Open to possibilities

I don't know about you-all, but having that extra hour of daylight this weekend was wonderful. Regardless of the weather, daylight savings just makes everything feel so open and airy. Life seems open to possibilities, again, for the first time since fall.

Friday evening, I stood beaming and brimming in the driveway as Patrick left for a gig. Brimming with gratitude. The snow cover was finally gone, it was sixty-five degrees, and I spent a totally ecstatic half-hour walking around with my camera, gaping.

Some things I remember from last summer-- the blueberry bushes, for example-- and some things hold a full measure of mystery in each tightly sheathed bud.

I opened all the doors, and let the evening's warm air chase away the pent-up paint fumes.

And I made sure I got a real good, true-to-life, naturally-lit shot of my flower wall. I didn't make much progress on it this weekend, but that's okay. I did other things.

I spent Friday night in the stairwell, priming wainscoting and taping off trim. And smiling like a goofball.

Let the resurrection begin!

(Oh, and the shower curtain? Our house is short one door, and a shower curtain does a surprisingly good job of holding in heat, when the rest of the house is 48 degrees and you want to spend the afternoon unpacking boxes in your craft room.)

Saturday morning, Patrick and I tag-teamed the stairwell. What a lot of wall!

The color we chose is one I've had a little crush on for a few months-- Behr Baked Brie. I sure am glad we bought two gallons, because this was the scene after one coat.

Amazing, isn't it, how you can totally tell the upper stairwell was blue, and the lower stairwell was orange?

After a second coat (which I executed by myself, Sunday morning) things were looking much better.

Yes. And, I must say, my honey did a really kick-ass job patching that drywall. Oh, my goodness. Remember what it looked like before? Now, you can barely see the patch where Patrick married two pieces of drywall of different thicknesses with a whole lot of patient bracing and patching and scraping and sanding. I think he's worked on that gap part of every weekend for the past month. And now it's done.

I love how it looks with the white trim and dark doorknobs. So understated and classed-up.

Touch-ups are going to happen next weekend, along with (hopefully) at least a first coat of paint on the wainscoting.

Patrick's job of the day was some sanding in preparation for floor refinishing. It took him the entire day-- a solid five hours -- to finish one room, so the project is going to be a long time in the making. Anyone want to meet us in Gilbertsville next weekend for a "fun" day of sanding? No? Shucks.

I also slapped a second coat of paint on the laundry room.

We caught this paint on sale. It's FreshAir Tranquil Pond, which used to be carried by Home Depot. When they discontinued the line, they were selling gallons for $10 apiece. We jumped on that.

Here's the other side of the room.

Next Friday, our brand new stackable washer and dryer are being delivered. Originally, we thought we'd just employ the washer and dryer that came with the house--they're in fine shape, but unfortunately of the space-hogging, non-stackable variety. Once installed, our new stacked set will live just to the left of the cabinets here.

We did quite a bit of legwork trying to find the best deal on new appliances. We knew this was the time of year to shop-- actually, President's Day weekend, appliances were marked down everywhere we looked-- but it took awhile for the prices to come down to our level. As in, we just aren't the type to be enticed by ten or fifteen percent off. We wanted the big, fat, juicy discount, baby, and we were prepared to schmooze, canoodle, counter-offer, gently persuade, reason, remind, and research to that end. Eventually, though, the interwebs gave us what we were looking for. Viva la interwebs!

Daylight savings time, a freshly painted stairwell, a freshly painted laundry room, and a new washer and dryer to anticipate. Life is pretty okay. We're going to get through this, and it's going to be awesome.