electric mist

still painting...

You know the story, "If You Give a Mouse a Cookie..." he's going to want a glass of milk. Well, if you give us a little project, it's just going to keep growing, because when we get one thing prepped, it just makes sense to go ahead and do the area next to it. Especially if it's raining and raining and raining and there's nothing for the workers to do and we hate for them not to make some hours for an entire week.

So. I have finished all of the painting for Carl's new office. He has finished the staining of the hand railing, which should go up today or tomorrow. Meanwhile, I am getting DOORS!!! in my office. My office used to be the formal dining room, which we immediately converted to office space prior to moving in by building in wall-to-wall bookshelves. There was a door from the office to the kitchen, which usually stayed open because it was a solid door and the first thing everyone did when they walked into the house was open it to see if I was in the office. Plus, I just hated not being able to see if someone was walking up to that door -- particularly if I was writing -- I would jump, startled, every time they yanked the door open. On the other side of the room is an open double-door-sized archway into the foyer. No doors, and all of the noise from the living room (TV, guests, etc.) barrelled into my office, almost as if the acoustics of the house intended to deafen anyone in the then-dining room. Carl was so happy about his office, and the first time he sat in there and was able to shut his door to close out the sound / traffic, he realized what I had been dealing with and said, "We're doing your doors next." I thought "next" meant way later, like next month, because we are both a little tired and we really ought to be getting back to the normal construction work, but Mother Nature has been dumping the entire Gulf on us for the whole week, so nothing else could be done anyway. As of last night, I have French doors in both places in the office. I am knocking off the fuzzies / burrs in the wood with steel wool and I'll be painting all day. (And while Carl was at it, that whole give a mouse a cookie thing... he is finishing out the molding in the foyer.) All of the trim is white in our house, which started not because I am a white-trim fiend, but because the original builder of this house used white-primed MDF wood for a lot of the molding. I love natural woods, and one day, if we ever do build, I would love to have all of the moldings and built-ins made from fabulous woods, like cherry or walnut.

I promise there will be photos soon. I do have before photos of the office, so there will be before / after. The only "before" photo I have of Carl's office is prior to us moving in, but you'd be able to see the boring color and lack of molding and then I think the change is very nice.