grandmasattictreasures

Am I a hoarder or creative?

2010-10-21T10:17:00.000-07:00

It seems lately, I have noticed a distinct change in my orderly habits. What once was stuff being saved and gotten for the house, either in projects or rooms to renovate, it seems, my things have gotten ahead of the items and projects. I have not enough house to hold, nor build said projects, unless I opt for buying a home with 10 bedrooms, and 5 bathrooms 4 kitchens,and several living rooms and dining rooms. I admit, it is hard to let lovely old things go to the landfill, but I simply must find a way to edit the things I am choosing and deciding where they will actually go. Admittedly, many items have been used, rather successfully, and cheaply I might add, to the overall design. The problem is, when it comes to ridding myself of the "extras", I find it nearly impossible to set it back to the curb and release it to someone else with good ideas and intentions. So recently, I have set about sorting, binning and decluttering, sometimes a box at a time, sometimes, in really good moments, it just simply goes in the van and straight to the donation center or to the curb on trash day. I have yet to run back out and drag it back in, but a few times, I have found myself thinking about it.
I watch that show called "Hoarders" and I know I am not to that level, but surely, each of them once was neat and clean. While I know I have trouble of letting these mighty old and wonderful relics go, or stay at the curb, I have NEVER resorted to saving TRASH or filth. Many of those who have come to my house remark about what cool stuff I have, and sometimes, I find myself thinking "See, others can see the value too!". But then again, many a good friend has also noted to me, "Gee you have SO MUCH stuff!" Read that as "TOO MUCH STUFF!". Not so cool. Hmmmmm........
Okay, so I am determined to turn over a new leaf, the thing that has appeared on all my New Years Resolution Lists for the past 8 years, will again, be leading the Resolution List for 2011 too. I am going to do it for sure this upcoming year........
Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh..........is that some old brick?

He works on Sunday too!

2005-02-06T20:51:00.000-08:00

This morning I woke up to a sick Mom and a sleepy niece. As I ran around trying to get ready for church I see the blue truck of the gutter and siding guy pull up. What's this I thought? He left something he needed? Nope! He started with the saw and the hammer while I was taking a shower. Thank goodness everyone was up and going to church around here, or just simply didn't mind the noise. But he had moved his little roadshow to the back of the house, so no one should have been bothered at all. Can you believe it? The guy works on Sundays! I went out with the family after church, dropped Mom's car that Ted and Jenny had been using while one of theirs was in the shop. Yup! Still sick Mom was. Then off to eat, when I got back, the man was still working. I decided I should wash my car and Moms. Then, there was still light and it was really nice out, so I started scraping the sidewalk of grass. Somehow, it looked relatively easy, but that's how stuff like this always starts, doesn't it? Two hours later, I was still scraping. Piles and piles of grass, weeds and Tennessee silt and mud. I tried filling in patches in the lawn, holes from having a pipe replaced in the front yard, just anything to get to a spot where I could stop! Finally, did, then washed off the sidewalks and walkways. The siding and gutter guy finally packed it in and said he would probably not be back until next week, as he was on a job he had promised well before mine and would have to get "on that" this week. No problem I said, do it when you are finished. He said he'd "get 'er done, don't you worry mam'". I believe him too! I don't know his name, but he is a hard worker, just like Josh. Speaking of which, he came by and we discussed french doors. He's ready to get on that! So maybe he can work on that until the siding and gutter guy comes back. In the meantime, I have the estimator coming from Lowe's to measure up for the gutting of the kitchen.....its all starting to move VERY fast! The house is starting to look more of what I envisioned.....so much to do.

Just missing playing with friends....

2005-02-04T10:30:00.000-08:00

I have been here now since October, and flipping through these blogs has made me realize how much I miss going out and playing with my friends. Of course if you aren't going to church here everyday, you are some kind of heathen. And while I do believe in and love God and Jesus, I am not ready to become a full time, bible thumping, evangilistic, Screamin' demon killer (check me later after the full conversion!). While I don't mind discussing theologic problems of the world and expounding on my twist of how to make it all right, I am just looking for more than christianity to hold it all for me. Just like I don't think a man is a solution to all my problems, I don't think religion solves all your problems. Yes, yes, I know God can do anything, He's God after all, but I just don't think that praying for a good parking spot is really a good use of His time. Do you know what I mean? So anyways, here I am, half heathen, one foot in Hell the other one on a banana peel, sliding down the hill, and I am wishing I was back in Jersey or Florida with my hedonistic friends swilling down a vodka martini with a glass full of olives on the side, making cracks about work, talking smack about everyone that isn't there and laughing my fool head off. Is that so hard? Yes, just someone to go hang out with and have a drink.....yeah.....I'm going straight to Hell alright. Maybe I'll call and see what they are doing.....probably making plans to go meet at Caffreys or worse.....the Lighthouse....where the men suck but the drinks don't. HEY! Wait for ME!

Its late, I'm thinking.....

2005-02-03T22:28:00.000-08:00

I'm thinking I have an appointment to go see the Doctor, its time to get this done and all the crying in the world isn't going to change it. I don't want to think about it and yet everyday, I do. First it was worrying about where the money would come from, then, what would I do if it was bad, I mean really bad, then I live with it being really bad.....and its going from bad to worse. All in my mind of course. Of course, when I go and see the doctor, it will be one peice at a time that they take it. No no I must not think about it.....its just too much to think about. It's better to focus on everything else....the house, the moving, the selling, the life I am not finished living. No its all too much to think about. This thing is like rust. Its on my face, its in my nose, its probably alot of other places I haven't even looked yet. I think of my Aunt Betty, diagnosed with lung cancer and never smoked a cigarette in her life, and then Aunt Pat, sick all her long life, only to come to the end with luekemia, I mean what the Hell is this? My Granny had it in her 70's-80's and they just took it off her face, no problem. I don't think it ever got this far. Why didn't I go sooner? Why didn't I sell the dog and get the money? Why did I ever let the sun touch my face? I mean having fair skin and red hair is just asking for it, isn't it? Anyways, its not good to sit up late thinking these things.....makes me scared. I hate being scared.

