, like what once happened with another puppy I know.

Someday I'm hoping it will look like this:

Pantry doors (courtesy of Cheri at http://www.iammommahearmeroar.net/) 

A beautifully organized interior (courtesy of Michelle and her blog Faith, Trust and Pixie Dust: www.michellelunt.com)
As you can see, I have high aspirations.

Resolution Two: 

NO MORE HOLES IN THE WALL

Our upstairs bathroom has a hole in the wall. It's supposed to be a door, but it's not. It's a hole. Covered by plywood and plastic and a little bit of insulation. I suspect there's something living in it. It could be a bird. It scratches around in the afternoons and I can hear it walking around the balcony sometimes. Aside from this, it hasn't been too bad living with a hole in our wall. It's not too cold, and it doesn't make too much noise when it's windy. But it looks awful. Particularly on the outside, which is the balcony that is in desperate need of repainting and a new railing (because as of now, there is no railing). I visited the neighbours one day before Christmas and looked across their yard to the side of our house, taking great note that the balcony/hole in the wall looked like something from a haunted house. What was once the nicest outdoor feature of our house is now the spookiest. To really let you in on our level of procrastination, I'll share this - the door has been in since the week before Christmas. It's sitting in a warehouse at the moment, ready to be picked up and installed. It's now January 12. So, resolution two: No more holes in the wall. Install the door. Sometime.


Resolution Three:

STOP BREAKING THE COFFEE

This isn't really a house resolution, more of a relationship resolution. I've ruined TJ's first Saturday morning back in Canada. He's been awake for about 5 minutes and I've done the unspeakable - I broke his coffee. I'm somewhat of a morning person - not in terms of having a lovely, personable quality when I first wake up, more of an "It's 7:30am on Saturday morning and I'm awake this is terrible" sort of thing. I am unable to sleep in. So I wake up and putter, and then eventually make coffee while TJ is still snuggled up in his nice warm bed.


I didn't drink coffee until I was 25. I know, I know, I missed some truly formative years in the coffee drinking lifestyle. I think this is maybe why I approach my coffee with the thought of "How can I make this extra delicious?" I like flavoured coffees. I like cream. I like vanilla bean sugar, and hazelnut syrups and basically anything that can be added to your basic coffee to make it EVEN BETTER. So that's what I was thinking this morning when I filled our stovetop percolator and began adding the coffee grinds. I had some leftover Kcups sitting in the cabinet, all different, wonderful, aromatic flavours. So I decided to add one: cinnamon pastry flavour. "Delicious!" I thought to myself.  Once it was finished, I poured it into my cupcake mug and began adding the extras: eggnog, vanilla bean sugar, and a dollop of whipped cream on the top. It was amazing. I invented Cinnamon Bun Coffee. 

Now here's something you need to know about TJ: he's not really a fan of cinnamon. I think he likes it a little bit, but my constant use and overindulgence when adding cinnamon to...well...everything I can....has just driven him over the line into having a somewhat negative attitude towards cinnamon for the last few years. I didn't think about this when gleefully adding my cinnamon Kcup into the coffee grinds. I only thought of this when I heard TJ coming down the stairs. I met him at the kitchen door and confessed to my crime - I broke his coffee. I made it into cinnamon coffee. I forgot about your cinnamon issue. I took your favourite thing about weekend mornings and BROKE IT. Sorry about that. On the bright side, I'll take one for the team and drink the rest of the coffee. I promise not to break your coffee anymore, I'll leave it alone to be regular coffee. So....resolution three: Stop breaking the coffee.



Resolution Four:

TJ'S RESOLUTION

After the coffee situation, I asked TJ what resolution he would like to make. This is what he said:

"I'm going to do everything exactly the same as I did last year - but a little bit slower. Because I'm getting old."

"Is that it?" I asked him.

"Yep."

Actually, it sounded more like "Yhehp" because of the accent and all. But it seemed pretty final. This resolution concerns me a little, mostly because the first two resolutions I made will involve TJ fixing things while I stand around pretending to supervise. It might take longer than I initially thought. I suppose the one silver lining is that if he is planning on moving slower this year, it will give me more time on weekend mornings to make an extra pot of coffee if I sort of "forget" about resolution #3.




3 comments:

  1. have I told you lately that I love you?

    my resolution are to experience less stress and to purge. Purge, you say? Purge what? Dunno. When? not sure. Why? Desperation. How? oh man, that is a stressful question.... ... See resolution one...

    can I come over for some broken coffee?

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  2. people are always welcome for coffee - the pot is constantly on the stove!

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  3. Hello Victoria, Thank you for featuring my pantry. It's one of my favorite projects & really has stayed pretty organized. {AMAZING!} I love your list & I need to make one of my own. Your blog looks fantastic too!

    Warmly, Michelle
    Faith, Trust & Pixie Dust

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