More from the basement ...

The basement was my major project for the long weekend. My goal was to take it from a dark, cavelike space filled with boxes to a fun place to hang out, watch TV and play video games (The Beatles Rock Band is our latest addiction).

Mr. Speedy had already swapped out our overhead light for one that worked - which made a huge difference in making the space less cave-like! - and we'd already sorted out a colour scheme of black, white and red (black to match the TV and PS3, red for the Xbox 360 and white for the Wii, of course).

Earlier this week, I shared my start at colour-blocking my books, and the next step was to start decorating!

A black slipcover made our old futon look a little bit less sketchy while we save up for a new downstairs sofa, and, to really make the room pop, we've hung this delightful, vintage-inspired poster, an amazing project spearheaded by a Yourhome reader! With its clean lines and quirky message, it's really the perfect piece to set the tone for our basement den!

The next step is to finish sorting the DVDs back into their cases (embarassingly, I forgot to move the folders for them before snapping this photo on my way out the door this morning), and finish tidying up all the unpacking remnants (which I really must do before sharing a picture of the full space!)

After that, my major next step is to choose a paint colour to freshen up the walls. I fear white could be too stark for the space, against all the eye-catching black and red, so I've been thinking maybe a soft grey. What do you think?

Opening boxes

I've been tackling my unpacked boxes lately, which has turned out to be a difficult, and emotional, task. You see, while Mr. Speedy and I have been purging our belongings annually, with every move, we've also been lugging a few untouched boxes from address to address.

And, now in our largest living space yet, we're still trying to pare down. Getting bogged down in belongings gets messy. It makes it tough to keep organized, harder to find things, and attracts dust. And, after all, it's really only stuff. 

So, I finally cracked open some of those boxes - whose belongings were last seen way back in '06/'07. The stuff has been slotted into its respective places, along with toss and donate piles, but I'm still ruminating over my finds.

Because, it's not really only stuff. It's a snapshot of who I was two years ago. It's a glimpse into the person who was leaving almost everything she knew to move to Toronto to start a career in journalism.

The bobble-head lobster is a funny reminder of home, and a definite conversation piece.

The stack of political science text books (not all required course reading) remind me of my aspirations towards political reporting.

The student loan statement from May 2007, with its terrifyingly steep numbers (why on Earth did I feel like that needed to be packed?) helped motivate my relocation for work, and my enthusiastic hunt for full-time work (which continues these days with less vigour, more wishing and hoping).

Photos and ticket stubs are a wonderful reminder of the friends I left behind (and still miss), and were easily slotted into folders, frames and albums.

Other things are less concrete reminders. Three koosh ball animals, prizes from some sort of residence carnival night, will hardly come in handy and were instantly destined for the trash. What ever possessed me to pack those so lovingly? Ditto for unlabelled mini-cassette tapes, presumably from student assignments.

Not all of these pieces fit into my new life, and really, they shouldn't. You want to always be moving forward and changing. But cracking open these boxes was like peeking into a time capsule, a reminder of the optimism with which I came to Toronto (little did I know that apartments here wouldn't have room for my full library of books!), and I'm kind of grateful that I left them untouched for so long.

What treasures do you have hiding in boxes?

Organizing by colour?

I'm not much of a camper, so for me, the Labour Day weekend is typically a mix of relaxing and getting things done around the house.

On Monday, we had a story about organizing your closet in 10 minutes which inspired me to take my efforts to the next level. With the help of the move, my closet is still in pretty good shape, organized by type of garment and colour, so I had to focus on a more troublesome area of my house: my many boxes.

Ten boxes later, which yielded a slew of outdated photos of me as a redhead and Mr. Speedy with very long hair, a few odd socks, three koosh ball animals and several other odds and sods, along with many things that we actually do like and need, my house was in dire need of organization!

Once the kitchen cabinets and bar were fully stocked (turns out I have as many martini glasses as I do bowls) and the DVD, CD, record and VHS (!) collections alphabetized and stowed away, I turned my attention to the six very heavy (and largely still unpacked) boxes of books that we've been lugging around since leaving Halifax.

Our collection spans a lot of genres, everything from textbooks, anthologies and Penguin classics to chick lit (well, only I can take the blame for that one) and comic books. Not an easy collection to manage, much less organize in a logical way.

So I decided to throw all logic out the window (after all, isn't alphabetized conspicuous consumption so pre-recession?) and organize them the way I wanted to look at them: by colour.

Now, this isn't a new idea. Loads of people have colour blocked all of their belongings. But it was new to me. And, to add a further illogical twist, my massive collection of books would span several floors of my house, so to find a particular book, we're going to need to remember what colour the spine is, and go to the proper shelf on the correct floor.

Black, white and red books (which match our PlayStation 3, Wii and Xbox360 respectively) were the first to be sorted out, to complement our basement entertainment den. This is a system that wedges Kevin Smith (of Silent Bob fame) between Orwell and Freud, and the Nanny Diaries next to Bram Stoker's Dracula, but it looks pretty slick. And, just think of all the exercise we'll be getting when hunting for that favourite book on all three levels of our home!

Stay tuned for a pre-painting reveal of our basement later this week - along with some snazzy new vintage inspired artwork!

