I'm Here

...because anybody dumb enough to stay up working until 1:00 AM is obviously dumb enough to go ahead and stay up 'til 1:30 blogging.

It's been a good, productive day around here! Wa-Hoo! It feels good to have days like that, but more than anything it feels good to know that each step is one step closer to being DONE! James has promised me that after we finish up in Katie's room I can be all done with projects until after Christmas. (Except for if he "needs help" with something he's working on. I hate those pesty little disclaimers!!!)

Anyway, the day started out good this morning. I made waffles for breakfast and they were extra good because it's been so long since we've had them. :-) We had good devotions, then the kids had about 30 minutes to play before we started school. Somehow we managed to finish school up by about 1:00 this afternoon! Wa-Hoo!!! So I headed outside with the stain and a rag and got to work on James' office. It took quite a while longer than expected because of all the trim. It's rough cedar and just soaks the stain in instead of letting you spread it.

I enjoyed getting some fresh air, for a change. And it was great because I was able to be out with the kids and enjoy them playing. Katie and Joe started a new club today. (They create at least one new one each week.) They told me they were the Nerd Club. "How fitting," I said. I asked what they did in the Nerd Club and they said they sell Nerds so they'll have money to buy more Nerds. They were referring to the candy Nerds, of course, but I found it intensely amusing that they weren't the least bit ashamed of telling people they were the Nerd Club. Kate said they do a lot of other things, too, but she didn't have time to explain it all to me because they were off to find the perfect hiding place for their secret headquarters.

I finally finished up with the stain and went to grab the ole' caulking gun. I haven't used one of those in years. Made me feel like a teenager again, caulking Janice Yalch's big log house up the hill for $5 an hour or whatever she paid me! Good memories. :-) Anyway, the sun dropped behind the hill not too long after I got started and it got very, very cold on my wet and caulky hands. I was really, really wanting to get that nasty job behind me today, but I decided I'd wait and hope it's a little warmer tomorrow. :-(

We had another nutritious, homecooked meal by Mom tonight. Grilled cheese sandwiches and tomato soup. Again. Seems like we don't get real meals very often anymore--and when we do most of them have been made my James! ~sigh~ I really want to be a Mom again. I want to just clean my little floors and cook my little meals and wash my little dishes and school my little kids... Maybe next week will be my week, hu?!

After dinner I headed back to Katie's room, which I've begun to refer to as "that stinkin' room," and touched up the paint around the edges of the ceiling and the old grubby ceiling fan. Then James was able to install the new fan! Wa-Hoo!!! I took this picture while it was going full blast, so it's not perfectly clear--but still, I was impressed with my camera!

And then it was time. Time for the last big project on the room itself. (Although there is still furniture to work on...) The wallpaper. I think it took me just shy of 6 hours, start to finish. I'm not real proud of that. It seems like it should take a lot less time than that. I mean, I only did the bottom three feet of the walls! But that's how these things go. Especially when you've "had it," as I have. Ah yes, I finally hit "the end" today. The I'm-DONE-with-all-these-crazy-projects-and-just-want-to-get-back-to-normal-life-again phase. I'm sure you hadn't detected that prior to this statement though. ;-) Besides that, I hurt. My knees are killing me and I hate this tile floor more than I ever have before--which was a lot. I now hate the knee pads, too. Wearing them is less painful than not wearing them, but the straps dig into the back of my knees and create soreness in one of the few areas of my anatomy that previously had none. My back hurts, my hips hurt (explain that one to me--and I'm only 31 so it can't be AGE yet! Ha!), my neck hurts from all the over-my-head work and my right arm, wrist and hand are screaming "STOP!!!! Don't make me pick up that paint brush! Or that roller! --And especially not that rag to rub stain on 87 cubic feet of raw wood!!!!!!"

Where was I? Australia. (Truly, you have a dizzying intellect. --Wait 'til I get going!!!) Anyway, the wallpapering was a success, even though it took longer than it should have and the first wall gave me fits with the "level" line. (I was about half a bubble off plumb by the time I was finished, Mom! Ha!) I told James early on that it was going to take a good, cold Vanilla Coke and some good, happy music to see me through. He was very obliging. :-)

Here's the finished product against the faux painted wall...

And against the blue wall. YES! I said BLUE!!! Wa-Hoo!!! Corduroy Black finally looks it's proper dark blue color now that I've got everything else in place. I'm sooooooo happy. I'm just not the kind of person to go for black walls, you know?! It was supposed to be blue (in spite of it's nerve-racking name) and now it finally is. It just needed the right encouragement, I guess. :-)

And here's where the two walls meet. Don't look too closely--we have a great plan for making that corner look fantastic with a nice, straight line separating the two colors instead of the squiggly one there now. We'll get to that real soon! And HONESTLY, the seams you see in the wallpaper are NOT that bad in person! Ha!

~whew~ That's it, folks. Another day or two and I'll be able to put the room back together and actually DECORATE it! Wa-Hoo!!! It will be so fun to dig into the "Kate's Bedroom" boxes and see what all we don't know we have anymore. :-)