Curtains!

I had bought a bunch of curtains from Meijer that were on clearance very close to us moving all into the house. I ordered some curtain rods from Khol's. They are less than impressive to say the least. I would NOT recommend them. I didn't return them only because I got them so cheap, with free shipping, and do not want to spend any more time to find good ones right now.

So any way, I've had them for a bit now and have bugged Tom about getting them put up nearly every day. Pretty sure he wants to kill me.

He got them up! Who knew that it could be so challenging though!?

Like... how far to the left and right of the window trim? 
How far above the window trim vs how far down from the ceiling? 
Or - put them right in the trim? 

Let's just say there a few too many holes in my walls following this "experiment" and I know for sure Tom has plotted my torture. They still aren't how I would like them- they aren't all uniform (some rooms are higher than others) and I'm still not sure about the measurements. But we finally just put them up and will stay that way until we both have enough energy to try this again. We have privacy and efficiency!

So, I'm begging - If you have some insight, PLEASE COMMENT!

A picture from the first attempt at putting the rods up. We changed it.

Dusted

Today I started to finish a project- I wanted to scrap/sandoff the remaining glue left behind when we stripped the wallpaper in the hallway. Even while taking the wallpaper down originally, we were scrapping a lot of glue, but there is too much left behind to ignore. Not only am I concerned that if I left it, the glue would seep through the primer and paint, but the texture it left on the walls was terrible! I am convinced that they had applied the glue to the wall and then also used preglued wallpaper. There's so much glue!

Tom was hunting for the weekend and I began this project in the morning. I still hadn't finished until late after he got home. He helped me finish. My right arm and elbow had gone numb! I still just can't believe how much glue was used to put up that wall paper. The only way to get this stuff off was to sand it. 

 I taped up some plastic to try and contain the dust. There was just too much! Can you believe this?!? After I finished sanding, I used the shop vac to get up as much dust as possible. Then, I did take some hot water and sponged the walls down again. I just don't want this stuff to seep through the primer and paint. 

Finally, it's done though. I am excited to get the paint up! We are just going to use the bright standard white. There's zero natural light in this hallway. Bummer!

Paint it... Well... not Black...

At this point, the floors are refinished, the walls and ceilings are primed. I  picked out some colors. Literally just went into Lowes and picked from the color cards. I just crossed my fingers that they would work out. We used Valspar Reserve with a flat finish for the living room and the three rooms. The ceilings we used the standrad bright white because to me, there is not enough natural light in the space to use an eggshell color.

We started painting the color in our room and the small rooms first so that we can finally move our bedroom from the living room and our boxes from the garage.

We did Urban Sunrise, and I LOVE this gray.

We did the painting in this room just after we finished the hardwood floors, so it was done much earlier in October, but I just never got around to posting about our colors.

It is perfect!

 We did the same color in the two small rooms. We used Cinncinnatian Hotel Hannaford. Isn't that quite a name for a paint color? I guess you can only have so many variations of beige before you need to get super creative! 

We kind of hate this color. I feel like I am sitting in a fish bowl!

One thing...

A question occurred to me today. It's not an uncommon question. But for some reason I felt I could genuinely answer it for possibly the first time.

If there was one thing you can do to change someone's life, what would it be?

My answer is very simple. Yet I feel it's power is profound and not widely accepted.

I would hug that person. 

Most might think that a hug would not make that much of a difference. But watch people. When a person genuinely accepts another's embrace, their response is quite simply, joy.  

And as I have pondered before, joy is what we are truly seeking, not happiness. Happiness is a very shallow emotion and emotions change so quickly. Yet joy is something we experience and is much more fulfilling. The things that bring us joy don't change as frequently, whether it's an activity or a person, we will return to "it" time and time again to be fulfilled.

I've never seen a person unsatisfied with a hug that they accepted from another individual.

Now, I know there are people we wouldn't be happy to hug or to receive a hug from. But when you have been accepting of that person, have you ever been dissatisfied by their embrace?

Our society today discourages platonic embraces. I know, because I was a public school teacher. I was asked not to hug my students good bye on my last day in the classroom with them. How sad! And I find our nation in general, is SAD.

People are busy. Working, going to school, or just simply distracted by monotonous media of many forms (TV, internet, catalogs, magazines, etc.). And we are FOOLED to think that some medias are social. We get shallow satisfaction from participating in medias such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and SnapChat. We miss out on the most fulfilling aspect of human interaction by participating in these passive exchanges.

