Summer is here and it is time to weed things out and consolidate. That goes for the gardens, the house, and the Burrow blog. Welcome to the new home of the Burrow. This blog will be one of my projects for the summer. I'd like to integrate all of the old Burrow blogs (yes, there have been many) and create a central place where I can track our progress on the house, and other endeavors as they come up.
Wednesday, June 29, 2011
Thursday, June 2, 2011
Take that, Creepy Basement! (Storage: Before and After)
There are many things I love about this house. The storage situation is not one of them. Don't get me wrong, there is plenty of storage. There is a whole, creepy basement, an attic that needs to be cleaned up, a garage full of junk, an attic over the garage and twenty-five sheds (give or take).
But other than two bedroom closets, there is really nowhere to put anything that you might want to use regularly. There is no linen closet, no pantry, and just a couple of cabinets in the kitchen (no, really, just a couple). We have tried to make up for this by bringing in lots of furniture. In some cases it works well. The dresser that Jan helped us make over into a buffet (affectionately known as Excalibur) serves well in the kitchen as a tiled counter-top and storage for silverware, spices, tupperware and pans. In other cases (the dvd shelf squeezed behind our couch that only holds about two thirds of our dvds) our storage solutions have been utter failures.
But other than two bedroom closets, there is really nowhere to put anything that you might want to use regularly. There is no linen closet, no pantry, and just a couple of cabinets in the kitchen (no, really, just a couple). We have tried to make up for this by bringing in lots of furniture. In some cases it works well. The dresser that Jan helped us make over into a buffet (affectionately known as Excalibur) serves well in the kitchen as a tiled counter-top and storage for silverware, spices, tupperware and pans. In other cases (the dvd shelf squeezed behind our couch that only holds about two thirds of our dvds) our storage solutions have been utter failures.
Today I am going to tackle the narrow stairway down to the basement. I mentioned before that our basement is creepy. Don't think for a minute that this picture captures the creepiness. Yes, it is gross, and dark, but the basement is worse, by far. There are so many weird rooms built into it by previous owners, and so many cobwebs from fifty years of neglect...and don't even get me started on the Hannibal Lecter room. That is a post for another day.
Today, we will just focus on the stairway. Here is the place where we try to store anything related to routine house maintenance that we might need handy. Light bulbs, brooms, vacuum cleaners, plastic bags, scented candles (don't ask me why those are there). Our brilliant idea so far has been to hang shopping bags off of the huge nails that someone pounded into the wall and stuff these odds and end randomly into them.
The result is that you can't ever find anything and stuff falls out of the bags onto the stairs all the time. This creates a hazard zone, because the narrow, dark stairs become littered with easy to step on odds and ends (like picture frame hangers), and easy to slip on plastic bags.
Why have we let it get to this point? Let me offer, in the way of an excuse, that the sheer volume of storage problems in the house and outlying sheds is overwhelming. I have no idea where to start. Until now.
A quick side-note...the door has no knob. I'm not really sure why. I've never put in a doorknob before, but I guess I'd better start looking into it.
(Time Lapse....Imagine a montage of me whisking the baby out of his crib, running to Target, gathering hardware and returning to organize the stairwell).
Tada!
Today, we will just focus on the stairway. Here is the place where we try to store anything related to routine house maintenance that we might need handy. Light bulbs, brooms, vacuum cleaners, plastic bags, scented candles (don't ask me why those are there). Our brilliant idea so far has been to hang shopping bags off of the huge nails that someone pounded into the wall and stuff these odds and end randomly into them.
The result is that you can't ever find anything and stuff falls out of the bags onto the stairs all the time. This creates a hazard zone, because the narrow, dark stairs become littered with easy to step on odds and ends (like picture frame hangers), and easy to slip on plastic bags.
Why have we let it get to this point? Let me offer, in the way of an excuse, that the sheer volume of storage problems in the house and outlying sheds is overwhelming. I have no idea where to start. Until now.
A quick side-note...the door has no knob. I'm not really sure why. I've never put in a doorknob before, but I guess I'd better start looking into it.
(Time Lapse....Imagine a montage of me whisking the baby out of his crib, running to Target, gathering hardware and returning to organize the stairwell).
Tada!
Wierd Day
Last night four tornadoes rocked western MA. The pic here was taken by Nate's dad out his office window. Thankfully we were safe. We did hole up in the basement laundry room when the sky turned green and the wind picked up. But it never amounted to anything much in Easthampton. People in surrounding towns were not so lucky.
In Springfield, roads are closed and schools are cancelled. I'm at home with the baby. He is cranky, and I'm undecided on what to do with the day. In the mean time, the day is slipping away. I hate this frustrating feeling of wasted time. Mix in a good dose of guilt: there are people whose roofs have been torn off by a tornado and I'm annoyed that I can't seem to find anything interesting to do?
Suck it up and do the laundry, Maegan.
In Springfield, roads are closed and schools are cancelled. I'm at home with the baby. He is cranky, and I'm undecided on what to do with the day. In the mean time, the day is slipping away. I hate this frustrating feeling of wasted time. Mix in a good dose of guilt: there are people whose roofs have been torn off by a tornado and I'm annoyed that I can't seem to find anything interesting to do?
Suck it up and do the laundry, Maegan.
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