With a sickly (feverish) wee one at home awaiting his arrival, Dave (& Jonas) arrived on Sunday to do the hour or so of work that needed to get done before J.J. could (can) finish the floor in the bathroom. A bit of mud, tape, sawdust and vacuuming, and suddenly the room felt like it was ready to move on. (I’ve been ready to move on for weeks, now. But I digress.) The seam between the durock and sheetrock was bound together – though multiple coats of compound still need to be applied – making the room instantly feel more finished. Nothing like plugging up holes to make a room settle a bit. And, after patching a few more spots where attic air could penetrate our cozy little room, and cleaning up the threshold so that a new non-beveled piece of marble could be installed, Dave and Jonas made a date to come back and finish up the carpentry portion of the project.

Gulp. This means that J.J. must finish the floor and back-side of the pony wall before next week (should be simple enough), and I have to get to coating those walls with paint (and more and more compound, truth be told). The further I can get on my own the faster the Team can get to the stuff I can’t do, and the faster the room will get completed. Never before has an hour of time been so meaningful to me. Ok, I’m being dramatic, but you get the idea. The bathroom will soon have something called a sink (oooo!), countertops and, even a toilet (huzzah!). It feels miraculous because this project has lingered for sooooo long. We began the demo (and master closet renovation) in December. Of 2010. We’re now nearing the end of February. (And this is a two week job, people. Max.) And, yes, I realize that all of the extenuating circumstances have led to the job being done in the slowest possible manner. But, to know that a hefty portion of it is on the calendar, and is going to happen. Well, it just lifts my little heart, that’s all.

In other news, I attempted (and failed, mostly) a little DIY project involving some tiny lampshades for the dining room chandelier and some silver paint. I should say glaze, rather than paint, since it’s pretty clear from the result that I didn’t use the right stuff. (I just used what I had leftover from my foray into painting stencils on the bedroom wall.) That said, I like the idea of what I was trying to do (painting the inside of a lampshade in a metallic so that the light shimmers and glows rather than diffuses). It just didn’t really work that well. So, I ended up painting the outer shade with the silver glaze, too. And that sort of helped. But only slightly. Looks nice during the day, but once the light gets turned on, well, it’s a streaky mess. Oh well. The shades were cheap (and also inexpensive), and were not my favorite thing. At all. I may try to get some other paint and try to salvage them, but I may not. The light needs some other love (one of the faux candle-like plastic coverings has broken off), and it may just need to have different shades altogether.

But I thought I should share my failures as well as my successes. I mean, this little blog has become a documentary of sorts, and shouldn’t documentaries include everything that colors the story? If falling on your face doesn’t color you, change you, and make you better in the end, than I don’t know what does. Some pictures, for your amusement, and for your satisfaction. Enjoy!

* Lyrics from Peirson Ross’s The Battle Behind from his Reverse & Ready – Side B album. Both sides A & B are great, by the by. Have a listen here.