Ittybittybungalow

I really can’t stand not knowing exactly were all my things are all of the time. I hate wasting time looking for my things and wasting money re-buying things and wasting space storing duplicate items. All of that aside, I honestly, have a very deep-seated issue with visual clutter and general disorganization. At school my desk must be clear and clean at the end of everyday. I’ve even gone as far a zip-tying student desks together to keep them from getting out-of-place and heaven forbid you turn a paper into me without a proper heading. If I had to guess I might be able to trace this back to some very through middle school teachers who equated coming unprepared to class as a felony – thanks guys. However, there are some pros to this situation like this project I completed a few weeks back.

The old cabinet I was using to store all these odds and ends was shallow and had no back so things kept falling out and getting lost. So I threw out the old cabinet and put this shelf  I already had in its place. Then I found these plastic bins at Target. The smallest ones were 99 cents each and the larger ones were about two dollars and some change on sale. With some sorting I was able to clean up that mess quickly, easily and inexpensively. As you can see there is even room left to grow. Each box is labeled clearly to show what is inside and each box is sorted by project, for example tiling, sanding,staining, and so fourth. This makes it much easier to grab what you need when you are working on that particular project since you can just grab the whole box and go.

 At the same time I also added these shelves (which are less blury in real life) in the workshop to hold paints and tools. I used pressure treated 2x6s when they were on sale this summer. I think I only paid about twenty dollars to make these shelves which was much less expensive than buying shelves to assemble which I was estimating to cost around eighty to one hundred dollars. I can also fit more on these since they use the entire  space.

All in all, I now feel much more relaxed about the state of affairs in the basement.

As you know, I’ve been working on the basement recently. Here you can see just what exactly I have been up to. This picture shows the completed workshop. The best part is the pegboard along the back wall I’m using in order to organize the tools I have.

Check out how nasty this place was before I got to work!

In this during shot you can get a better idea of what it really looked like in the room w/o all the junk. Notice how dusty it was! In the process of removing many of the cupboards I damaged a lot of drywall and had to patch and sand all the spots – hence the dust.

I think that it is a major improvement from the way that it looked before I started working! The room started off a sunny yellow as was most of the basement at move in. I toned it down with a light gray and removed a lot of the cupboards the previous owner had installed. He worked for Kodak back in the day and used the space as a dark room which is why the sink is here which works great for the workshop.

Here is an image of the other side of the workshop.

Before:

During:

After:

Here are a couple of shots of the other side of the room:

This shelf was left in the basement by the previous owner and works great in here. Someday I’d like to get a matching one to place beside it where all of the scrap wood is now.

These cabinets used to on the wall where the workbench is now, but I wanted to extend the pegboard there and there was no other place to hang them w/o blocking an outlet so they are here now. I’ll paint them white sometime when  have time. They work well to store bits and pieces that cannot be hung like nails, sandpaper and other miscellaneous items.

 After I hung the pegboard I had a little leftover space on both sides. I’ve been collecting vintage yardsticks from estate sales because I find the colors and slogans on charming. Usually they are about 50 cents or a dollar but I never knew what to do with them until now. They worked great to fill in the gap between the wall and the pegboard and as I collect more I’m going to create a border of them around the pegboard.

Hooray for another space now clean and organized!

Check out the new bookcases that I setup in the basement today.

These bookcases took me just about all day to assemble and set up in the basement. I needed a place to store and sort all of my books so I thought that these would be would be just right. I didn’t really want to spend a lot of money seeing as it is my basement so I just got some of those cheap pressboard numbers and put them up on patio bricks in case of water. I think I’ll get some moulding to add to the top and to join them to one another and make them appear to be built-ins some day when I have the time and money to spend on my basement, but as for now, I’m really pleased with the results!

I don’t have any before pictures but this room used to be yellow and I re-painted it the green you see here. At first I though the color was way too dark but I’m 100% happy with it now. The bookcases really make it work and lighten up the space as needed.]

You can see the other side of the room is not finished but you can see what I am thinking in terms of layout.

Where the chair is I would like a large old oak teacher’s desk and then I’d like to replace the other table with a wooden one. I also plan on using cork tiles to create a bulletin board above the future desk and using chalkboard paint to add a chalkboard on the wall over the future table. I’ll trim each out in white molding.  Lastly, I want to add gray indoor/outdoor carpeting to the floor so if it gets wet it won’t me an issue.

After weeks of clothing rationing at IBB we have finally got a working washing machine and a dryer. After arguing with every used appliance dealer in Rochester about why I thought it was important to have a matching set I managed to find these for 275.00. I know I could have gotten a better deal off of Craigslist but I need to have them for today because it was the only time I was going to be able to arrange a truck for pick-up. Considering the fact that they are used, I’d say that they are in pretty good shape. I actually think that it was the store who did the most damage to them, not the previous owner. For instance when they took permanent marker and wrote some kind of inventory number on the top panel. Good thing the Comet took them out. Or when they scratched the paint moving it around the store with their rickety dolly. If I had to do it all over again I don’t think I’d go back to them.

My dad came to visit in order to install them. IBB has never has a dryer before. so we needed to put in a vent and run a gas line, which wasn’t easily done. After several hours and two trips to the hardware store we were finally in business. However, the new appliances really don’t help to hide the fact that IBB still needs a major electrical upgrade, but for now at least we are headed in the right direction.