Fear not. I am away, yet not; I'm just in another room. Painting again.

Yes, after six years of living here, I am finally tackling the enormous problem that is The Scourge Of The Beige.

Yep, I'm finally working on painting the living room, foyer, and reading room. Since these rooms are all open to each other, they need to be the same color if at all possible. (Those of you who have been to our house are probably thinking, "Don't you need to do the kitchen as well?" The answer to that is yes, but that room has floor-to-ceiling wallpaper and will be dealt with eventually. Just not now.)

Given that my spouse is having A Really Long Month at work, I'm trying to be nice by not destroying the main living areas of our house. Therefore, I'm attempting reasonability, in the form of working on only one wall at a time. If I tackle a wall, it is completely done—repainted, trim work done, tape taken down, outlet covers replaced and furniture moved back home—before Jeff drags in at $random_late_hour.

Today: the wallpaper border in the foyer. Conquer that, and I get to repaint the entire foyer today.

For those of you wanting the Cliffs Notes version of the paint saga:

• Before, as seen from the kitchen
• Before, as seen from the front door
• During-slash-after, as seen from the kitchen (the room is not completely done, but you can't see the unpainted wall from this vantage point)

For those of you morbidly fascinated with painting, putting off doing real work, or amused by cat photos:

• Yep, looks like I smeared wet avocados on the wall
• Note the kitty in the window—hi, Tenzing, you nosy little brat.
• Looks better with mantel decorations. Mmmm, poinsettias. There's more to add later, but this is a start.
• I moved the furniture. Edmund whined.
• While I stood on the ladder, painting, Edmund sat on the back of the couch and complained to me for messing with his world.

It's gonna be worth it. I knew it as soon as the first wall dried; suddenly all the white trim stood out and the red poinsettias looked bright and luscious against the gray-green, and our furniture no longer blended into the wall. (Just remind me of this project's worth as I take all the bookshelves down from the walls of the reading room, then scrub all the resulting green paint and wallpaper paste out of my hair.)

After that, a simple little invention: white cup hooks, screwed into the ceiling. Tiny little things that will blend into the ceiling, but which will do one thing wonderfully well: hold up Christmas lights.

Not that I'm planning for PHE or anything.

Nah. I'd never do anything like that. Seriously. I'm a seat-of-the-pants kind of girl.

Why are you laughing?

:P

Aside to you-know-who: thanks for pointing me to Joey Negro. That eighty-minute Southport mix has been rocking out the living room for a couple of days now. Deep disco/old-school house music. Cheesy groovitude, and plenty of it free for download.