Past the point of no return

For a house that is being constantly worked on, this place sure is a wreck. I use to be a fairly organized and scheduled person as far as keeping up with mundane daily chores and keeping the house looking nice and cozy, but now any sense of schedule and organization has gone right out the window (and a nice looking, cozy home is just a distant memory now). It's driving me insane! Nearly every closet, every drawer, every space needs attention. Several corners of our home are filled with paint cans, miscellaneous tools, filled Lowes bags (door hinges in one, wood repair items in another, plumbing products in yet another and so on). Let's not even mention the garage. Mopping our old linoleum in the kitchen is about as effective as sweeping a sandbox. I'm desperate to get the projects done that we need to get done before our wood floors are installed in March. I feel like if we can at least have a nice normal floor instead of the now plywood in the living room and hall and the old linoleum in the kitchen, it will start feeling like a *clean* home again. *sigh* Will we ever get through this? If so, I will never, ever, ever do this again. At least not with three young children. Can you say 'chaos', boys and girls?

Now before you ask me if I'd like some cheese with my whine, on a positive note, we have been getting things done around here. It feels like we're shoveling dirt with a spoon, but we are shoveling none-the-less. Back *last* November or so, I started texturing the living room walls. It took me forever, but I finished them and painted them and glazed them - and then didn't like the way it turned out. Despite the way I sound in the paragraph above, even though I sometimes *feel* like giving up or giving in, I'm usually the kind of person who keeps plugging away until the job gets done right. SOOOOO, that means that I re-textured the living room walls using a different technique that I like much better, plus it's not quite as time consuming. It DOES take a lot of time though, because there are several steps involved. I'm trying to make the walls look like old pitted walls. For the most part, the walls are smooth except for random pits here and there. Anyway, the living room is complete except for some light sanding. Then I'll need to prime it and paint it. The kitchen wall texture is nearly done, too...just a couple of small walls left to do.

On Saturday, Jeff got the plumbing moved for the toilets new location. The plumbing is all moved, but the toilet hasn't been reinstalled yet because we have tiling to do in there. For now, the five of us are using our half bath. What FUN!

I guess there's no where to go but forward. It can't get much worse here - only better, I hope. One day this little run of the mill house *will* be a cozy, fresh, and CLEAN little cottage:)