We got the keys! Let the games begin!

The waiting is over.  We can now do things like this: 

That's right, honey. You're so mighty. You show that sign who's boss.

We got our keys and within five minutes were ripping out old stinky baseboards and moulding. Everything is so GRIMEY. But I can't worry about that now. We are about to tear the place up anyway. The deep cleaning will happen eventually. 

Here are a few of the place before we started ripping it to shreds today:

Living room view from kitchen

Kitchen view from living room

My office/guest room. Which, we ended up deciding to keep the carpet in here (the one and only room that will have carpet).  It's not in terrible shape and I can get it shampooed. 

Dirty door with dirty hardware.  I'll be getting a new handle. What fabulous/obnoxious color can I paint this door?!

It's pretty overwhelming but I just need to focus on one thing at a time. While dad helped with baseboard removal, I got started on removing all the cabinet doors.

"Oh look, I'm smiling and having the grandest of times! Operation Espresso Cabinets is SO enjoyable!"... 

It was all sunshine and rainbows until I gathered my collection in the garage.

 *Cue my BEST unamused facial expression.

Lawwwwwwd help meh! Can you say "over-freaking-whelming"?!  This wasn't even all of them! Watch out cabinets, I'm comin' for you tomorrow...when the water gets turned back on and I can wipe off all those sticky food stains and handprints. I cant wait to come back and start sanding. Wooooo power tools!

We will also be prepping those dirty walls for painting. We may have to re-spray some texture back on after we scrape that caulking from the chair rail we removed. I can't wait for it all the be one clean color! It will be so much easier and more calming to my peepers.

We are keeping the laminate down while we paint to avoid having to protect the floor.  BUT I did want to lift up a section to see what we're working with.  Because I want to stain the concrete floors, I was really hoping for the concrete to be in good condition. Specifically, NO CARPET GLUE. 

Oh, hi, fake wood floor that doesn't match! Let me just lift some of you up. Show me your goodies. Please no glue, please no glue, please no glue.

YOU. IDIOT.  HI carpet glue! There still might be hope. If we can remove all traces, I'll do the acid stain as planned.  If not, I'm still staining, I'll just have to do a water-base stain to cover it. I'm not doing an overlay (More time and money). We will just have to prep the concrete really well. 

We also started to put together the new living room fan and realized it didn't come with the extension rod and the one on the existing fan did not work. Luckily, good ol' Home Depot opens at 6:00am! Did I mention I am a slave driver  dedicated, hardworking individual? 

Well we have a big day ahead of us tomorrow so I should go to sleep.  If I have any trouble drifting off, I'll just count cabinet doors... Stay tuned for updates! 

New homeowners elated to have just taken on thousands of dollars in debt.

Easy Decoupaged Spice Jar Labels

This isn't even creative. I just really wanted all my spice jars to be uniform. I had this old spice rack that was always hidden away with most of the spices unused. I maybe kept one of them in my actual spice cupboard for regular use and that was the one that I dumped out and put my own spice in! This is why I don't like those generic spice rack sets. They don't fit the needs of each individual kitchen. Unused product is wasted product.  I really hate wasting things. 

I am striving for complete organization in the new place. This may seem like such a simple and silly thing to post about but that's what this blog is for, to share my projects with those few people who really love me and care about my life. ;)

Like I mentioned in a previous post, I went to Office Max to look for labels. I really had my eye on these Kraft Brown labels by Avery:

But then I saw the price on them and just couldn't bring myself to pay $14.99.  SURELY I could figure something else out. 

I stripped the yucky old stickers off the lids of the spice jars and cleaned them all out. Look at all these fresh jars! (I LOVE jars).  To buy these basic little guys new in the store would be .99 each. I love having stuff on hand. (Saved me $16 dollars, wooooo!)

What to do with them? I have a silver Sharpie and a white oil-based paint Sharpie and I thought about just writing on the lid and sticking them all in a drawer like this: 

BUT I still really wanted to display them in the cupboard. I just think spices are so pretty! 

I decided to just print out my own labels on regular paper using American Typewriter font and cut them out with a sort of a raw edge.  I love the way the raw edge looks with this font.  Kind of rustic, no?  I then used decoupage (Mod Podge) to glue those little guys to the jar and then put another thin layer over to seal them. They are so simple but I'm happy with the way they turned out. Now they're all the same! Hooray! 

Now go label all of your spices! :)