Something for Sunday

Here it is--Jack, Connie and Amanda's house. It's four bedrooms with one being on the first floor--that's Jack and Connie's.

Amanda and Merritt have their bedrooms on the second floor along with a guest room/Jack's office. 

I only have a couple before pictures. This is the dining room--after we did some sorting and moving things around.

This is Jack and Connie's room. Before.

This secretary is in the bedroom. Connie says she pays bills here--actually only writing a couple checks a month. Jack pays most of their bills online. I did the arranging of things in the top part. Connie's assignment is to get the rest of it in order. 

I realize that everyone uses their space however is best to suit their needs. 

Apparently, Connie likes to use the "cubbies" for pens, markers and emery boards. It's a first for me, but whatever works...

in addition, there is a full pencil cup. And, check out all of those binder clips! Actually, it cracks me up. Connie is a good sport and puts up with my teasing! Of course, my thought was that the office supplies should be in one of the drawers. I did not open them to see what secrets they held. Probably money--the money she misplaced during the move. It'll turn up sooner or later. 

They are having Roman shades made for the windows. The luggage is out because they are leaving for their family vacation on Thursday to cruise Alaska. I told Connie that I was determined to help them get settled before they left. It's been kind of slow-going for them as they both got Covid amidst all the work. There are still boxes, but they are having all custom closets--to be installed in August. So, they are waiting until then to unpack many of the boxes. We crammed as many as we could in the closet anyway---and even the bathtub so that there would be some semblance of order and to make it look nice.

Here's the entry as you walk in the front door. They had all of the floors refinished. That mirror weighs 150 lbs. There was no way we were going to be able to hang it. Luckily, the guy that was in charge of the remodel did it for them. Connie said it took him about 3 minutes!

This is the powder room which I have dubbed "the reading room!" I love, love, love the wallpaper, but it has to make sense for me. Thus the reading room. Who doesn't read in the bathroom anyway? I've always liked this frame of family vintage artifacts and knew that this would be a good place to hang it.

This is the living room. Or maybe we should call it Dash's room! He has this little--what I thought was a trampoline--but it's his lounger. He has toys here and there--just like a toddler. All of the window treatments are coming sometime in August.

Once you are in the living room, this is the left side. Those pictures are actually counted cross stitch that her sister made. They are beautiful.

This is the other side of the room. They had that little blue cabinet in the entry. I asked if we could move it here. This is one of my favorite spots in the house. It just looks so cozy. That Waterford lamp on the table? Well, there's a story. Connie gave it to me. Jack put it in my car. After working for a few hours, I told her that I wanted to put it on the cabinet. She balked and kept arguing with me about it. I finally said, "What, you don't like it anymore?" To which she said, "Well, I gave it to you--I'm not going to take it back! I don't want to be an"---insert politically incorrect saying here!! The lamp is perfect in this spot. I told her that I didn't know what I was going to do with it as I don't need it. But since it was Waterford, I was going to take it. There is no way would I want that to go to GoodWill. Also, notice the two pictures on the right side wall--they are more of her sister's cross-stitch. Actually, I think Connie did one of them.

I should have opened this display case so you could see what's inside. Originally, Connie had a couple dozen of her favorite dolls from her collection. She let me re-style it with an assortment of things to make it more interesting. She has some really nice and sentimental things. We ended packing up many of the dolls to be put in "long term" storage. 

They still need to get a rug for the dining room. They had to put four extra (I think or maybe it's just 2) chairs in one of the upstairs closets. It's doubtful that they will ever go to the trouble to bring them down. They'll end up pulling the kitchen chairs in if they need more seating than 8.

The cabinet on the left is a bar or sorts. There are slots inside to hold wine bottles and wine glasses with room for the rest of the liquor bottles. We ended up emptying it to move it from its original location (the other wall). Amanda and I tried to do it real quick while Jack was in the garage. But he caught us! I don't think he was too happy, but in the end, he might agree that it looks better this way.

The family room. These are all the pictures I got. There is still work to be done, but my work is done! It comes down to more sorting, putting things where they want them and getting rid of more stuff. We did get the pictures hung in the guest room, but that's about it for there. 

I spent a total of 9 hours over two days. With 4 people working that's 36 hours. We moved stuff around, arranged things, sorted boxes and pictures, put things in the rooms in which they belonged, hung everything on the walls and cleared out the mess. It all looks so nice. I am fully prepared to help with anything else they need. I loved every minute of it. I was thrilled that Connie asked for my help. I might be a lot older than the last time I helped with their move--20+years ago--and I might need to take a few more breaks than I used to, but I still consider myself a pretty fast worker! I don't know, there's just something about how my mind works. I just "see it!" 

We finished way ahead of the schedule I set for us. But then, I also didn't get down into the "weeds" with over organizing--which I can tend to do. The main goal was to make everything look nice so they could just say "aaaahhh" and enjoy their new home! And come back from their trip to a neat house. Sorting and organizing the little stuff can be done on their own time-line---or not! No skin off my back! 

On Friday, I came home to this:

I think this is the most beautiful arrangement that I've ever received. I love flowers and it meant a lot to me that Jack, Connie and Amanda were thoughtful enough to send it. Yeah, one thing is for sure--they are special to me and I am grateful for their friendship.