I Have Returned!

It started on Friday.  Randy asked me if I was coming to St. Louis to have supper with him and go to a hockey game.  "Nah," I said, "The weather's supposed to be really nice and I think I'll stay home and work on my house."  Lately when I've made a statement like that two things have followed:  a bad swear at the end of that sentence, and a noticeable lack of any actual work getting done.  I didn't utter a bad swear, and y'all already know that I spent Saturday on the roof of the house. 

Then came Sunday, in which I finished all the scraping on the east side of the house.  All of it.  After that I went to the flea market in Excelsior Springs to see if the lamp I passed up two weeks ago was still there.  It was.  I bought it.  It's ugly as homemade soap right now, but I have makeover plans for it.  (Which I will share here, if it turns out well.) 

Front parlor progress

Niiiice.

Along came Sunday night with nothing to do, so I started wallpapering the front parlor.  (One lonely little strip of paper has been hanging there since May.)  White Trash Bob and I had a discussion last week about which to do first, the paper or the picture rail, and he finally convinced me that it'd be easier to do the paper first.  I am stubborn; WTB is persistent when he's right.  It was quite a discussion and included much waving about of arms. 

Which brings us to today, in which I finished caulking almost all the clapboards on the east side of the house.  Annnd, when it got too chilly outside to be spreading caulk around with wet hands I came inside and hung up a few strips of the trellis wallpaper that goes in the space between the ceiling and the (future) picture rail.  After supper, I plan to hang up more wallpaper.

So I have not one, but two projects going on at the same time.  One outside; one inside.  Do y'all realize what this means?  It means that really and truly, at least for now, my house-loathing is over.  I went to bed last night sore and tired but happier than I've been in weeks because I got something important accomplished on the house.  Wait.  Make that two important somethings.  My house mojo has returned--and better yet, I have returned!  I feel more like myself than I have in a long time.  Hallelujah!