People need hugs. I'm convinced anyway. What do you think?

Almost Dreamy- Hardwood Floors!

We were very excited to find out that under the carpeting in the three bedrooms in the home was hardwood floor. We did not discover that until we took possession of the home and tore out the carperting! What a beautiful surprise. Almost. 

Who puts carpeting over hardwood floors???

Crazy people. That's who. Here's why: 

 small room 1. This is truly the worst of the rooms. The spots where the carpet padding adhered to the floor were much larger than in the other two rooms. And it covered most of the floor space.

 small room 1 again. This is amidst all my attempts to get it clean. I think I had spent about 8 hours trying different methods. 

 I couldn't find a better picture of this room at the moment, but this was the second worst of the three rooms. The spots were not as big. about dime to a quarter sized spots that covered a majority of the floor. 

 It was the best of the three rooms. The spots were dime sized or small and only on parts of the floor that must have been the walkway around their bed.

We rented a floor belt sander from the local hardware store. My mom and dad helped with a couple of hand sanders to get closer to the edges and in the closets. We went through a lot of sand paper! More than typical because we found that truly nothing else would get the remnants of the carpet padding that adhered over time to the hardwood. We tried Murphy oil soap with very hot water, mineral spirits, and 100% acetone cut with a bit of water. NOTHING was working. The acetone just seemed to make an even bigger mess. Hand scraping it would have taken forever, and we didn't want to take too much of the floor away with an industrial wood floor scrapper that we'd hear about. So... we just lots and lots of sand paper.

 We used Minwax Wood Finish Golden Oak 210B stain. It did leave us with a slightly more "orange" appearance than we would have preferred, but it makes well with the existing trim (which we may change later). Oh well. Lesson learned. Although, I am happy with how dark it make the grain.

 We used Minwax fast drying oil based polyurethane in Clear Satin Finish. We used a foam roller that came suggested by the guy who helped me at the hardware store. Tom was rather unhappy with the results after three coats. It applied the oil poly too thick and teeny tiny bubbles can be felt with your hand and seen if you are close to the floor. I think they look great, and have to be refinished to maintain them anyway so I see no problem. Another lesson learned. Tom has finished wood floors in the past with moleskin cloth and we will be doing that in the future when we have to refinish them. I also wonder if a water based poly would have lessened the "orange" appearance. Can you do a water poly over an oil poly?

We're All In

We have left the rental completely and moved everything to the house. Tom's mom and sister came to help and we were able to borrow a straight truck with a lift from Tom's work. We got everything over to the house relatively quickly! It helps the move was about 5 miles round trip for each load. We have a lot of boxes in the garage and our temporary bedroom will be the living room since we decided to redo the floors in those rooms before moving everything in and having to move everything back out. We're excited for that to get done!

 There's a street light just in front of our house :( Tom and I both prefer a very dark room at night, so this means I am going shopping for curtains! 

It's all about the primer...

Next to the light demo we did removing all carpeting and the stuff from the basement, one of the first things we have done since we took possession of the house is prime the walls and ceilings in the bedrooms and living room with Kilz. Tom and I had both used this stuff previously with construction projects and have always been happy with the results.

We did two coats of primer. All of the walls and ceilings in our bedrooms and living room are plaster. They soaked up the primer so much we decided to do a second coat! And Tom just likes doing two coats of primer to cover smells and any stains that might exist. We got so used to putting a nice thick layer though, that this did cause a bit of a problem in the one small room that had been painted dark blue (I think they might have used an oil based paint. Not sure is this had an influence on the running or not). In the corners of the walls in that room, there were pretty significant runs. Nothing a bit of sanding after letting it dry wouldn't fix. 

We even primed the floor of the living room with 2 coats of Kilz. When we move into the house, we are going to be staying in the living room since the floors aren't done in the rooms yet. And it will be some time before we have enough money saved up to put down new flooring.  

We primed the walls even before we redo the floors. Primarily just because of how timing is going to work out for us to rent the sander and do all that work on the floors start to finish and moving into the house. My preference would have been to paint first so that we didn't have to worry so much about drop cloths and worry about any dust on the walls but oh well!

We began cutting in on the 20th and had everything done (walls, ceilings, and closets) in the three rooms and the living room in the late hours of the 21st. We primed and primed away! We had some Help from Tiff during priming also!

Guest Room Before (sort of... we had already began cutting in when I took the pictures):

Guest room during: 

This picture, if you can tell, shows how we had some running in the corners with the primer on top of the blue painted walls. 

Office before: 

Office During:

Mauve is almost gone!

I didn't include the after pictures or pictures from the master bedroom. I honestly think I forgot to take before pictures of the master. It was the room in the best condition so I don't think I was worried about it at all. The after pictures are hard to tell which room is which after a certain point. I mean, they just all end up being a nice blank white. Use your imaginations. 

Wallpaper Nightmares

Ok. I foresee wall paper nightmares in my future!!!

I took some time from work to continue the demo/reno process before we have to be out of the rental.

Here's what I've been working on...

Small room before. 

 Small room during... the paper was off... Now to scrape off the glue! 

 So 90's, right?

 Small room after. Can you see that 60's mauve paint over the plaster? HAHA!

 the entire hallway is covered :( 

 This is the wall to the right of the hallway which also makes it the dinning room wall. The wall is seen from the kitchen.

 Tiff, my bff, came to help! 

 It also wraps around to the adjacent wall... surrounding the slider door with wall paper... Thankfully this did not continue into the kitchen! 

I finished the wall in the small room. Tiff and I, together, got most of the dining room wall done. Tiff had to get going so I finished it LATE into the evening. We did not even attempt the hallway.

By, the way, I haven't mentioned HOW we did this. We just used gloves, buckets of steaming hot water, and plastic scrapers. VERY Tedious and lots of time. There has to be a better way!

Demo Started

So this is what we have done the first 24 hours in the house! I had a friend over and we cleaned the cupboards of the kitchen and cleaned up the bathrooms. Here's some of other pictures of what we have gotten done so far.

 The pile of stuff torn out of the basement (in fact this is after we had already piled some in Tom's truck and in the small dumpster we had.)

 Basement Demo in progress

 There wasn't paneling here. But this is the corner of the basement to the right of the stairs. 

 A nice little handy room that we will store our reno supplies! This room was partially paneled. 

 This is the main area of the basement. It was completely paneled and had a drop ceiling; complete with glued olive green shag carpet. I was too slow to get a complete before picture. Tom works FAST! 

We bought a house!

Just before we were married we began more seriously thinking about buying a house. My husband got a preapproval and we began looking at listings. We even met with a realtor and checked a few out. But things got really stressful in preparing for the wedding and we put it on hold.

This spring, we picked the search back up. We got a approvals again and more intensely looked. We got a different realtor who was great with communication. We looked at several homes at the price range we were in. It was still pretty challenging. A lot of the homes needed a lot of work. We knew we were in for a fixer upper type home at our price range, but it was becoming more challenging to see how the budget would accommodate all the expenses we would have with the extend of the renovations that were needed with some of these homes. We were becoming bit hopeless.

Finally, we got a call from the realtor; he was working with another client who was looking to downsize, but was struggling with the decision to sell her home. It was the home she raised her children in. The only home her and her late husband had shared.

We got the call late in the afternoon one day saying she was willing to meet us and let us look at the home. She was still undecided.

We went and looked. Talked about an offer just under a tree at the very back of the home. The offer would be substantially higher than what we had considered before. By about $15,000. But the home needed minor renovation, significant cosmetic updating, but nothing unrealistic for us to handle. It also had the pole barn of my husband's dreams.

She decided she'd sell and our offer was accepted. The next process of waiting for the mortgage approval and signing the title and then waiting to move in began!

We will have 2 weeks in our rental while also having possession of our home. This will give us some time for demo & reno before we move all our things. We are so anxious!

Apply Apply Apply

I've become convinced that the more time I spend in this building the more depressed I become in general. I'm starting to feel very emotionally tired and a deep sadness lingers around me.

I've pulled up my resume numerous times. I am convinced there is nothing more I can do to make it better. Currently, it is an experience based resume. I guess I could change it to a skills based resume so that it is more apparent what my skills are and how I can transfer those skills to positions outside of teaching and education.

But at the same time, I have had a hard time considering what I would do outside of education. I have thought about it so much lately. I feel the pressure more so now than when I was a senior in high school or a sophomore in college (deciding to go to college and deciding what degree I would carry).

I have thought about my values. My passions. I feel lost.

Every job I apply for makes me feel more inadequate. I have getting rejection letters that state I need more experience. I feel as though the work I have done these last two years isn't recognized and as thought I need to start out at ground zero again.

Goin' Back to School

Almost immediately after graduating from GVSU with my Bachelor's, my father asked,

"When are you going back to school?"

I almost choked when he asked. As a first generation college student, I had faced a lot of barriers to getting my diploma. Although I achieved wonderful grades, it was not easy for me. Maybe the second time around wouldn't be so bad, but I felt like I needed the experience to settle, before getting back into it.

Lately, I've been pretty unhappy with my work. Unfortunately, you can ready lots about that in earlier posts. So, today I was looking for other positions, again, and again, was agitated by looking for work in schools. Sure it's great to have summer's off, but really? I just can't fathom that idea right now. Not with the experiences I have had in the school systems so far. I began looking at other tyoes of positions. I literally began a search by typing into Google,

"English degree jobs." 

Some came up for Editorial Directors. Some pretty heavy stuff. Again, discouraged. I still consider myself learning and became anxious about how I would feel confident going into an interview for a job I had NO IDEA how to do. There's that whole, you'll learn as you go, you'll be trained, you'll be great because  you have vision and experiences you can take from, yada, yada. But, no. Just no. I also considered how my resume format would have to be changed. It has been revamped several times, and I still feel like it is inadequate. Why else would I not be getting calls back for positions I KNOW I am qualified for?I was freaking out.

Not to mention, the damn search engines that pull up the job description and application information are phony. They want you to enter your personal information, upload crazy documents, tell them about yourself, and then SUBSCRIBE to their service. As if they are doing the work for you by giving you the information for the job. Given these companies probably pay for the positions to be posted, why are you then being charge to learn how to apply?!? Just doesn't sit well with me. I was trying to then Google job search engines, to see if there were any no obligation, no subscription, no fees, easy to manipulate engines, when I though of GVSU's old LakerJobs. I wondered if it was still there.

Sure enough, it is! It had become so easy for me to "forget" about it. I had maintained the same job throughout college, so I didn't have to utilize it very much. Although I am not going back to school to attend courses, I am going back to GVSU to begin my job search. Which is where I should have started long ago (i.e. directly after graduation.)

Ahhha moment...

For whatever reason, last night I was thinking again about my career choice and choice of major in college. What I seemed to realize, was that in addition to my teaching certification, I received a bachelors in English and if I ever had the opportunity to go back, I probably would have picked the same major again. I have always enjoyed reading, I loved studying literature in high school, and I would go back to school to take a literature class again!

I remember going into college and WANTING to take some literature and art classes. I had taken both. I wasn't "allowed" to take art classes because I wasn't an art major with a portfolio. Also, at that time, to be an artist, I knew I didn't have to take a class or earn a degree. I could learn techniques and mediums outside of a "class." I took a pre-writing class to make sure I would succeed in my writing courses. I enjoyed being challenged by my courses and actually enjoyed the first time I got a B because the teacher was giving me insightful and honest feedback and my favorite paper to write was from a history class in which I received a C! I like history because of the reading and exploration of the evolution of culture through text. Same from my anthropology class.

I am a writer at heart and was feeling anxious today because I had not taken the amount of time I wanted to spew out all of my most precious revelations in the last day and this morning. This was the last thought on my way back to my house following the enlightenment regarding my choice of studies in college: I am a writer and I can be at peace with that.

On time & no ticket!

I had to speed to work this morning. Thankfully, I did not see a cop nor was pulled over for a ticket and was able to arrive on time. In talking with my husband, he prompted me to reflect on this frequent occurrence. I wake up on time, but I leave late. I realize I may be more of a morning person that I would like to admit.

I love getting up with the sun and the birds. I tend to feel my day was wasted if I have slept in too long. Although I may not want to be social, I find this is the time that I am motivate to get my day started. I want to complete the tasks to make me feel at peace with myself and my day. I tend to get "distracted" by drinking my coffee, talking to my plants, watching my dog play outside, clearing the counters, or switching a load of laundry. It's difficult to do all of that and get dressed, prepare my lunch, and get out the door to be to work on time.

