Pro Packers

Well, with our bedroom and office renovation projects coming to a close, I've started to take a peek into some of the boxes that we packed before the move. It's a little bit ridiculous, but this is probably the first permanent unpacking we're doing! We've lived here since the end of August and have already slept temporarily in two different rooms and most things in our house are not in their real spots. This is finally going to come to an end!

Our moving strategy at the condo involved packing a lot of things up before the open house happened so that our condo looked a little more clutter-free and it also enabled us to pack easier afterwards as most of the things that we didn't use on a regular basis were already packed up. 

What this created was a disaster for unpacking. When we were deciding to sell, we started slowly accumulating boxes and packing them up. This basically involved me scrambling through the condo looking in each room for things we don't use regularly, I'd put them in a box nicely, and then if there was room left look around for something that would fit. That means there are boxes that contain things from all different rooms and uses, it makes absolutely no sense. 

You won't even believe what's all in this box. I had no idea.

An example of a real boxes contents: 

• 2 empty clear cosmetic bag type things (not sure where these are from or what I will use them for )
• A box of blank cards made by Philip's company to commemorate the President's 35th Anniversary with the company, the front of the cards is a picture of "Eyebrow, Saskatchewan"...I had never read this before...but I am not joking that it says that on the back. Photo proof included.

Prairie photo of Eyebrow, Saskatchewan...when Philip comes home I may convince him that we should move there. 

In case you didn't believe it.

• One picture of us, no frame, nothing protecting it...just a photo.

We care so much for our belongings, this photo is a real survivor for making it in this box with no protection. 

• A bundle of leftover thank you cards from our wedding, I still have to find a use for these.
• A miniature Chicago Bulls basketball - we have a hoop somewhere, but apparently it didn't make it into this box.
• Some tiny green klompen gifted to me by a friend who travelled to Holland (for those who don't know this - I'm 100% Dutch and quickly being outnumbered by Mennonites). 
• Some kind of game system controller, I don't know what for (remind me to ask Philip what it belongs to). 
• Bride and Groom rubber duckies that someone brought to our wedding - so cute!

Can't wait to play with these in our remodeled bathroom when the tub becomes less peach and more usable. 

• 2 wooden cars that Philip made as a kid.
• A Psalter Hymnal, a lot older than the one you can buy on Amazon.
• 2 German dictionaries (Philip speaks German). 
• Delft blue tea light holder (with a tea light floating around in it), a doily, and a small porcelain rabbit from Russia - all of these belong to Philip's Oma who gave them to me at one of my wedding showers. 
• An ipod arm band still in the package. 
• A photo album that has never been filled, but does have some pictures floating loose in there from high school days. 
• Floral picture frame with a photo of Philip & I at Niagara Falls in it.
• Small wooden picture frame with a photo of Philip's Oma Wiebe.
• Small picture frame with a photo of Philip's brother Jonathan.
• A two photo picture frame, with one photo in it. 
• Philip's University of Manitoba student ID.
• Bulletin from my infant baptism at Second Christian Reformed Church in Ontario. 

Cassondra Ann Laninga, in the womb.

• Very difficult to identify ultrasound photos of me (at least that's what I'm told...)
• A couple of photo albums, one is Winnie the Pooh, from when I was in elementary school.
• The book, "Marsupial Sue" by John Lithgow.
• Empty Class of 2007 Graduation picture frame (I graduated from high school in 2007 - just need to put a photo in this!). 
• A photo of Philip's Oma & Opa in a frame.
• ID passes from our honeymoon cruise. 
• An "I'm a Girl!" ID card provided by Ross Laboratories from my hospital stay at birth.
• An old digital camera from a previous boyfriend which we never really use as our iPhones probably take better photos.
• A pedometer. 
• White binder filled with Philip's Eastview Link's that he was a part of publishing (church magazine). 
• Travel case for my mini chi straightener and hair dryer. 
• One leaf.

I want to pretend we packed this intentionally.

Wow. That was way more legendary than I'd expected (oh boy, I've watched too much How I Met Your Mother this week - I've been pretty sick since Saturday). Now I have to find places to put all of this stuff. Later this week we'll have to post an update on our reno's! Yesterday we finished up the floor, trim, and touched up some paint, time to move some furniture in and get settled! Don't forget to answer our poll this week!

Master Bedroom Transformation: Part 1

As you saw here, we're getting ready to start and finish our master bedroom. 

Here's the To-Do list for completing this bedroom project:

• Empty bedroom of all clutter
• Remove old A/C vents in ceiling
• Patch walls and ceiling
• Prime
• Paint
• Trim
• Sand & paint doors
• New door hardware
• New light fixture
• New closet shelving system
• Assemble furniture and arrange room
• Hang artwork & accessorize
• Curtains

Today I thought I'd share some before/after pictures of us emptying a room filled with clutter. We also emptied our office and plan to paint it at the same time but we don't have as many ideas yet about what we'll do, more to come on that soon. 

Warning: This post is photo intensive! There's not a lot to say about clutter removal, but hopefully seeing all this junk everywhere helps you to feel better about whatever room you have that's filled with clutter.

As you'll remember, we were storing all this stuff in the basement when we decided at the last moment to gut the basement in preparation for our forced-air system install.

Philip removed all the doors to enable our trim removal. Turns out it wasn't as necessary for trim removal as once thought, but we're planning to refinish them anyway, and living in a door-free house has it's perks. Like... ummm... less doorknob-related injuries? I'll get back to you on that one.

Why yes, that is a certified flotation device.  Why do you ask?

This is all you need to know about the story of "How Philip lost his new driver's license before it even made it into his wallet."

We started out by sorting the items in the rooms. The main categories were items coming back into these rooms, items we wanted to keep but just needed to store for the time being (e.g. memory box items, Christmas decorations, etc.), and last but not least items for the yard sale. We started trucking items downstairs with me putting them into the piles and Philip carrying them up and down the stairs.

The other factor we took into consideration is the fact that all of these items have been moved at least three times in the last six months and we're getting crazy tired of it. We tried to keep as much upstairs as we could, just moving things downstairs that we knew we weren't going to put back into these rooms right away or items that we just couldn't fit anywhere else for now. 

Hooray! From our condo to the basement to the main floor to the basement once again.

Philip's Michael Jordan poster is huge. You could measure heights in "Michael Jordan 'Wings' posters," as in "I am 1.1 MJWPs tall."

Clutter awaiting the Philip train down the stairs.

One day, when all this stuff is cleaned up, we'll marvel at the size of our living room.

For now, we're just thankful for a place to sit and watch Community.

Those are mostly Philip's movies, surrounded by yet more clutter.

This is where we're at now, piles of things in the living room (mainly books we didn't want to carry down or things we still wanted on hand like gift wrap), piles of things in the basement for the yard sale or being stored, and two empty rooms ready for patching and painting!

With this mess, you'd assume we'll be holed in here with the door locked so that no one can see - but we're crazy so we're posting it on the internet and inviting people over for dinner tonight!

Stay tuned as we get ready to patch and paint our bedroom in the next week or so! Can't wait to have a mattress off the floor and finally start decorating! 

Anyone else painting a room soon? Any ideas for us? Take a look back at our inspiration photo post and let me know if you have any accessories/light fixtures/artwork ideas that we could implement in this type of space.

Reminder: This is the last day to add your vote to the poll on the right side of the homepage. Tomorrow we'll analyze the results in what is sure to be a very statistical type way and start a new poll for next week.