Back and forth, back and forth

It's been a very busy time around here, yet at the same time, I'm bored as can be a lot of the time. Talk about a paradox. Sheesh. I'm trying to find my comfortable routine again, but it really seems to have turned up missing in a whole lot of life areas.

Since the boring seems to be less, I'll write about that first. Why am I bored? Those of you who have known me for a long time, know that I have a spouse who lives for the television and sports stations. We really live opposite lives most of the time. And, it's football season - he follows both the college team here, and also watches pro football to keep up on his football pool that he does every year. It makes my week very lonely, because he is so intensely interested in the games, he's living his life downstairs in the family room. I feel sorry for him, that the focus of his life is the television and not the people and life around him. Hell, I'm not THAT boring, and I do remember to wear my deoderant and to brush my teeth!

I've been working on a project here at the house...and hopefully it will be done very soon, for I'm really tired of it not being completed. I don't think I've talked about it here, but Alia and Two Wolves will both have a mental picture of what I'm describing.

When we bought this place, one of the features we liked was a wood burning stove which was down in the basement family room. However, the folks who lived here before were the kind of people who did things fast and cheap. So, instead of taking the time to run the chimney out thru the basement foundation and upwards, they simply cut a hole in the ceiling (i.e. the living room floor) and then thru the living room floor and out the roof.

Now that the kids are grown and away, we don't use the family room as much as the living room, and we get enough fire from the firepit outside. So, it was time to reclaim the total space in the living room. This required that we remove the paneling shell that had been built around the chimney. It took about a 3 x 3 foot square right out of the end of the living room - right out the middle of the wall. We found an electrical outlet behind it that we didn't know existed!

Taking down the paneling revealed not only the electrical outlet, but that the paneling had not only been nailed up, but also glued in massive quantities. I looked at this for the last two years, waiting on someone's promise that he'd get around to fixing it, and I finally got sick of nurturing the manly ego and I've been working to repair it myself. Had to scrape off lots of glue, repair drywall and then sand it all smooth and then learn to texture the drywall. I've been working on that for the last few months when I felt I had the time to do so, and completed that task about three weeks ago.

Himself got all pissed because I "got" drywall dust all over the house. Pish, tosh. Kiss my arse. At least the project is going forward.

So, since that's finished, I began to do the fun stuff. I'm working on painting the room now. And, it may sound totally off the wall to people who just know me as easy-going and pretty nondescript, I'm painting the room in a color called "Forceful Orange". Yep, that's right...I'm breaking out of the white, bland area and forging ahead with fixing the living room in a way that makes me happy.

Now, it's actually not as bad as it may sound. I have sponge-painted a pearl glaze over the orange and it looks like very rich wallpaper. Only three walls will be done like that and the fourth wall will be in an off-white, as that wall needs to blend in with the hallway wall. I think tomorrow's project will be to do the off-white wall, since I can move the necessary furniture by myself. The last orange wall requires moving a china cabinet, which I can't do alone, and Himself was too busy with television to assist me with it today.

I've got several things going on in the journey to fix up the house. An earlier posting told about the new bow window in the living room; a few weeks ago I had a new front door with a pretty window installed along with a screen/storm door. And, this week a new front porch is supposed to happen. So, I want my living room finished so I can invite people over. But, I'm in that kind of limbo, where it feels like there's some sort of jigsaw puzzle going on, and the pieces have to be moved in a certain way to make everything work.

To make things work, the wood burning stove has got to begin the "puzzle move". It needs to be removed from the family room. It has a home - my daughter and SIL want it. After it goes away, then the family room will get changed around with the Bowflex going to the other side of the room, the current living room television will go downstairs to make room for a new entertainment center upstairs. Then the china cabinet will go downstairs as well. Rearrangement is necessary. I figure Himself won't care as long as he has a television. He hates things to change, so this is something I have to forge ahead on with or without his help. I may have to call in the children to help yank that wood stove out of there, though. I want it GONE.

Work is still nothing but training one new person after another. But, that will be a tale for another time. And, teaching at the community college is fun - the only downside to that is that I'm having one hellova time hauling my butt out of bed the day after the classes. Thankfully, they're only two evenings a week.

We've gotten another dog, I'm reading a book that's giving me very intense thinking to do, I'm working on another knitting project, and life continues. No promises about regular posting here, but I always mean to do so, but run out of time it seems. I do miss everyone, and I hope to get caught up on reading everyone's blogs as time goes on.