The Monstrosity: Day Five

Yeah, I know we were there yesterday so this would technically be Day Six. But we were there for so short a time period and accomplished so very little that I can't make myself count it as a day.

I didn't accomplish much today either, but after our day yesterday I knew what I would be dealing with and was mentally prepared to accomplish nothing today--so I feel much happier about it. :-) We had several things to do here at the house this morning so we didn't even get to the Monstrosity until about noon. I spent a-a-a-a-a-a-all afternoon scraping wallpaper in the guest room. Yep, just that one room. And I'm a long way from being done, but I was prepared for that so it's all good. :-) I was working on the upper layers that didn't require a steamer, just a scraper and a lot of commitment. That's all I did today. Tomorrow I'll crank up the steamer and spend all day trying to get down everything that is still there after the initial scraping. Yesterday was maddening because it simply should not take that kind of time to remove wallpaper from one room. Today I knew I had no chance of finishing. I'm hoping to finish tomorrow... so that sets me up for failure and frustration again. I should know better than to have silly hopes like that. Some people never learn. I mean after all, it will only have been THREE DAYS in that ONE ROOM trying to get rid of WALLPAPER. Hhmmm. It does make me feel a little insane when I think about it. I think I can feel my eye twitching a little bit... ;-)

James put up the new mailbox today. Yeah! We accomplished something!

AND...

The gutter guys came today! They ripped down all of the old gutters, replaced a few panels of wood that had rotten out, and installed the brand new super clean and spiffy looking "wicker white" gutters. Gutters aren't usually something that would excite me. But this was exciting because all we've done so far is rip stuff up and tear stuff out. We haven't actually starting the other side of the process--you know, where you make something look better or actually finish something. These guys came, they tore down, they improved, and they are finished. What a concept!!! It's also exciting because the color of gutters that we chose inspired me for how I want the trim and facings and pillars on the house painted someday. Inspiration! I haven't had much of that.

Though it's coming in waves now. I saw a guy at Pizza Hut today. I looked at his plaid shirt and thought "THAT'S the wallpaper I want in the larger bathroom upstairs!" That'll be a tricky one to pull off (ha!), but at least I have an idea for what I think we'll look really good there if I can find something similar. I wish inspiration would hit me in ways a little more practical than some dude's flannel shirt that I'll never be able to match in a wallpaper. I have heard of people using starched fabric as wall coverings, however. Hhmmm. No, that just seems wrong in a bathroom.

I dreamt last night that I found the paint swatches. With renewed hope, I got up and headed to the basement and dug through every single box that we've got down there--thoroughly. I also checked all through our closet, our dresser, under the bed, in the bathroom cabinets (?!), in the boys' closet, in books that are sitting next to the bed, under the kitchen sink with our cleaning supplies and some tools, in the drawer where we keep craft stuff, in the other cabinets where things sometimes get crammed, in the junk drawers, on top of the fridge, under the utility sink, in the bin on the shelf, in the top of the coat closet and in all the boxes down below.

They STILL weren't in any of those places. Just like when I looked all of those places last week. Bummer.

James asked if perhaps they may have been put in the van. That's a horrifying thought. We have a new van since we moved. If they were in the old van and never got transferred to the new one... ~ugh~ Let's not think that way. I did look in the new van, just to be sure. Nope.

They've GOT to be some place "smart" in storage. Maybe I'll get a chance to go look again there in the next day or two.

After not finding them anywhere again this morning I looked up the phone number for the little hardware store in the mountains where we lived in New Mexico. I was hoping to speak with Robert. I never went to the store, I would just call him on the phone and say, "This is Rebekah Horne--I call you once or twice a year about paint." He would immediately know who I was and mix up just what I wanted, then James would go pick it up for me. Robert wasn't there today, but the girl I talked to said she couldn't find us in the system. I wanted to see if they had record of the color codes that they've mixed up for us. Apparently they don't. Though I may call again in a few days and see if I can talk to Robert, just to be sure.

The next course of action--only after I can't find the paint swatches in storage again--will be to try to contact the people who bought our house in New Mexico. We left some paint in the shed there in case they needed to touch anything up. The cans should have the paint codes on them. I don't think they would have all of the colors we need, but anything would be helpful.

So my dream was not prophetic. ~sigh~ I can't even remember where I found the cards in the dream. I just remember how excited and relieved I was. I would love to feel those two emotions. HA!

In spite of my continued failure to locate the paint swatches OR to really accomplish anything at the house today, it's been a GREAT day. I feel blessed today and totally refocused and relaxed. Took time to enjoy the kids and the dog here at there throughout the day--and the kids were great to help out at the Monstrosity again, pulling nails and removing switch covers and stuff like that. Then tonight Kody and Michael came over to help rake and bag up TONS of pine needles and debris that the gutter guys had blown off the roof. Joe went out to help them and they had a great time working together. When it got dark and we had to quit, we called the Ridlespurges to ask if they wanted to join all of us at Wendy's since we were taking the boys out for dinner. You know what her answer was? "No, because I'm dirty." Hahahahahaha! Michael had called to ask her, then relayed the message. I picked up the phone and called her back to ask if she was really serious. Did she realize who she was speaking with and what we had been doing all day long and how dirty WE were??? HA! I didn't mind if they didn't feel like going out, but I wasn't about to settle for some lame excuse like that!

We had just gotten our food when they showed up. :-)

So now we're back home again, prepping for another full day of work tomorrow. We'll leave in the morning and take church clothes with us for tomorrow night. I call dibs on the one mirror in the house when it's time to get ready! :-)