I have a nice meme here, but here's just some S.O.S.Once I got it into my head that since the electrician had not called, he was not coming, I felt much better. He's such a nice guy; he's just not competent on the phone or with making appointments. Well, I'm not in a hurry for that work. He'll remember next week that he was supposed to call me and then he will.
In the meantime, I'm making excellent progress on the basement, but I'm kind of stuck until R has a chance to look over her stuff. I don't know when that will be, either, since she pretty much blew that off for the year and a half she lived here. Maybe if I talk to her while she's jet-lagged after her trip, I can get some kind of commitment.
We're having K's room painted in shades of beige. I know that doesn't sound very exciting, but here's the story on the paint in this house. When we moved in, which will be 21 years this November, we did not paint. We didn't have time; our closing had been delayed a week and we had to be out of our old apartment on the day we bought the house (although they gave us a day extra to move out.) All of the rooms in the house except one were, at that time, orange or yellow. Not a nice orange or yellow, but flat, dull colors that were not in any way cheerful or nice. The family room was more like a deep pumpkin, which was at least better, but not what I wanted. That summer, I painted the family room beige. At some point, the Hubs painted the living gray with white trim, but never got around to the adjacent hallway. Nor, might I add, any other room in the house. This was a case of "Oh, don't hire a painter; I'll do it myself." He just never did.
I painted and wallpapered the kitchen long ago. The wallpaper in the bathroom is a horrible foil, which I was once told by a paperhanger would come off in postage-stamp size pieces, and would have to be removed before it could be papered over. When the Hubs' study was still baby K's room -- most of it is panelled -- I painted what little wall there was showing with leftover beige paint from the family room.
So K's current room is yellow, with white trim and white sloping ceilings. There are holes in the walls, and when R was twelvish, and it was her room, she took to writing on the walls and ceilings. I believe she did this with wet chalk. She once also attached those glow-in-the-dark moons and stars to a section of the ceiling.
What we're going for is mellow and sedate. The new carpet is navy blue. We're going for soft beige walls, a lighter hue of beige for the ceiling, a deeper hue of beige for the trim. For us, this is a radical change. (Even for me, who grew up in a house where my father painted regularly, as needed, but only white. He would only ever deal with white paint.) It's going in K's room, the stairs leading down from her room to the hallway, and the ahllway. All the walls will be spackled and sanded, all the holes patched. I can't tell you what a big deal this is for us. It's as if it's all turning into a real house, finally.
When I can bring myself to take the pictures down off the walls in the living room, family room, and our bedroom, I may have those painted, too. Same colors. I like beige and navy. Works for me. I may even go out on a limb and get the bathroom re-papered.
