Photos!

I finally got photos and came out here to show them to you and the &^%$# internet was down. But now all is well again, and here you go. Not finished--not by any means. But getting there--

 This paint color is the color out here in the office studio, and I love it and love the healthy golden glow it has when the sun comes in, so it was the perfect color for this room. It makes the rooms flow together. At first I thought I was going to have bright white so we'd have one room for taking photos and matching colors and stuff, but we never used it for that when it was white, and I hate white walls, so when he asked me what color I wanted it and I realized I had a choice, wow.

 I hadn't planned to have anything done to this wall--it's another project for another day. But Robert didn't want to have different colors in the same room and so said he was going to paint it for me, and I, needless to say, am thrilled. That hideous paneling is going to be disguised. That shape you see up there on the wall is the old original fuse box. It had been painted over several times by the time we bought the house. I like it there and haven't ever thought of having it removed. It's under layers and layers now, and I like to imagine there's something hidden inside. A note, some letters, a photo.

The black trim will be a just-slightly-darker golden-orange color.

 Robert's cousin is doing the painting, and Robert is replacing the siding--it all has to be cut to fit the new windows, like, he said, a jigsaw puzzle.

 Yiiiii~~staging area with all the tools and stuff.

 I don't even breathe on any of this stuff. They put it up every night, all neat and tidy, and it looks like this again every day.

 I'd love to know how old the boards and the felt and everything is--70 years? 80? Who knows?

Love this--our big pine in the front yard, a bit of the copper roof, and gorgeous blue sky--it's 73 today with not a cloud in sight.

People say you need a place to rest your eyes--why they have white rooms in their houses. When I want to look at something that's not orange or hot pink or whatever, this is where I look:

Now I'm getting excited--in every project, whether I'm doing it myself or having it done, there's the anticipation, and then there's the long slog of depression when everything's out of place and dusty and dirty and ugly, and I hate it and think, "OMG, what was I *thinking*? Why did I think I wanted to do this?" and then there's this stage, when you're almost there and it starts getting exciting and you can't wait to get in there and clean up and make everything shiny. I want to do that and then live with it for a couple days, really think about what I want to put back in there and what I want to leave out. It's not going to have as many shelves, so some stuff is going to have to live somewhere else. Over the weekend I'll probably go buy some more throw rugs--the sun has already ruined/discolored parts of the floor and will do even more now, so I'll get throw rugs so I won't notice the yellowed parts. They won't be fancy ones--just cotton ones that can be tossed when they're ruined by the sun. Someday, when I have the kitchen redone, I'll have some other flooring put down, but that's nowhere near the top of the list of projects for Someday. And it will be a long time before I'm ready to do this again. A project like this is something for every 2-3 years, at the most. Maybe every five years~~