How to avoid the January BLAHS

I think it's pretty universally agreed that January is the worst. It's cool, I can say that since it's my birthday month. Let's face it: the high of Christmas is over, everyone's cooped up inside trying to stay warm and avoid everyone else's germs, it's grey and dreary outside and everyone and their mom is trying to peer pressure you into revamping your whole life with new goals and outlooks and workout plans. It's no wonder I usually hide under the covers with Oreos and watch loads too much TV during the month.

NOT this year though. This year my mom thoughtfully planned ahead and came up with a project to keep us all busy:

Packing up a five-bedroom house! But first, going through everything! Oh, and renovating various rooms at the same time! Let's not forget re-carpeting! On a really tight schedule! AHHHH!

Here's the quick backstory: my amazing mom made a very momentous decision over Thanksgiving break to sell the house she's lived in for the past 25 years. It's too big and too much work and she isn't there enough to enjoy it and put the time in that it would require to really be the 'home sweet home' she would want it to be right now.

Of course, at that point it was all pretty distant in the future, aka 'sometime in the spring'. Then in early/mid December a new plot was hatched, I think mostly to give me ulcers and grey hairs but also for mutual benefit of my mom and Sam/his family: they would rent out the house for Sam's 7 week med school rotation in Boise, providing them a swell place to stay and my mom some money for the first steps in needed renovations. Everybody wins! (Again, possibly with the exception of my stomach lining... that's where you get ulcers, right??)

Anyhow, life since then has been a bit of a blur. For those weeks I would close my eyes at night and see these images:

SO much stuff! I will concede that my mom is not a hoarder (I've been inside an actual hoarding house; I've got stories...) but she is fo sho a 'collector' and has the books, marbles, dolls, teddy bears, BOOKS, heart-shaped items, toys, dishes!!, and so on to prove it. She's had a lot of time over the years to pick up cute little things here and there and until now, she's had plenty of space to store them. Enter Jana, armed with a trash bag, a D.I. box, and a storage tote and sternly overseeing as EACH AND EVERY item in that house was placed into one of the three containers. 

Things that came out of my mouth every two minutes: 

"Do you love this or just like it??" 

"Mom, I'll buy you a new one."

"Someone at D.I. will love this!!"

 "We're not just clearing physical space, we're clearing mental space!" 

"Nooo, I didn't mean to throw that away. Whoops! Don't know how it got in there..."

And as the deadline got closer and my mom had to head back to work, I got some free time in the house, leading to picture messages like this one:

"Mom, pick TWO of these wicker baskets to keep, go!"

(Harsh, right? If only you knew the astounding number of wicker baskets we started with. At one point we played a game in the computer room where I told my mom to close her eyes and guess how many were in just that room... it was 17, hahahahaha.)

I'd also like to thank the City of Boise for having extra trash pick-ups during Christmas break:

And lest you think we hate the earth, understand that about twelve times this amount of stuff went to thrift stores. Maybe more.

I didn't do a swell job at before and after pictures (lots of during...), but here are some glimpses into it all:

the living room! It was crazy to see it slowly go from a nice old lady living room with plants and wooden-accented chairs and couch to a big empty space. Crazy.

the dining room:

aka the storage room (in addition to the garage, of course) while the new carpet was going in everywhere. My mom made so many really hard decisions about which dishes and furniture to keep from the dining room; I was very proud of her!

the kitchen:

('before' picture courtesy of Christmas 2012)

new stove, new countertops, new backsplash, new sink, wooo!

the main bathroom:

SO much work went into this room!! Bless Brother Arnold's heart, he thinks of bathroom remodeling as a bit of a hobby and offered his expertise and labor free of charge. I happily signed Chuck up to be his apprentice, and they went at it: new bathtub (and walls around it), new flooring, restained cabinets, new sink, new lights, new countertops. Amazing.

Apologies for this picture, but it's the only 'before' one I could find at this late hour:

If you can drag your eyes away from Quinn mid-shave, you can see the awesome vintage yellow and orange walls and the super cool frosted shower/bath door. 

Funny story: I was just telling Chuck about the days when Quinn was little and HATED baths to the point that my mom and I would have to strip him down to his underwear and throw him in the full bathtub and then hold the doors shut, hahahaha. Probably a good thing we didn't upgrade to a fancy 'shower curtain' any sooner :).

 

And my personal favorite: the back room/playroom/my old room:

 Ahhh, this room was intense. My mom is a superb grandma and this play room was the envy of many a small child. It also housed her scrapbooking materials, movie and game collections, etc. It was also the room that got some attention at the beginning of the project and was then left to its own devices and thus became my exclusive project right before the carpets need to be torn out. I think packing up this room in less than two hours will go down as one of the great accomplishments of my life...

Blessedly, we're at a stopping point for now, Sam and co. are all moved in and now the rest of the projects will wait until March - painting, redoing the kitchen/dining room floor, more packing, etc. It's been a LOT of work and time away from the boys (they were barred from the house once most of the construction began) and Chuck (we'd often switch shifts, I'd work over there for a few hours and then come home and send him over to do bathroom work with Bro. Arnold), but it's also been an incredibly rewarding experience. I've found all sorts of fun treasures from my childhood, some that I looked at nostalgically before putting them in the D.I. box and some that came home with me, much to Chuck's chagrin :). I've sharpened my craigslist skills as we sold bookcases and canning supplies and toys and a hutch and chairs and other random items. I've gotten to see old friends in that part of town as I've shamelessly asked them to watch my kids, haha (thanks again Emily and Janna!!)

And mostly, I've grown even closer to my mama. There's no way to do something like this without lots of bonding - although we managed to fit in some yelling and tears too, haha. I've been so impressed as I've watched her pack up her entire life and make difficult decisions about what to keep and what not to (obviously, I did not consider the wicker baskets a difficult decision at all, but she did, bless her heart). I've learned more about her as she's shared stories about different things we've found. I've spent time in my own house thinking about what I want to keep and share with my sons and daughter(!) some day. And I'm grateful it's prompted my mom to write again. She's shared a bit about all of this on her blog and she's a much better writer than I even fancy myself to be, which is saying something... about her talent, not just about my ego :).

So anyhow, January's almost over and I haven't even really had time to shake my fist at the fog and inversion or get addicted to a new TV show or eat loads of cookies - just kidding, I make time for that. But if anyone's looking for a cure next January, just find some nice older lady who collects EVERYTHING and start D.I.-ing packing!!