I am back in my own house. No more living half here, half there with my belongings (and my sanity) divided between two houses.
Before I go any further, I just have to say: Thank you, all of you. The support and advice and empathy I've gotten in the comments to my past few posts has been nothing short of amazing. I am one very lucky woman to have blogfriends like you. Thanks, y'all.
The first few days, it was enough just to be back in the Kelly House, with its high ceilings and transom windows and boxy little floor plan. I spent quite a bit of time, I must tell you, just sitting there. (Honestly, I couldn't do much else because I'd separated my shoulder three weeks ago. I was clambering up a riverbank with AJ and a couple of his friends and when the hill crumbled under me and I started to fall, AJ's friend Aaron grabbed me by the left elbow and hauled me up.) But now I'm feeling better, both emotionally and physically, and I think it's time to consider what's next for the Kelly House.
There's the bathroom remodel, which Sharon has dubbed the Behemoth Project because it involves knocking down a wall, laying tile, putting up beadboard, installing new fixtures and a clawfoot tub, demolishing a shower, and moving the back door of the house, all to turn two awkward bathrooms into one nicer one. That seems a bit much at the moment.
Then there's the front parlor. The old wallpaper's been stripped, the plaster walls have been repaired, all the furniture's pushed out into the center of the room, and part of the trim's been repainted. Since that's what I was working on last winter, it makes sense to start again there.
So on Monday, my next day off, I'll be hanging wallpaper in the front parlor. I can't wait!