August Update

Howdy! We're back from our travels and our guests have left, and boy has it been forever since we've posted. There are many new things I've been meaning to blog for a while, so let's get right to them, shall we?

I'll start with the biggest news first, or at least, the biggest project. While my Mom was here, she painted our guest room/craft room. Yes, you read correctly, while she was a guest in our house, actually using the guest room, she painted the room. She is awesome. Thank you, Mom. This is a project we'd wanted to have done for some time, but we kept putting it off because....well, you read this blog & know what happens here. But Mom was ready for the challenge.

We had a variety of thoughts on color; I had previously wanted this room to be a periwinkle that I had seen in a friend's office, but after the change in the pink room (to dark blue) I wasn't sure if that was still going to work. We tried out a couple of paint samples that we had and ruled out both colors, deciding that the "French Lavender" was too bright and the "Spring Green" was too dark.
This shot also gives you a sense of how the room color needs to be OK with the blue room (and also the dining room, since there's also a door between this room and the dining room).

I think it's also the best shot I have here that portrays the original color of the room, which I had come to describe as the color of an old Band-Aid, fabric kind. I thought initially that it was sort of a neutral color, but after a while (this room was my office when we first moved here) I came to loathe this color and its ace-bandage-ish tone.

The room also featured a wallpaper border up by the ceiling:

It was sort of bland; we didn't realize until we were up on the ladder that it's actually textured. The worst part is that our ceilings are VERY high. So we were going to be scraping wallpaper up high above our heads, working on ladders. This part was not fun. Using a lot of vinegar and a ladder was had to lean up against the wall, we managed to get the thing down:


But we realized that we couldn't paint using a ladder that we leaned against the wall. We discovered that Taylor Rental near us would rent a ladder (just $12! who knew?) and then we were also able to borrow one from our fabulous next-door-neighbor, so it all worked out.

Mom did the vast majority of the painting. After about 5 minutes of painting, I came to the conclusion that I do not like, nor am I good at painting. But Mom did a very professional job, getting a coat on the ceiling, doing the color, touching up trim, and painting all of the baseboards (which really needed it).

Here's an after shot so you can get a sense of the color.
What's that down in the lower portion of the picture, you ask? I'm so glad you asked! It's Ella Fitzgerald!


My lovely friend Gab gave me this switchplate ages ago, and I brought it with me when we moved. I just hadn't found the right place for it. This is totally the right place! Hooray!

OK, here are a couple more shots of the new walls:


We're very happy with the color. Thanks, Mom!

That's all for tonight. I hope to post more soon.

Furniture Updates

My Mom has been asking to see some photos of new additions to 83 Durant. Last fall, you may remember that we got a new dresser for the guest room/craft room (formerly known as Bridget's office). It is finally all full and (relatively) well-organized.


It is pretty full of supplies for various projects. Here, for instance, is the top drawer:

I clearly have some work to do.

Lucy LOVES coming in here, opening the bottom drawer (which is filled with her craft supplies) and finding new treasures for her projects.

We also picked up a few pretty things during the holidays that we've added to the dining room built-in. Here it is:
If you'd like to play one of those fun "find the different things" games, you can check out an earlier entry on the built-in here.

See if you can find:

• My new teapot from Jake
• My new teacups with Ginko leaves from Jake
• The new GIANT martini-shaker that was once my grandmother's
• Set of six gold-rimmed German glasses

That's all for now. More updates soon. We're in the process of excavating -- getting rid of old stuff and attempting to organize things a bit. It's almost February! Yikes!

Transitions and Retirements

The Transition Team here at 83 Durant has been very busy. We've done a major re-arranging that we hope will be an improvement. We've moved Bridget's Office out of the Office/Guest Room and combined it with Jake's Office in the front room. So now the front room is full of bookshelves and a desk with our two computers on it. It's now the Office Office. The room gets a lot of light and is a nice workspace. We're thinking that one day we might try to get one big hulking library-like kinda table for the center of the room, but for now, while we try out this arrangement, we're using Jake's desk. So far, so good.

The room formerly known as Bridget's Office/Guest Room is now just a Guest Room. But Bridget's old desk is still in there, so now it's sort of becoming a craft room or project room. As well as a guest room. So crafty guests will feel particularly welcome. I'll try to get some Office Office and Guest Room pictures up at some point.

Update: Here's the Guest Room, specifically the new "Project Area":


In retirement news, we've retired a few of the large plastic objects that were cluttering our dining room. Lucy's ExerSaucer and her Leapster thingy have officially been put into basement storage. This frees up a lot of room in the dining room, providing more space for playing with the kid and dog, or for the kid to play with the dog.

Also retiring, after a long and much-loved service, is the Duck Tub. We all loved the duck tub. We brought it with us on vacation, we used it as a baby pool, we used it as a baby sled. But Lucy has outgrown the Duck Tub, and it has developed a bit of a leak. So we've upgraded to the Tub Bumpers that Ma and Pa got Lucy for Christmas. They provide a bit of cushioning for Lucy's sometimes wild antics in the full-sized tub. She really loves the bathtub, and gets very angry when she is taken out of it.

Warning: Explicit Content: You may not want to read any farther if you are squeamish about bodily functions or are uncomfortable reading about human poop. But we feel this is a service we are providing to other uninformed new- or future-parents. This can happen to you. End Warning.

Recently, we've had to take her out of the tub rather abruptly, as she has developed a very unfortunate habit of pooping in the tub. During her first year or so of life, I'd say Lucy pooped in the tub maybe three times. You should be so lucky all the time. In the past month, we've had "Code Brown" incidents with shocking regularity. When we were in Washington, we were charmed by Lucy's Ma singing a little song, "poop in the tub!" in a sweet voice when this happened. This truly tells you the difference between parents and grandparents. While grandparents are placid and even cheerful and laughing about tub-pooping incidents, parents (or at least these parents) find it to be cause for yelling and using words we shouldn't use around a kid who's learning about new words.