The 24-Hour Getaway

My sanity won out over my house-guilt. Here are the highlights from my overnight trip to the dunes (the full album is available here).

And I'm very pleased to say that I didn't think about the house once the whole time!

To vacate or not to vacate

Warning: This is probably going to be a slightly whiny, self-pitying post. Read on at your own risk... :)

Ever since I started the academy, and even a little before because of field-training, I haven't had any real time to myself. I've had time by myself, but not time where I felt comfortable just doing nothing. Every weekend when I come home, it feels like all of the unfinished house projects are just suffocating me. It's like I can hear my house accusing me of not working on it, even though I've been making an effort to at least do something each weekend. Some of them I haven't written about yet, but I really have been busy. Unless I'm doing something, I feel incredibly guilty, and as a result, I don't really have any days off. Shayne and I do have a trip to the Smoky Mountains coming up soon, but I'm really feeling like I need some time for me.

So... I'm thinking about going camping on Lake Michigan for a night. I'd like to stay all weekend, but I have some prior commitments on Sunday that I need to honor. The thing is, I already feel guilty for even thinking about not staying home. My house is an evil slave-driver...

But who wouldn't rather spend a day somewhere like this?

So despite the guilt, I suppose my mind is already made up. For now.

More fun with living room paint

I continued my painting spree this morning, and I put a second coat of paint on the living room walls and a first coat of "craft white" on the ceiling. I just can't get over how much brighter and warm the room feels now. Red is classified as a warm color, but something about the copper red made it sort of dreary and depressing. I didn't really notice how dark it was until it wasn't anymore. Stupid, I know, but whatever. I guess I'm a little slow that way. Here are some more pictures. Please ignore the ugly futon and the little stuffed moose.

I'm still going to put one more coat of gold on the walls and one more on the ceiling, but that will be next weekend's project...

Painting the Living Room: Redux

I finally decided that the Roycroft copper red just wasn't what I wanted, so I took my 2 gallons of hubbard squash gold back to Sherwin-Williams and had it shaken up so I could repaint. I only got one coat on yesterday afternoo0n, but the difference is amazing. And, best of all, I'm happy with it. In less than 2 hours, the living room went from this:

To this:

The bright gold just opens the room up and will really show off the woodwork. It feels a little pumpkin-y right now, since the ceiling is still gold as well (soon to be Valspar's Eddie Bauer Bungalow craft white), but I'm thrilled with the way it's turning out. I like the copper red, but I was never comfortable with it. From day one, I wasn't sure if I was really happy with it. Note to self: If you don't immediately love it, it ain't gonna work.

Garden progress

I haven't had much time this summer to work on the garden, and in the flower bed by the back porch the two varities of mint were starting to take over. I was planning on pulling it all out next year, but when I was at Meijer today all perennials were 20% off. They were only $5 to start with, so I picked up a couple Veronica, an obedient plant, a balloon flower, and an ornamental grass for $30. The Veronica is a little sad-looking, but I think it'll come back okay next spring. With all the rain we've had, it was a little waterlogged.


I didn't take a before picture, since it was just that hideous, but here's a picture of the same area last year. Just imagine it with a few more flowers and lots more scraggly mint. LOTS.

And my beautiful Meijer finds (icky mint in the background):

And an hour or so later, after much slaughter of the mint and multiple transplants...

We obviously need more mulch and some kind of border to keep the grass from taking over. The plants are a little wilted and some of them are twisted a bit, since I moved them. I think by next week they'll look better, though. It's not much, but believe me, it's a huge improvement. Now I just need to do something to hide the a/c and get rid of the bundle of coaxial cable...