ground wires.

An impulse buy is gum not a $900 crystal chandelier.

Yesterday I bought a $900 crystal chandelier that even came with a certification of authenticity... like I don't know what a chandelier looks like... It's authetic with or without a signed document.

My dad called yesterday from a quick weekend trip to Santa Barbara and offered to help work on the house. He came over today and spent 8 hours installing new outlets because I wanted black ones not white ones that stood out against the dark color scheme. James and my dad kept taking man trips to the hardware store. We paid him in cheeseburgers but I think he was just happy to help. My dad loves to work around the house but since he and his wife finished their version of Winchester mystery house, he doesn't even get to mow the lawn as there is a gardner to do that.

On Wednesday, the washer and dryer are delivered that I wanted but mostly I am just excited to do laundry... Even my painting clothes are getting too dirty to wear. In preping the laundry room to paint that I discovered my least favorite activity ever would be stripping wall paper. In fact, I asked James to bitch slep me should I ever suggest wall papering a room. A root canal feels like a trip to Disneyland compared to stripping wall paper. I am sure jail house gang rape would even be more fun. In other words, after 3 hours of my whining, James took over the wall paper stripping until he too gave up and we decided to just sand it off.

The dining room is nearly done. It is a dark pond scum color with a lighter pond scum trim. The original hardwood floors are in perfect condition. I got 4 foot tall candle holders, a metal wine rack, and a huge painting. My vision is a traditional formal dining room with a huge chandelier and all.

I stripped out 60 years of linoleum out of the laundry room. Who knew a romantic gift would be a belt sander? James showed up with one the other night and it was almost the nicest thing anyone had ever given me. I chiseled and sanded down to the subfloor. Since it was in great condition, I applied a sanding sealer, sanded more, applied 4 coats (leaking water healer was to blame for 2 applications), and applied 3 coats of a clear varnish. This project probably took 20 hours.

While I was sanding the laundry room floor, James was restoring the fireplace after having chiseled off the pink marble tile. It looks amazing against the green walls.

We're going to try to get the living room done this week. I have to have the laundry room done by Wednesday which is doable as I got the wood base boards cut and insalled today. The waist high wood work was painted rust colored and the upper walls will be painted and almond color.

I am so tired. Typing that out and realizing I had left off the 8 hour errand running session on Saturday to Ikea, various hardware stores, Home Expo, etc. etc. etc. I am sleeping... I wish I could say for a very long time but alas, I have to work tomorrow.