The Monstrosity: Day Six

That would have been Wednesday. It was day three of stripping wallpaper in that same guest room. I finally started getting down to the wall itself, but the end product wasn't just real pretty. Brother Hopkins was there that day so I took him upstairs to show him what it looked like. He said he COULD just skim the whole wall once I finished stripping everything and it would look okay... but it would be a whole lot easier and look lots better if he were to just cover those walls with 1/4" sheetrock like he's doing to the peacocks--that AREN'T peacocks after all, they have been PHEASANTS all along! Hahahahahaha! Anyway, Brother Hopkins grabbed his pencil and scribbled some figures on the wall, then said how much it would cost us to just cover the walls instead of continuing to strip them. I don't mind continuing to strip them, but it would take another full day or two to finish--and then it's going to be more work for Brother Hopkins than putting up the fresh stuff and it won't look quite as good in the end. The number he gave us was pretty modest... so we're going with it! Wa-hoo! No more wallpaper stripping!!!

So... now what??? My one goal in life has been to rid ourselves of wallpaper and now I'm not real sure what the next step is. I guess we need to shift gears and go over every inch of the house (that'll take a while!) and make sure everything is scraped and scrubbed and clean and ready for paint or (can you believe this--) more wallpaper. That will be a lot more time consuming than what one would expect, believe me. I've already been scraping paint drips off of closet doors and ripping tile window seals out as I go along, but there is going to be a LOT of prep work before we can paint.

We also have to either find paint swatches or get gutsy and choose new colors before we can paint anything. The latter option scares the bejeebers out of me. I remember the leapfrog green door in Andrews. And the deceitful blue that looked so pretty on the card but was so horrid on the trim of our yellow brick house. Or the Barbie Doll PINK paint that we ended up with when we were trying to paint a RED Coca-Cola kitchen. At least that last one wasn't my fault. I had picked a good red, but the paint store couldn't mix it for some reason--they just kept giving us hot pink. I don't think so.

Kody and Michael came back to finish the yard job James had wanted done, along with Joe's help. In the end, I think there were 38 big black trash bags full of pine needles and debris that they removed from the driveway and edges!

James spent some time in the basement tearing out paneling to check on our mold situation. He is so relieved to find that the two places where the mold exists are very easy to access and should be pretty simple to remedy.

Still haven't looked into the termites. Got to get to that while the moldy areas are still torn open, since that's where there's a possibility of termites, too. Hey... how come mold doesn't kill termites? It's the least it could do, really.

And THIS is the most exciting thing that happened on Wednesday, Day Six at the Monstrosity. Brother Hopkins... My hero. :-)



When Mom came down yesterday she looked at the peacocks that are uncovered as yet (Brother Hopkins was only able to stay a few minutes--he'll be back to cover the rest as he has opportunity) and said, "Hey... those aren't peacocks! Those are Chinese Pheasants!" Mr. Ornithology (that's James) had somehow allowed us to call them peacocks all this time and never corrected us. Not that it matters. I don't like them any more as pheasants than I did as peacocks. In fact, I think I like pheasants less. Either way, they're on their way out now and it makes me very happy.

Back to yesterday. I got up and got busy packing the boys up for their week at Grandma's house. We left at about 10:00 and went to buy new tennis shoes for Katie. Her feet just won't stop growing. HA! --Get this! She can't wear blanket sleepers anymore because her feet are too big! Who ever heard of somebody's feet being too long to fit in the feet of a blanket sleeper?! Anyway, she has new tennis shoes now and she looks like a cartoon character--scrawny little chicken legs with GREAT BIG clown shoes. :-)

After that it was Chow Town and Krispy Kreme for Sam's birthday. Here he is with three of his favorite things: His new bug vacuum, fresh Krispy Kreme's, and his mother. :-)

I laughed HEARTILY when I read his birthday card from Auntie Em and family...

