Blue Monday

Yesterday, I did something that I have never done, but have wanted to do my entire life. Not jumping out of a plane, eating a guinea pig, or falling in love with the man of my dreams, as these things have already been accomplished. I painted a room a real color. Its blue. And I did it all on my own. This is huge. My entire life I've wanted colorful walls, but I never had the opportunity. Let me take a moment to blame my mother, because she is absolutely PETRIFIED of pigment. She's the interior decorating equivalent of Henry Ford; "You can have any color of paint you want, as long as its white." Moment over.

Anyway, I documented the process:




Goose-approved hue of blue!





We've been doing quite a bit around the house lately. You would be surprised to see what the yard looks like now that I've got it under control. I hand-tilled all the beds around the house, extracted literally SIX grocery bags full of daylily bulbs and gave them away using freecycle.org, which is a marvelous tool. Trip showed me a while back, and I am thoroughly obsessed with it. Yesterday I found us a really nice Kohler kitchen faucet from nice people for absolutely free.

Also, the other day, Trip and I formulated the novel idea to mouse-proof the house before it gets cold. Ah-Duh. So, because two basement rooms still have dirt floors (disgusting and creepy), we got mold/mildew killer, and he sprayed the entire basement. We are planning on (hopefully soon) filling in the dirt floors with some cheap Quikrete, as thats where the mice are coming in. There are big holes, where possibly a miniature Sasquatch of sorts have passed through. Or perhaps this house was part of the Underground Railroad. He also put new tight-fitting door sweep things in the basement doors, to keep heat in and keep unwanted four-leggies out. What a handy man!

I must mention that we scouted on craigslist some cheap yard tools in Roanoke that we have been desperately needing. Its a little drive, but we headed over on Saturday afternoon to meet these people and see what they had. As it turns out, they are moving from a huge beautiful house to a smaller condo, and are getting rid of most all of their things. The entire family was spectacular, the son saw Woodford in the truck and yelled "Ya'll can bring him inside, thats fine!". Mary, the mother/wife/ex-Fuji blimp pilot absolutely adored Woodford as he just walked around and wagged and played with their disapproving sheltie, Macy. Anyway, Mary showed us all these tools and basically just gave them to us. She was such a nice woman, and she knew we were just starting out with things. Her husband, Bob, sold Trip some much-needed man stuff for quite cheap as well. After describing the house and upcoming projects to Mary, she lit up and handed me 10 gallons of unused paint in every color I actually wanted. I couldn't believe it! Now I can paint the whole freaking HOUSE! It was such a profound gesture that I actually wanted to cry. The past few weeks have been hard. We have very little money, and we have to stretch it like Armstrong. I never thought I would be so happy to receive a pair of garden gloves, but I was, and I am so thankful. But anyway, Trip and I sent them a thank-you card with a Polaroid picture of Woodford for Macy to remember him by. :D

A couple nights ago, Trip fastened our stationary bottle opener in the kitchen. This truly makes our house a home.


Other parts of the little farm house that could:















And this is if you miss Woodford: