Holiday And Seasonal Decor Storage And Tree Removal

Hello, Friends,

How are you? How is your summer? Ours is terribly hot so I've been keeping busy inside the house.

I was binge watching Hoarders a few weeks ago. I became very convicted that aside from Bill's closet and his office, I've taken over most of the house and a section of the garage. 

To be fair, I'm the homemaker. I do the cooking, cleaning, laundry, entertaining etc. so it makes sense that I'd have control over the storage in those areas. However, it puzzled me that the front hall closet held none of Bill's items. I guess, when our oldest moved out and Bill took over his room and created an office, he moved his coats to the closet in that room. I tend to be on the messy side and Bill didn't want to share with me and the two children that were still living at home. As I looked at the space and removed my coats, I noticed that is was in desperate need of coat of paint. It had never been painted since the house was built and it looked a little beat up. My shoes and a few of my current summer handbags went back in but now the hanging space is reserved for guests. Ha- if it ever cools down, that is. 

I prefer to have shoes downstairs. City dirt is gross and I don't really want it in my closet.

It looked so good that I decided to clean out the little linen closet by the garage. 

To my recollection, we have never used this for linens. It's been the fabric closet and the dish closet. Last year, I put Christmas items in it too. 

Painting around shelves isn't my favorite. Paint ended up in my hair which isn't my favorite either. I wished it could stay empty but I decided to make the this the holiday/ seasonal closet. It got more of my stuff out of Bill's garage. I think that pulling bunnies, Santas, pumpkins and other related items out of a closet will be so much easier than digging through a tote. Each theme needed about a shelf and half. I decided to let go of items that were not my favorite so that everything will fit. 4th of July is in there too.  

It is organized. I promise. 

Any remaining bits were moved to Starsky- The Hutch after it had been cleaned out. 

As soon as I was done, I grabbed a little ice cream treat out of the freezer. It was melted. 

The old garage fridge finally gave up. We've had it 9 years. It was at Bill's mom's house before that. There is no telling how long she had it. 

Everything got moved out and in to the inside refrigerator and freezer. That was a feat which required purging some things including expired salad dressings. 

Extra drinks found the way into the pantry after that got a good cleaning out, as well. 

We increased our trash from one bag to five! 

Additionally, the little pie safe was in the midst of a makeover. It held Easter and Fall decor. 

The white finish was gloppy so it needed stripping before I could repaint. 

Very thin plywood was cut and popped into the door panels.  

After all the purging and moving things around, this piece remains empty so that Bill can use it for something. 

The tree men were here when I was cleaning out and putting everything back. This was a good distraction from their activity. 

Sadly, both of our trees in the front yard were ailing. The tree closest to the street has looked very stressed for the last few months. There was a big dead section in the middle of the tree. I didn't realize that the bigger one near the house was diseased as well. For our safety and the safety of our cars, house and any one on the street they had to be removed. 

This was not unexpected as they were 25 year trees and they lived 33 years. They were silver maples which aren't acclimated to Texas. They were all up and down the street when we moved in. Almost all of them have been cut down. Ours were not the last on the street but there aren't many left.  

Not having to deal with the leaves this fall will be a huge blessing. The leaves would turn in late November and fall in December (Who wants yellow leaves in December?) which made it difficult for my lawn guy to clean up since he is very busy with Christmas light instillations.) Additionally, since we were the only house on our section of the street with these big trees, everyone knew where the leaves were blowing from. Last year they dumped while were away. It was annoying to find the lawn covered in leaves as we returned and were jet lagged. Over the next few days, I dutifully got out and cleaned them up. 

It's hard to get used to how much light pours in the house during the morning hours. The front yard looks too bright but I'll get used to how it looks. It doesn't help that this was done in the height of summer but once we heard that they had to come down, I was ready to get it over with. 

The professionals were so fast. They were done and out of here in 4 hours. 

The stumps were ground down at the same time. 

Now, we wait for the grass to regrow. 

We'll plant one tree this fall when it cools down. Let's hope we get some relief from this heat soon. 

That is all for now. 

I will visit with you soon. 

Katie