Getting Granny Out Of The Attic

2005-02-03T16:37:00.000-08:00

Welcome to my new blogger site! I am just getting started in doing this, although it's been a dream of mine ever since I started running out of room for all the little "darlings" I have collected over the years. With Mom having moved in with me a year and a half ago up north, well, things just really got to be too much. We spent last year packing, selling away and just plain giving away lots of stuff we thought we would never be able to part with. Surprise surprise....we could, we did! And now looking back, we can't even remember the stuff we were so sure we'd be sorry about. Now, in the "new" old place we have moved into, we have found even the most precious things we just had to bring with us, can't, won't or don't fit. Not wanting to start up old bad habits, we are just biting the bullet and selling off our "precious darlings". Don't worry, we are just finding new homes for the things we treasured so much. Now someone else can make them their "little darlings" and enjoy them as much or maybe even more than we did. Still, as I photograph and set up the peices for their "adoption process" (aka Ebay), I find myself getting nostalgic for some of the "old dears". More than once I have found myself just not ready to part with it just yet. So back in the box it goes for a few more weeks. But now, renovations are in full swing, and my nostalgia is not really what I am focused on. No, now its which french door do I want, what color for the siding, do you want the stairs for the deck here, or here? Yes, a multitude of choices. Thats always been the thing for me, I want them all! I know what I want for the kitchen, I just haven't found it yet. I know its all going to cost way more than I have, but I feel its important to have one home in your life that is what you wanted, is the color you picked and filled with the things you treasure. Its all about living and loving for me. Family visits with food (we all live for food, just look at us!), so the kitchen is the focus, the rest is just window dressing for what goes with it. A deck to dine on, connected to the kitchen of course. Dining el fresco in spring, summer and fall with the beautiful creek and mountain views to look at. A laundry room tucked into a large pantry. A kitchen that saw its last update in 1950 and has enough cabinet space to satisfy a small hamster, and no modern anything. We are cooking on a stove left behind that has to have the door propped closed with a broom handle, and a fridge that will only hold 2 lbs of anything on its shelves. I could buy new, but we are limping along with "works good enough" till the renovations are complete. The siding and gutter guy has been waiting ever so patiently to start working on the outside of the house, but lots of cold (has to be above 40 degrees to cut the stuff) and rain, snow and ice has kept him from coming to work. Didn't hold the guy from doing the deck, if he had an afternoon of warm weather, didn't matter it was raining. Poor guy, freezing rain, dark of night (I found him out there the 1st few days after 10 pm, after all his guys had left for the night) working. Gotta love a man who works so hard to earn your money, just gotta respect that! Just trying to get it done before it was too cold to work, as everything else could be done that he needed to do, even if it was snowing. Still, more than once, he's had me shaking my head in disbelief at his dedication. He's new at this, and if it weren't for my Mom having so much faith in him, I probably wouldn't have given him a chance. But Mom has mostly had a way about knowing who is good and who isn't. There have been some spectacular failures with that, but rare. Thank goodness huh? Anyways, he said he had a few other jobs, but he let me know, what he didn't know he'd sub and only to those he personally had used and knew to be good. He'd done his own place and is going to school to be a full fledged contractor. So now I have the top of the line siding and gutter guy for only a little more then some guy working out of the back of his pinto, licensed, insured and covered for falling off the side of my house. And a fledgling contractor who is knocking himself out to make me a happy camper. Anyways, we'll see how long the honeymoon lasts. I feel he is really trying to make it not only look good, but actually to show how good he really is. Bless his heart, he's got ambition with a capital A. Ok, so now, back to Grandmas Attic. So now here we are, wallowing in all our "babies", and Mom has now found a home close by and will be moving next month to her own place (thank you Jesus!) and she realized, she too, is suffering from not enough editing before we left. She saw I was boxing and photographing my stuff and getting it ready to be shipped and decided I should put her "precious darlings" in a new home where they'd be appreciated. So that was the beginning of Grandmas Attic Treasures. As if we don't have enough on our plate, my Grandmother, Mom's mom, is still in Dearborn in a rest home, and is now rehabbed (stroke at 87) and ready for coming out, if someone can help care for her. Which we can, with the new rehab and having thought through the buying of Mom's "new" old place, we can take her and have her live with either one of us. Now all her things have been sitting, waiting, at her home that can't accomodate her (door openings too small for walkers, wheel chairs and assistance). Again, with the packing, the giving away, the selling and just plain tossing. Sheesh.....I feel like its a strange time in my life, like getting ready for some next big step to happen, but not until all this is done. Because its really a lot of doing here. I mean, 1st we sold Mom's house, then my rental, then my house, then moved here, then found a place for Mom, now making the spaces we have accomodate Grams. And you know what? My Sister in Law (2 towns over) just called to say her Mother had called to say she was putting her house up for sale and moving here too! YEAH! Isn't that just a wonderful, happy thing? Its a weird feeling, like we're all being brought here for something big to happen, but it won't happen till we are all where we are supposed to be. I'll keep you posted on that and how that pans out. Probably just one of those weird thoughts you get when stuff just seems too coincidental. Tell me what you think.....have you ever just picked up and moved somewhere, not knowing where you would work or what you were doing there, but just because you felt this was it for you? I'm curious how others have done it and if it worked out for them, or you. If nothing else, would be curious on your thoughts of my convuluted tale of getting from there to here. Take care and God Bless you.