The Never Ending To-Do List

Hi all!  Sorry I've been MIA for a while.  I've been busy playing catch up with all of my house chores and work ever since my art show from last weekend.  It's really no excuse... but I'm using it!

In terms of my work, I haven't painted in a few days.  I'm starting to get a little cranky, too.  I plan on starting some of my less expensive pieces tomorrow.  Today I have to run out and purchase some art supplies and food.  I did manage, however, to hang up my massive painting in my dining room to keep it off the floor.  That's progress!

This past week I've been focusing on our house.  Our wedding day is rapidly approaching, and Steve and I are slowly letting the reality of the situation settle in.  We have about 100 days until our wedding and there is SO MUCH TO DO around our house.  We made the list last night and it was not pretty.  Money was adding up quickly and all of the items on the list were necessary and not extravagant AT ALL.

On a positive side note, I completed my wedding registry!  It's up online on our wedding website!

That being said, I'd like to welcome you to my world for a moment and take you on a pictorial tour of our house and share alllllllllllllllll of the thing$ we $till need to complete.  And just a warning: as my friend Julie would always say to me when we stopped over at her house on a whim-- DON'T JUDGE ME!  Our house still needs quite a bit of work done.

Let's start outside.

Here is what our house/deck/porch looks like today.  As you can see, it is ready for it$ roof.  That will run u$ a few grand I'm sure.  We also need a little more exterior paint to finish up the back of the house.

Steve started putting the railing up, and I love it!  And what makes it even better is that it i$ extremely affordable.

We finally have some deck board$ at the front of our door.  It really makes a huge difference from the unstable platform we had situated there for the longest time.  I was always afraid I was going to trip and fall over it.  We plan on finishing the entire deck for our wedding... the board$ will run us at least $1,000.

 Let's step inside, shall we?  Here is our living room.

Notice the black board in place of the window to the right in the picture above?  That was where there used to be glass, until on a very windy day the window decided to blow in and shatter all over our hardwood floor.  Scared Camper to death.  The windows on this house are awful.  There are no screens so you can't open them for fresh air, and even if you did open them the chances of you closing them back up are slim to none.  We finally ordered window$ (thank GOD!) and they will be coming 4th of July weekend.  That is one expensive item we can check off our list.

This is our dining room/office area.  This is my least favorite room in the house (aside from the basement).  As you can see in the picture, we have a cat bed that the cat doesn't even sleep in, a computer desk area that is ugly and not functioning very well for us (I plan on fixing that this coming week), and two oversized antique trunks that are just holding our crap.  My dining room needs a makeover.  I did paint this very cute bookshelf in our dining room that I got on Craigslist for $5.  I love it!

Oh, and here is a quick peak of our half bathroom that is off the dining room.

I really didn't mean to get the toilet in like that.  I was trying to show the tile work Steve did in the bathroom.  Isn't it lovely!?  And yes, we still need a $ink and faucet.  We've added that to our list.

Our kitchen is looking much better ever since I finally finished painting it!  The empty space between the cabinets is waiting for this to go in there:

But at $549 at Ikea, it is going to have to wait.  We also plan on putting a nice tile back $plash on the back of the wall along the countertop, but that is going to wait, too. :)  So, for now, the kitchen is relatively good to go. 

Let's move on to the second floor.

This is the first bedroom at the top of the stairs.  The boarded up window marks the first time a window blew in and shattered on the floor.  Aside from the furniture and paint this room needs, it is in decent shape.  Not too bad here!

Moving on...

Here is our master bedroom and master closet.  This is my favorite room in the house.  We only need to hang up a mirror in here.  Easy enough, right!?  Second floor isn't bad at all.

Now, I wasn't going to show you this, but in order to get my point across I felt it was necessary.  Brace yourself... here is our basement.

Our basement looks like it was used to film Silence of the Lambs.  I mean, straight from a horror flick.  If we had a moth problem in this house, I would seriously freak out.  I go down there from time to time scoop Moo Moo's litter box, and I'm afraid I am going to find Buffalo Bill hanging out in his weird flesh lady suit.  Hate it!  So, as you can see, the floor is dirt.  Just plain Earth.  We need to cement this baby up.  The moisture problem in our house is out of this world because of the basement.  The cement for our ba$ement is on our to-do list.

That's about it for the pictorial tour of our house.  I can't forget to mention the $oil and gra$$ seed we need for some of the balding areas in our yard.  Add that to the list, too. 

Wasn't I right when I said our to-do list didn't have any extravagant items!?  All very necessary, and all add up to about $7,100 (our guesstimate).  My head is ready to explode... is yours?  It is times like this I wish I was a dog.

Yeah, she has so much to worry about, huh?

I'll catch up with you all later.  Time to get to work and attack this to-do list. 

Have a nice rest-of-the-weekend!
Nikki