We have a small house by American standards.
Weighing in at about 1425 square feet under heat/air, we're smaller than the average American home. In fact, we're smaller than the average home 40 years ago! That's what we get for being built in the 20s. Apparently, we're 1.5x the size of the average American home in the 1950s, too... However, for our neighborhood (platted out in the early 1900s and former orange grove), we're smack in the middle size.
Our office/front hall were originally the front porch, to that expanded the house somewhat. Moving on from there, we've got a spacious living room that gives onto the dining room. The dining room's main feature is the window seat that really sold us on the house. 
Beyond the dining room is the kitchen and back porch (laundry "room"). That is fully half the house. The dining room and living room both have doors that connect to the hallway.
From the front of the house there's our bedroom, the kids' rooms (ensuite) and at the end of the hall, the bathroom. In the 20s, this would've been considered a 3-bedroom home, but now it's considered 2 plus a "bonus" room.I can't believe that with all the repainting and stuff that I've done in the last few months that I don't have any current pics of the living and dining rooms. How bizarre! Anyhow, here's the plan. Working forward from the front hall to the laundry area and then back up the hallway by way of the bathroom and kids' rooms, I'm going to tackle everything. You might say "How on earth do you plan to do that?" and I'd reply "The same way you eat an elephant or repaint a house! One bite/room at a time."
Look for posts on:
- The Front Hall
- The Office
- The Living Room
- The Dining Room
- The Kitchen
- The Laundry Room
- The Bathroom
- The Girls' Room
- The Boy's Room
- The Hallway
- Our Room
I've got just over ten weeks to do it all, and more than ten areas to accomplish, so I have to bust this out faster than one room/week. Since this week is Spring Break, there's NO WAY I'm going to touch the kids' rooms. Not with an eleventy-million foot pole. That would just be an exercise in frustration and I'd be popping Zoloft like they were M&Ms.
What I will be doing is swallowing my pride and photo-journalling my progress. I really don't feel all that bad about it because, hey, even on my worst day EVER my house was never as bad as the "Messiest House In America". Not even close, no matter what my mom says. I've NEVER had an infestation of rodents and a flooded anything with 6' piles of crap. Because I'd have burnt it to the ground and started over. So before I lift a finger to clean, I'm going to haul out the Nikon D70 and document, document, document. And then, room by room, area by area, you'll see the transformation. I'll even throw in the "why" behind certain areas becoming "hot spots" for clutter. Heh. Never thought you'd see so much brutal honesty on a blog, didja?
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