Musings on a Small Life

I tend to feel a bit guilty (maybe not quite the right word) for posting about life's trivialities when there is so much tragedy and suffering in the world. As if only the Big Things count, when of course life is made up of mostly day to day routines, the little things. Below: Friday's late evening sky.   Regardless, here are a few little things from the past week: Yes, I did another round of decluttering. Eight boxes, one giant contractor bag and one extra-large garbage bag filled with stuff I really don't need/use. I was spurred on by John's recent posts about packing for his impending move, and my own impending (temporary) packing for the floor reno in a few weeks. As you can no doubt tell, I spent most of the weekend painting, this time some of the new interior doors that were installed in the summer.    I got the basement door and the hall bifold door done on Saturday, though admittedly only the outside of the bifold door was painted. I can't remove it myself t...

The installer, who is doing extra work for me, was here last Thursday evening and then Friday afternoon to do the entryway flooring (same as the kitchen). It looks good, though I still have the floor covered in tarps, as my hall closet needs the bi-fold door put on and the basement door replaced (pending). I was cross about the extra dings in the walls that needed to be patched afterward, though! He's very hard on the drywall!   Below, George (a neighbour's cat for those who might be new to the blog) doesn't care about the renos, he just wants his Fancy Feast and Greenies.     The installer has a full schedule this week, so I'm not expecting him out to finish the downstairs. I hope he'll be able to get things done before the end of the month, though! In the meantime, I've been continuing the painting. What else would I do with my Sundays? 🙄   This past weekend I ended up painting the lower hallway, which wasn't in my "plan." But because I'd ha...

The Labour Day holiday is supposed to be a rest from one's labours, but not in my case this year. Nicki in the garden at the end of August. No, this year I decided I'd better use the leftover gallon and a half of paint from May and redo the guest room, be done with it. So Saturday I ran around doing the usual post-payday errands (we get paid only once a month), and Sunday I put two coats of paint on the walls of the guest room, though only one coat in the tiny closet. Part of the mess after coat #1. Monday I headed out early for some groceries, then got back late in morning to clean the room as well as the entire upstairs, and put things back in order. I also rounded up a few boxes and bags of stuff for donation, got that hauled to the garage and pick-up scheduled for later this month. Tuesday I was home from work, having significantly aggravated a nerve in my back, which left me unable to sit or lie down comfortably. I'm better today (Wedne...

It's our long Victoria Day weekend in Canada, the start of the summer tourist season. So what else would I be doing but this? Dear gods, I loathe painting. With every fibre of my being, and beyond any words in any human language. This is the spare room adjacent to the master bedroom, and it had been the bright greeny-yellow you can see in the snapshot above for a long time. I'm in the process of slowly repainting the house in a completely neutral shade ("bleached linen" by Behr), and so help me god, once I'm done, I'm never painting in this house again.  Last year I had done one of the back spare rooms plus part of the upper hallway. This year it was the room above, and as I'd bought 3 gallons, I have plenty leftover to do something else--either the guest room (but probably I won't) or the main level hall closet and hallway (I'm leaning to this). There was a time when I would paint and then have a beer, hard cider or glass of wi...

This is the spare room on the outer side of the unit, across the hall from the guest room. I wanted to repaint it last year, to a neutral colour instead of the green, but didn't get to it. As of 1 PM EDT, I've got coat #2 done. I'm almost 100% sure it will need a third coat, or at the very least significant touch-ups. Life lesson #643: Unless you can hire professionals to come in and do the work for you, don't paint your walls anything other than the lightest shade on the paint chip, whatever the preferred colour. Otherwise you'll need a lot of paint to re-cover it! (Or unless you actually enjoy painting...which I most definitely, emphatically do not .) For those of you who have a holiday today as well, I hope you're doing something fun! Feel free to come over and help me finish up. Beer and cider in the fridge, not much in the way of food (other than fruit), but I know how to call or go online for take-out.  ;-) "Obligatory" pics of ...

Even if it's just a very small painting project! Since I never was able to get the counter top replaced (because 1. he never did get back in touch after he and his wife went on vacation and 2. the funds all went for Derry's dental on March 31), I took it into my head to prime the "island" today, to at least cover the ugly green and in prep for (maybe) putting a coat or two of suitable paint on it. That was coat #3 of 6. It took only a few minutes to paint it, of course, but an hour to dry between each coat. I had a fan blowing on the area to help things along, but it's seriously hot today and the house is an oven. It probably would have dried super-fast without any help. Beats me what colour to paint it now. Maybe just white. I don't care anymore. This was enough to make me realize that I do NOT want to put the time and effort into repainting the rest of the counter or heaven forbid the old doorless cupboards. Anyway, the boys have bee...

I've done oh, about 2 purchase orders in my 13+ years here, and only one with our new system. Which might be why I currently have a big red X in the upper right hand corner of the one I'm trying to put through, beside the word "pending."  I figure that's a sign to just step away from the keyboard. And email for help! *** No word from the mattress store re: bed delivery yet. I realized that I'm attached to the outcome--i.e. having it delivered this Saturday (it'll be two weeks, after all), so that means it likely won't show up. *** And as a "hurrah, finally!", I finished painting the guest room closet on Sunday. Just shy of 6 weeks from starting on the room, back on New Year's Day. I am so sick of painting, I can't even tell you how sick. And there's still so much to do, so much fiddly stuff (doors and old trim) that I'm just going to stick my head in the proverbial sand and ignore it all. As I've done f...