Silent Saturday & Light Bulb Dilemmas

Most of the family is gone and I'm home with just Tom who, like most of my menfolk, is not very chatty. I have a whole, quiet Saturday with which to do as I please! What would you do with a Saturday to yourself?

---Have lunch with a friend
---Go to the movies
---Clean house
---do laundry
---Catch up on computer work (AHG....)
---Go shopping
---Visit your favorite LYS (Local Yarn Shop)
---Knit and a. watch TV or
                  b. listen to audio books
---Work on the never-ending home renovations

So far, I have spent the morning reading blogs and watching HGTV. Time to get up and do something a little different!

One thing I know I will do today is find some decent light bulbs for my powder room. The stone guys came yesterday---while I was out, naturally---and installed the countertops in the bathrooms. The one they put in the powder room is beautiful, but I had changed my mind about using it because I didn't think it would work with the colors I had in mind (and actually painted the bathroom the day before!). So now, it's there and I'm sure removing it would be a huge headache. Because it doesn't match the picture in my head and was a disappointment, I have to get used to this new idea and learn to like it. It's probably more beautiful than I can see because I'm not objective, but I am certain that the light bulbs are not helping the situation. The weird LED glow isn't working for me, so I think I'll go buy a couple of different kinds of bulbs to see which ones look best in there. Have you been playing with light bulbs lately? Have you found any of the new ones that you love?

I'll put in a sneak-peak photo of the bathroom. I think there is an LED cool light and an incandescent reveal light in there in this photo! Tell me what you think---about bulbs and the granite. I am actually starting to warm up to it this morning.

Loving My Floors

So sorry I have been absent around here! I have been super busy since we got back from vacation! We had new engineered-hardwood floors installed while we were away. We're also renovating 2 bathrooms, and I expected it all to get done in one week, but I guess that was naive. In any case, I've been putting in lots of sweat-equity by caulking and painting alllll the baseboards----and since I'm an idiot and changed paint colors, I have to do every blessed bit of trim on the main floor. :-)

My first foray into caulking baseboards was fun, but tiring. Honestly, I'm sick to death of sitting on the floor and sliding around every couple of minutes, dragging my caulk gun or paint can  and floor protection with me! Instead of being a reasonable person and taking breaks to do restful things like blogging, I just keep plowing through until it's dinnertime. Today I called it quits at 4 p.m. with just one long wall behind the sofa ^ to finish. 

Caulked but not painted yet.

If my helper had been here to tape it off for me, I might have made the effort to finish it, but I just didn't have the mental fortitude to tape off anymore!

The pile of boxes behind her is from putting all our books in the "new" library.

She helped in the dining room yesterday, and I'm thrilled to say that room and the library are done! We painted all the wainscoting AND the windows. (but we're not going to talk about the crown molding!) And we still need to put curtains up, drawers in the china cabinet, stuff on the shelves....but the painting is finished!

This is a good representation of the floor color. I'm slowly falling in love with them...it's taking a little while simply because I have so much work to do that I can't really enjoy them yet. Every time I get to bring more furniture up from the basement, I like them a little more!

Here's the finished library (except for the window. and the crown molding.) We moved all the bookshelves from the smaller library (which is now the Office) to the living room where they could all be lined up against one wall and be more aesthetically pleasing. So much better than it was before!

I am such a Renovation Newbie! I have learned a lot, some of it the hard way, and I expect I shall learn still more before this part is finished, and then comes the basement. It's fun, but HARD---mentally and physically. 

Vacation Tally

Sunny Beach Days: 7

Sunburns: 1---Learned my lesson on day 2. That 2.5 mile walk on the beach can outlast your SPF!

Books Read: 3.5. 

     Philippa Gregory's A Constant Princess about Henry VIII's first wife, Catherine of Aragorn

     Philippa Gregory's The Other Boleyn Girl---not finished yet.

     Orphan Train.

     The Life-changing Magic of Tidying Up

Knitting Projects Completed:  1 Honey Cowl finally completed while knitting in the car. I knit only about 5 rows while actually at the beach. Books took precedence!

Household Renovations Completed:  1---Gorgeous new engineered hardwoods installed throughout the main floor. 

Bathrooms still need to be completed.