please put down the drill

Progress on project bedroom makeover at Casa Catootes is moving along nicely, thank you very much. Of course, it would have been much better had the fabric of Reality TV ripped open in front of my house, depositing some clever and design savvy Home Makeover people on my front lawn who felt compelled to take over because someone- ahem- had a heavy hand with the joint compound and clearly that is against all the laws of home renovation and I should be banned from ever picking up a spackling knife again. Please?

But alas, that did not happen and we are cruising into week five now and are at the stage where the projects take so much detail and time.

Remove, sand and repaint three doors, two coats of new paint each, drying time between.

Measure, cut, check, measure and cut again, maybe measure and cut again as the walls seems to change dimension every time they are measured, which proves my theory that our house is totally possessed and likes to fuck with our heads. Finally install floor trim, tap in stray nails, apply painter’s caulk to nail holes and along trim edges. Oh, Painter’s Caulk, how I love your versatility!

Really the only major aspects left are window trim, the casing around the closet door in my bedroom and the saddles covering the flooring gaps between the hallway and bedrooms.

There is painting around a doorway, touch ups from moving furniture in and out, and painting window trim when it is installed.

Let’s not even discuss the permanent layer of dust that seems to reproduce at will and ever growing piles of tools that are in constant rotation that require gathering and putting away throughout the day. Please, let’s not discuss those things.

Let’s focus on the positive instead.

Ace has his loft style bed built right into the walls and we’ll add a storage box at the foot of that soon, and another shelf/storage area near the head of the bed as well. We still need to move the sofa he acquired from his grandparents from their house into his room, but until we no longer keep moving tools and equipment from one room to the next that will have to wait. His room is turning into a real teenage man cave which he loves and can’t wait to just chill on the sofa and have friends over in his new space. I’m afraid for my refrigerator contents.

Giggles painted her door a blistering Lime-Pop color. Only on the inside, because there is no way I can look at that color in the morning without my eyeballs bleeding. She’s thrilled with it so that’s all that really matters. She can’t wait to embellish the door and window trim with the same color. I reminded her that if she gets tired of this color, she’s going to do the repainting all by herself. Her room is bright and happy and reflects her sunny personality. And it will soon be filled with giggling tween girls and cluttered with art supplies.

Our platform bed is complete except for decorative molding that will cover the legs and sides. It’s nice to be sleeping on a real bed structure instead of the floor. You have to be under 25 to enjoy sleeping on the floor, I swear. It’s a little higher than I had envisioned when we started building it, but step stools will take care of that. The dog shows her disgust with not being able to jump on the bed now by grumbling and huffing when she plops down next to the bed at night.

When the work is done, I’ll post some pictures. I have totally failed to take any as we went along. We were busy industrious beavers and frankly, when I’m wielding power tools, grabbing my camera doesn’t cross my mind. Not sawing off a finger, now that crossed my mind.

I don’t know how they got there but I have bruises on the inside of my upper arm, on my wrists and down both legs. Not huge bruises, just several spots here, and there, and there and more there - but I never notice getting them. They’re just there when I shower off the paint and caulk and dirt from the day. Except for my left big toe. That one I gave myself when I dropped a 2x4x10 right on my toe during one of the hundred trips to Home Depot I make every weekend. That? Hurt like hell when wood hit toe and I cursed like a rowdy drunk right there in the lumber aisle. It’s amazing the wide berth people give a paint stained woman as she limps in a circle, wielding a large piece of wood and cursing out loud to herself.

We leave for vacation in nine, count ‘em, 9 days. Getting that portable storage unit completely unpacked before we get whacked with another monthly fee and head out on vacation is looking like a long shot. Anyone willing to place bets? Hopefully some of the evenings and next weekend can be the huge push on that front. It would be lovely to have that storage behemoth out of the yard before we leave.


And maybe the kids will actually have their clothes unpacked so they can pack for vacation. As of right now, clothing boxes are buried amidst the accumulated crap we have. We’ve all been rotating s limited number of outfits and ruining random articles of clothes with paint, oil based wood lacquer, painter’s caulk and construction adhesive.


And in this pre-vacation time frame there are Board of Education meetings, committee meetings, Karate schedules and the day job.


I am so ready for this vacation. Nine days of fun and relaxation with SuperHubby and the kids. We’ll plant our butts in a condo at SplitRock, hike, swim, explore, eat junk food, play games and sleep late.


Sleep Late. It’s been weeks since I’ve slept late.