Inch by Inch

Can a woman go mad from lack of creativity?!? I think so. Because I am. And Have been.

How much longer can I take living in dust and grime with absolutely no "pretties" surrounding me?! I go shopping and seriously want to buy the entire store. I stayed at Target for three hours today-just oogling, drooling, and touching the pretty things-and it took every ounce of strength I could muster not to leave having spent our already dwindling savings on stuff we don't need. Just because it was shiny. Or soft. Or pink.

I do have pretty things. I am pretty sure I do. I think I remember having them once... A long time ago.

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There are happy times ahead though, at least this is what I tell myself. The Amishmen are through here, even though they are leaving a few "mistakes" (check out the cream colored corner in the photo below) and LOTS of mess behind. We are apparently the cleaning crew, which means that now comes the hard (and sneezy) part.

On Friday the "mens" left for the day and I celebrated their absence by planning a big surprise for Matt, namely: a cleaned, orderly living room complete with fresh flowers. A glimpse of days gone by. How life used to be. I rolled up my sleeves (or would have had it not been 90 degrees) and set to work.

The living room floor took sweeping two times, vacuuming the cracks, and mopping three times before the floor looked nice. This required first moving all the junk, toolboxes, and furniture OUT of the room. The clean floor then called me to bring all the living room furniture in. Vacuumed the sofa and beat all the cushions. Furniture polished and shined the wood. Washed windowsills.

All this for one room! But what a feeling, to sit upon an upholstered, soft, cushy surface once again...a luxery after having only four hard wood chairs or the floor.

Here it is, in all it's glory.

Ignore the lack of curtains, the empty shelving and the peeking other room. Please, and thank you.

Some more reasons to be thankful:

* A hideous stairway turned much less hideous with the placement of a beautiful rug runner. *sigh* Happy thoughts. Happy toes.

* A husband who comes home and sets to work on the outside projects. My how the yard has cleaned up!

* HOT water for showers-we ARE getting up in the world!

* A washer and dryer hooked up-all my own!!!! No more hauling laundry!

And~ a bath tub. Empty and clean.

Just LOOK how clean and white made much less impressive with the lacking 'before' photo. I had convinced myself that I couldn't bare the thought of taking 'before photos' of the house mess and chaos we have been living in-but as soon as I saw this photo I regretted not having one.

Imagine: Cardboard. Sawdust. Steel buckets and old waxrings for toilets. Random broom handles. Screws. Nuts. Bolts. Plumbing pipe. Tape-new and used. Dirt. Stones. and Wood. The junk filled the tub up completely.

Believe it or not: I tackled this bathroom as soon as I was done the living room. And then, I practically went comatose.

Now let's see: only 5 more rooms to go...