Get more organizing tips.

POLL: Re-decorating plans?

I've felt a hint of fall in the morning air lately, a sure sign that it's back-to-school season and time to start moving my activities indoors. And, with evening cocktails now happening in my living and dining rooms instead of on the back deck, of course my mind has turned to decorating the place.

While Mr. Speedy and I are still just settling into our new home, I suspect many of us may be giving our interiors a second glance this season, wondering what updates we'd like to see before the Home Renovation Tax Credit is up (in February), or even what projects we'd like to complete before friends and family start rolling in for the holidays (yes, I know, mentioning them this early is sacrilege. But, in my defence, the shops are stocking presents and decorations already!).

So, before jaunting off on my farewell-to-summer holidays, our last weekly poll asked what Yourhomers were planning to renovate or redecorate this fall.

More than a quarter, at 26 per cent, said they had no renovation/redecoration plans for the upcoming season.

But, for those who do plan on renewing their home this autumn, most are looking to their bathrooms, at 24 per cent, kitchens, at 20 per cent, bedrooms, at seven per cent, and living rooms, four per cent.

None of our voters plan on tackling their dining rooms (not a single vote!), while 19 per cent have other spaces in mind. What are your home-related plans for the fall? Share them in the comments below - I'd love to hear all about it!

Our new poll looks at one of my other loves, technology (read the full story here), and how you're using it in the home. Have you replaced your cookbooks with a laptop or netbook? (For me, it's about 50/50). Let me know in the front page poll.

And, for those of us not lucky enough to be away at the cottage this weekend, make sure to check out this dreamy purple living room by Colin and Justin, an excerpt from Sonia Day's new book, a blue bin cheat sheet from Trash Talk, and the details on Colin and Justin's after the Heist tour, in support of the Canadian Cancer Society. 

Is the economy changing the way we decorate?

While the recession has been declared over, there's still a whole lotta doom and gloom out there. On a large scale, this means many of us are still holding tight to our wallets and maybe delaying some major purchases, but, according to a study by CIL Paints, all that financial turmoil has also been influencing our colour choices.

"Our research found that in good economic times, people tend to favour brighter colours, while in difficult economies, more somber hues like white, beige and grey are the preferred choice," says Jennifer Jones, the brand's marketing communications manager, in a release. Neutrals are often considered a "safe" choice, because they're easy to mix and match - which gives budget-conscious decorators some reassurance that they've invested in something that can last. 

And CIL says their top selling colours this year have been neutral tones, like off-whites, sandy shades and muted greys.

But, Jones says she sees more colour in the future: “Heading into the year 2000, for example, neutrals were predominant in home decor, yet when the fear and uncertainty surrounding the new millennium faded, more vibrant colours began to reappear in homes.”

I'm not so sure if the link between the economy and our colour choices is so concrete. I was a huge fan of purple long before it became trendy (as evidenced by my purple wedding), and have always loved palettes of moody greys and greens, regardless of how well the stock market is doing. What do you think?

Crashing back to reality

Ah, the joys of being a homeowner. After a blissful week on the East Coast, I returned to Toronto feeling fairly calm, albeit a little bit motion sick from a turbulent flight home.

While I was very, very sad to leave my friends and family (and a wee bit reluctant to return to work), part of me was also happy to be returning to my house, complete with two freshly painted rooms. I was excited about getting back into the painting and decorating projects (hello secondhand shops!), after taking an evening to relax and get back into that Toronto state of mind.

Instead, what greeted me was a slightly overgrown lawn (sadly, my wish that the heat would finally kill the grass was not granted), coated in a week's worth of tossed litter, a stuffed mailbox, two dying (likely to soon be one dead, one maimed) houseplants and a nosy older couple (total strangers, by the way) who stopped by to say that they didn't like the look of our yard because our grass was too long. Not to mention a bunny to be collected, a few surfaces to be dusted, laundry to be washed and luggage to be unpacked. Plus a couple hundred emails, over a thousand blog posts to be caught up on, and a handful of voicemail messages.

But, despite wondering whether I couldn't just go back on an extended vacation (the answer was sadly no), we hunkered down and chipped away at our to-do list. So I'm back, and once we catch up, we'll be back to home improvement projects, rather than just maintaining/cleaning it. 

Responsibility is a drag.

Finally, a full sized Lego house!

While Mr. Speedy is the resident petrol head, I too have gotten hooked on British car show Top Gear (with a little help from presenter Richard Hammond).

As a fan of the show, and the hosts, I was excited to learn that while the series is on a break, co-presenter James May has decided to tackle toys in an epic way this summer with his new series James May's Toy Stories.

The coolest project? A full-size, two-storey house made entirely from Lego, complete with a (working!) Lego bathroom! His bed (and other furniture, too) will also be made out of Lego. (Check out the full story and photos at the Daily Mail).

May says everything, in so far as it's possible, will be made out of Lego, and, better yet, he's promised to live in it, for at least a few days (or until it falls down).

The public has been lending a hand with the construction, which is slated to be completed some time this week. The series, which will also feature a garden made of plasticine, will air in Spring 2010, but I'm sure there will be loads of pics before then!