It's from Uncle Jon, Auntie Em, all those kids, "and many, many more." Got something you want to share, Emilee??? ;-) Hahahahahaha!!!

Katie has been complaining non-stop about being cold (she has no blubber, you know) so we finally made it to The Foundry yesterday, a big thrift store in Bessemer. She hit the jack-pot! We found lots and lots of nice, pretty, warm clothes for her to wear. She's so excited. Except that she was already packed for Grandma's house and I brought her new clothes home with me to launder. James also got a dehumidifier for super cheap there. He's hoping it works (!), but for the amount he would save not buying a new one he had to risk it. It powered up just fine and I'm sure it'll work great.

We met Mom at the house at about 2:00 and spent a couple of hours showing her everything, talking about our plans, and asking her for ideas. She didn't have nearly as much input as I would have liked. Ha! She does say we're crazy for removing the fluorescent lighting from the kitchen. It gives GREAT light and she does have me worried about how dark it's going to be in there--especially after I paint everything with those dark, rich colors that I love. But the fluorescents were so ugly! (Besides that, James already ripped down all of the drop ceiling rails and says it's too late to change our minds now!) So I'm coming up with other ways of still making the PRETTY ceiling that I want to make, but also allowing for plenty of light everywhere. But James doesn't sound real crazy about those ideas either. Brother Dustin--we need you here!!! Lights! We need lots and lots of lights in our kitchen but so far all we've done is rip a bunch out--and we can't agree on what to put in. This is your cue, dude--where are you??? We need you for the lights and for that great "buffer" thing that you do! ;-)

We all left the house and went to Lowe's to look around and try to get some ideas for some of the areas of the house that we're still stumped on. I think it was profitable, though everything runs together in my mind right now. Sometimes I feel like things are coming together (just in my mind--nothing at the actual house yet!) and other times I just feel like there are too many things to think about and decisions to make and I'm just on overload. It's EASIER (mentally) to do things one room at a time instead of a whole house in one sweep. But this way is much more convenient and I LOVE the idea of just getting it over with, then moving in and enjoying it instead of continually ripping up one room after another to remodel.

After Lowe's we drove all the way out to Schlotzky's on Highway 280 to eat together before saying our goodbyes. James had a real hankerin' for Schlotzky's and I'm so glad--it's been a long time and it was sooooo good.

We hugged Mom and the kids goodbye and the shoved off for Sister Bishop's house to spend the night before going back to Cleveland tomorrow. James and I came home all sad and lonely and feeling horrible about not having our kids with us. Or even our dog. Yeah, I roped Mom into dog sitting, too. At least Brady was here. Don't tell the Powells ;-) but I let him inside and he crawled into my lap (on the floor, Sister Powell, not the couch! Ha!) and let me love on him for a minute or two before sending him back out. That helped some. :-)

And I feel much better today. I'm aware that the kids and the Charles are gone, but I'm also aware that the house is still nice and clean from when I went on a mad cleaning spree when we got home last night. The cabinet doors and drawers are all closed instead of gaping, there aren't rubber bands laying all over the floor from the latest battle, the milk isn't sitting on the counter after breakfast and dirty dishes here and there, there aren't books scattered about the couches and floors or piles of shoes by the door. It's amazing how much MESS my kids carry around with them. Sorry, Mom--it's going to be an ugly week at your house. Ha! I don't know how I've tried so hard to train them to be decent little human beings and clean up after themselves but have still failed so miserably. In any case, I have a much cleaner house, but no children. Though I'm not missing them this morning like I was last night, it's so obvious that as a permanent situation it's much, much better to have children and big messes to cope with than to have a sparkly clean house and no children. How sad would that be?! But this week... I'm going to enjoy the clean. :-)

But right NOW I'm going to go pack for Youth Retreat! I'm so excited to be going to a Retreat and have nothing to do but sit back and soak it in. ~Aaaaahhhhhh~ I'm so excited! :-)