I decided with all this rain, that I would work inside for a day or two and give it time to dry out a bit out there. Wayne said that he would take the day, tomorrow, to help me! (YAY!)
So, today I focused on what we call "The Mud Room". It's a wee small entrance which was originally planned to hold my craft stuff and kitchen overflow items (canner/kitchen tools/extra pantry...you know...).
But Wayne had loaded it so that you couldn't walk through it to the basement and you could barely walk through it to get in or out. Not good chi or feng shui as you could imagine. Chi couldn't come in for good luck, nor could it exit.
Stuck.
Well, I started with my chestnut cupboard out there. I have not been able to access it easily and it hasn't been "fun" to start a project but sort of dread to get into it....So, being the logical lass, I decided to start at the top and work my way down.
At the top of my pretty cupboard were an assortment of things stuck there, in a high place, and also a "wishing well" that my dad had made for each one of his kids (6). I had previously extra decorated it with silk ivy all around the outside and had laid a fabric lining inside it's slat walls. This wee pretty little thing was now completely filled to the brim....
with....
(wait for it).............
dry dog food.
Yes.
Six feet up off the ground, the wee ratties had found a bunk bed waaaaaay up high and could see all the surrounding world....and people just passed by underneath.
A mousie heaven here at Squirrel Haven.
And shite too.
I proceeded to say things outloud like:
"Fer fuck's sake!"
"GACK"
"Good God"
I considered throwing out the whole thing...ivy and all.
But my dad made it. We'd used it for events before.
And there was mouse gack all over it.
I dumped it out and hosed it off. I kept it. But I did go through my supplies and swabbed down the shelves inside and made it nice and smelling all nice like Murphy's Oil Soap. Pulled out cupboard and cried while I vacuumed and washed walls. Pushed it all back to the wall, settled the shelves and moved on to the next area to my right.
It was Wayne's shelves. Carefully and artfully arranged that it looked all steady but if you moved even ONE thing a whole portion of the stuff on the shelf would crash at your feet.
We actually caught 13 mice this spring. Well, actually, Monty caught 3 and Wayne caught 10 in an "Adirondack" style trap, which I affectionately named the "Davy Jones Ratty Bucket O' Death'.
And HERE was their living room and playhouse.
Also, when all this shelf stuff fell, you became aware of the sound and sight of more dry food raining down.....
along with the odds and ends of bric a brac and what not and doo dads, and what's its' and sculputes that he'd fooled around with.
Like a wee strangeness of several used disposal men's razors all pinnioned together in an X fashion.
Why?
CUZ.
I was simply amazed by all the true junk mixed in with good pieces. I threw away all the plastic and paper immediately. I basically shoveled it out one piece by one item by one bit of gear at a time till I found the carpeting. Then vacuumed and shampooed wee wall to wall. It took me 4 hours to do all this.
The room is 6 'x 7'. Not big by any means.
So now I have a beautiful room and have claimed the space. I told him he can utilize one set of empty shelving unit and a couple other shelves in the room, but the floor would need to stay uncluttered.
I put everything on ....
the kitchen table or in the dumpster.
He has since gone dumpster diving and rescued a set of 3 small tubes of fabric paint that I chucked for being all dried out.
He showed me the bottles...
resurrected from a pretty full dumpster....
and he shook the bottles saying, "see? I just added water, I'm gonna give them to the Church for t-shirts."
I said, "if it hasn't changed the consistancy or effectiveness of the paint.
OY.
Thankfully, he came home and mowed and has been putting stuff away a bit.
Tomorrow we will work on it all some more.
The bottom line for today is: I now have a nice, clean, organized cute as a button, mud room entryway!
I have thought it would've been nice to show you the "before & after' pics of these areas I'm tackling.
But I don't have access to a camera, and, well, it would be too damn depressing and I just don't want to freak you out.
But I would like it to show the end result.
That's edifying.
It's also for the "I told you so" album which I'd love to have access for future reference.
I basked in the glow of my cute new mudroom,
ignored the mess of it's displacement in the kitchen (which will get dealt with)
and den?
I just casually opened the cellar door.
I have refused to go down there for quite awhile.
(I just didn't want to see it).
It hadn't gotten any better and I was shocked at the prospects of another monster job for yet another day.
SO?
I shut the door.
Currently, Wayne is acting a wee bit like Winnie the Pooh out there, happy & busy sorting all the new found things and putting them away (YAY!)
I have fabric of different colors spread out all over, sorting by solids/print/colors.
I'm humming too and having a beer.
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