I think the part of me that has always thought I was not a morning person, has been how I tend to be very unsociable in the mornings. I do not like carrying on a conversation; I find I get irritated. I think that irritation comes from a break in my concentration. It feels to me almost the same as the irritation I feel from being disrupted while reading a really good book.

The other part, has been how difficult it is for me to establish a set morning routine in order to arrive to work at a respectable time. I am not late often; more like arriving in the nick of time to begin the day. This is most common if my shift begins before 3pm.

I recall working 2nd shift (3pm-11pm) for the local hotel, and did not have a difficult time arriving on time. On occasion, I would be in the nick of time most often because I was coming from class in which it truly felt out of my control; education was more important that my part time minimum wage job.

In order for me to get my 8-9 hours of sleep to feel rested, I have to go to sleep at 10:30. To got to bed any earlier than that, feels terrible. I don't like going to bed before dark since again, I feel as though I am not taking advantage of my daylight hours, I like the sun set, as well as it is nearly impossible for me to sleep without complete darkness.

So, I am not quite sure how to remediate this situation. I feel like saying, "It's just how I am." Yet, my professionalism, prevents me from being at peace with this mentality.

Tom stated yesterday that we should start our own business so that we may work when we want and be together more frequently. I can't help but think back to my training with MaryKay, where I have learned that if you are not working, neither is your business. Therefore, I do not believe that is the solution to our situations.

Tom and I need to get creative. We need to continue exploring our interests and passions and follow our instincts (or not if they are leading us away from our passions). The wealthiest people have let their passions lead their way. Which reminds me of my daily devotional reading lesson reflecting on Elijah: To stray from your mission is to fail; don't let your success today, lead you to failure tomorrow. From this I took that just because I am able to pay my bills working, doesn't mean this is what I should be perusing to continue doing in the future. This has been reassuring to ponder since I have recently been struggling with my choice of career for many reasons. Again, I need to get creative to apply my education in a way that aligns with my passions and propels me into the future to follow the path I was meant to follow towards success.

In other words, I am going to continue enjoying my mornings.

More about me & my career path...

I was raised in Ionia, MI. I am the oldest of five children. We were privileged to have many acres of land to grow on. Some of our land was dedicated to farming and another portion to auto mechanics. I learned many things from feeding our animals and helping my dad fix vehicles. I think my home is where my passion for learning started. My passion continued to develop at Palo Community Schools where I attended grades 2-8.

Palo is a very unique school. The whole school had under two hundred students while I was attending and each grade had on class and one teacher. This provided a chance to really make strong connections with fellow students and the teachers. You knew that they cared about you. As, I grew older I continued to reflect on my education at Palo Community Schools. I attended two very large high schools and found it hard to make valuable connections with faculty and staff of the schools.

 Directly out of high school, I attended Grand Valley State University. I initially entered without knowing what I wanted to be when I "grew up." I took several classes before I knew I wanted to be a teacher. I chose to get my license in Elementary Education. I want to work with middle school students and possibly students in alternative education programs. I have found the Elementary Education Preparatory classes helpful in understanding the framework and foundations that students need to have in place before going on to high school.

So far, I have been working in the non-profit/public administration area for 2 years. I work for a community based organization that receives both local/ private and federal funding. I assist area youth to prepare for the GED tests and provide a community location for a high school credit recovery program for high school students. I have been struggling with my career for various reasons.

I don't like the current political/structural hierarchy of education and the effects it has had on people's perception, expectations, or value of a teacher. I am not sure I want to be a part of the evolution of education while being a new teacher. Therefore, I have NOT actively searched for "traditional" teaching positions. I would feel too vulnerable. I could expand on this, but I may leave that for another post.

In preparing students for the GED, I have lost a lot of my passion for creating engaging educational opportunities. I am simply, teaching to the test. That's all I can do because I work with a very transient population. I have considered exploring ways to change the program from computer-based, independent self-paced learning, but because of the wide range of learners who begin at such various dates, this task is too daunting to tackle. It would be the equivalent to a paradigm shift. I am not confident that I can inspire such great change in a geographical area that does not value a teacher.

Those I would say are the two most significant reasons for my hesitancy to begin teaching. There aren't schools like Palo anymore. Palo actually closed its doors at the end of last summer. Their last school year was 2012-2013. It's depressing.

I am not sure how to "make a difference."