Monthly Archives: August 2007

On My List

On My List

Besides painting. Vacuum. Sew. Apply Frontline to cats. Only four cats. Thinking about that still makes me sad. Write a check for band shoes. These shoes are cheap – maybe I’ll make the kids wear them all the time. I can’t think about much else, because I’m tired and headachey and it’s still raining, and now my ear is hurting sharply again. My tooth, ear, and neck have never stopped being a bother since. . .what, December? Maybe November. It’s been a long time, anyway. It’s just that now there’s pain, not just discomfort or ache. I’m going to campaign for the doctor to send me in for an MRI or a CAT scan, whatever will see inside my head the best.

It’s my birthday today. I didn’t remember until hubby wished me a happy birthday when he called to let me know he’d gotten to the office in one piece. Funny how they mean less and less as time goes on. Maybe I’ll get excited and throw a big party in three years when I hit 50. It’s been so long since I’ve thrown a big party, and I used to be the hostess with the mostest. I’ll practice by starting to plan hubby’s 50th – if I can pull that off, then maybe there’s hope for me again. Heh. My milestones, though, are based more on the kids’ milestones, or other happenings in life. For the girls, there are changes, significant events, new things in their lives each year. Presents and parties and such make sense. Presents don’t make sense for someone who doesn’t need to wait for something she/he needs or wants (except waiting to be able to afford it, of course). Parties for the sake of socializing, parties to mark an event that everyone can celebrate instead of making one person the guest of honor, those seem more appealing to me. I might need to bring back the annual housewarming party. If we ever get a friggin’ mason to actually come through, we can have a new walkway party, the way we had a new driveway party at the old house, but minus the chalk and tricycles, I suppose.

I’m not really as depressed or down as I sound here, just weatherbeaten. Since the systems that bring rain or snow wreak such havoc on my sinuses and give me headaches and affect my sleep (which gives me body aches, too) I just feel icky overall. When I feel like this, I look at clutter, unfinished projects, and even things I actually want to do as oppressive – and feel like running away from them rather than doing anything about them. Once I get started, I’ll be much better. I should probably blog after I get something done, rather than before I get motivated to do it, ya think?

It’s Hard to Get Started Today.

It’s Hard to Get Started Today.

There’s nothing to stop me from working on the studio except, well, lack of motivation. Once I actually start, it’ll be fine. It’s a nasty rainy day again, and that always messes with my sinuses, making me tired and headachey. Plus, even though I’m making progress, there’s still enough clutter and disarray (and since we’re waiting for flooring, having things this close to being done but not quite is a nagging little mental irritation) to make me want to run away and hide, not do something to take care of it. I’ll do some other little things to get myself started. Empty the dishwasher. Make the bed. Fold some laundry. Stuff like that. *sigh*

There’s More Paint A-Waitin’

There’s More Paint A-Waitin’

So. . .I can’t do much more in the bedroom until the new floor comes in, and we decide what kind of fabrics and area rugs will work with the new paint and the new floor. However, our new enclosed garage needs to get started in order to begin its new life as an art studio. Rather than make it such a huge project that we’ll start it and then get overwhelmed and not do anything for months, I’m going to paint the walls that have been drywalled and taped and patched, put up the shelves and work surfaces, get that part organized, and we’ll work our way around the room bit by bit.

This isn’t as demanding as a regular room – for one thing, it’s not public, so we can fudge a bit. For another, we’re going to live with it for a year or so and then decide what changes we want to make as far as climate control, wiring and lighting, whether we want to rip out the existing drywall and have it redone the right way with insulation and a good ceiling. . .all that kind of stuff. It’s a tester room. A work in progress.

Because of that, I thought that before going out and spending money on paint, we should see what kind of color we’d get if we mixed the stuff the previous owners had left us, since we’re mostly done with changing all the colors. The family room, all the bedrooms, and the hall are all painted differently, I just have to decide what to do with the bathrooms and the living/office/kitchen area, which all kind of flow into each other. So all that old paint was up for grabs.

Oh, dear.
paint-failure-2.jpg

No, we didn’t just dump it all together. We really did try to change the color a bit at a time. In spots, you can see where we tried to see if a faux finish technique would lessen the awfulness of this color. Clearly, it didn’t. So now, everything had to get poured back into buckets, to be left open until dry enough to throw away.

Oh, dear, again.
paint-failure.jpg

This is going to take a long, long time. I’d put these outdoors, but it’s pouring rain and looks like it’ll continue to be pouring rain for another day or so. Well, at least we know what color we don’t like.