The painting is finished. The trimwork is all stripped and sanded. Last night I got all trimwork except the one high window put pre-conditioner and one coat of stain. I really like the color of paint I chose, it was uncharacteristically brave of me. I eshewed the safe “realtor beige” for a toffee color that I pulled from the material for the curtains. And the hideous mural is gone! BUT. (There is always a but.) I am very disappointed in the way the trim turned out. After I stripped it, I was surprised by how bad a shape it was in, but I thought the stain would cover more than it did. The nail holes I filled with stainable filler and the gouges that were too deep to sand out stick out like a five dollar hooker on Rodeo Drive. The Hunk took a look at it and says it Adds Character. I say it Looks Dumb. But I’ll lightly sand with steel wool and put on the second coat of stain and re-evaluate. If I still hate it, I’ll paint it the color of the cream in the material in the curtains. But that means a few more hours my house is a mess and my husband is surly. And I still have a lot on my To Do List that is very pressing, such as updating my website. I sent out three resumes yesterday so potential employers could be checking it out soon. My Me page still says that I work at A and none of my real world work is on my portfolio page. Yikes! My house is a mess too. *sigh*

That pic of Elli was taken right after she sat in the paint pan! I gave her a bath and it came out pretty easy.

Rip it roll it and punch it, dude.

I’m blogging this from my phone bcus my computer is partly in the living room and partly in my bedroom. Why? This weekend I got a bug up my butt and started cleaning the Bottomless Pit That Is My Office. I was wiping down the baseboards and some gouges in the wood told me that there were three coats of paint and/or varnish adorning them. And that Elvis is alive in Uganda. Anyway. So then I get to thinking. See that ugly mural? When I moved in almost four years ago, I said “That has got to go. STAT.” So apparently Stat means in almost four years. I decided to paint. And strip and stain the trimwork. AND make curtains. I went to walfart and walked out $150 lighter, but with drop cloths, stripper, stain, wood filler, pans, rollers, paint (toffee), curtain material (cream, plum, and deep olive – wow, are you hungry too?), and painter’s tape. And yesterday I picked up a wood scraper, which surprisingly, works much better than a putty knife or an ice scraper. Huh. The window trim is entirely stripped, three of the four wall trim, and now one baseboard and two doorways to go. And my husband is not thrilled so much as supremely annoyed. Oops. Oh, and did I mention we’re leaving for MI Friday night or Saturday morning?. Yeah. I’m a dumbass. So we are taking the boys to MI so they can visit The Seester for a week, and I’m going to spend the boy-less week staining and painting and making curtains instead of holding Sexfest 2007. Maybe THAT’S why The Hunk is so decidedly not-so-enamored of my little project. Huh. AND Elli says “Hi.” Or maybe it was “Mommy is insane.” It loses a little in the translation.