Moving Right Along

I've been working on my rental house for a while and little by little, I'm getting things done and making it my own. My family has been a fabulous help. Friends too. We spent last weekend cleaning and painting and doing all sorts of handiwork. By Monday night (I took the day off work to finish painting and such), the dark paneled living room, which offended my senses by totally sucking up every bit of sunlight that came through the windows, was painted a relaxing shade of blue/green/gray called Zen with white trim. I'm proud to say you really can hardly tell it's the same room, especially after Christine and I set up the furniture. Now I just need to find my cream colored curtains (which I had hanging in my house in Rockford 7 years ago but are now somewhere buried in my Abercorn house, sigh) and paint the two big bookshelves that I got from my sister in law's great aunt, which I think will finish off the fireplace end of the room quite nicely.

This weekend my mom and step-dad come back to help me pack up more of my Abercorn house things, a job which is daunting both physically and emotionally for oh so many reasons. Living in two residences at once is confusing and frustrating, especially since I'm still not quite sure when I can move out of Abercorn and into Poplar. My goal is to be completely moved by the time Zan starts school mid-August so that he is going through as little transition at one time as possible. I think that's possible.

As for the Abercorn house, it's officially on the market- sign in the front yard and all that jazz. Disappointingly, we had to list it at less than what we paid for it six years ago- and we finished the basement after that! Financially we'll be taking a big hit, but after looking at how long all the other houses in our neighborhood sat on the market at higher prices before finally selling (and having dropped their own prices down considerably), we decided our only option was to undercut the current sellers from the get-go. So on top of all that we've been doing on the Poplar house, we've been cleaning and readying the Abercorn house for sale. Having spent until 9:30pm tonight scrubbing the walls and other surfaces, I can easily say I'm ready for even just one night where I do nothing!!! Not seeing that in my future any time soon though, LOL. That's okay, all that hard work just keeps me busy and helps me get through this a bit easier.

And now, a little less conversation...
BEFORE- My living room- dark paneling made the room look SOO dark and closed in!! I bought samples of the four blues you see on the far wall and settled on the one second from the left. I then settled in to the task of taping and priming and painting... it took MUCH longer than I expected. But then again, I've always been horrible at estimating how long it will take to get something done.

AFTER- Even though these pics are taken at about 1am (when Christine and I finished moving furniture), I still feel like the room is brighter! I want to get back over there on a really sunny day and take some good natural light pics.

I'm proud to say that I did all the painting and prep work in this room by myself, save the last half of the trim work, which Christine came over to help me with (even though she hates painting- how's that for a friend?! Awesome). The room is definitely a labor of love for me, but I think having done this myself is what makes me like it even more. :)

I have two [currently green] tall bookshelf units that I want to paint a deep chocolate brown to match my furniture- you know, in my spare time, LOL. They will be centered in the space that is on either side of the fireplace.

I also have curtains that will be put up and lots of decorative stuff. Yay, living room!!

I have taken a ton more pics of the entire moving and renovating process and am still deciding what to post. Stay tuned family... :)

Changes

...a rambling blog entry...

My life is going through a good deal of change right now as I transition from a relationship that lasted nearly 17 years, including ten years of marriage and two beautiful children, to that of a single woman and single mother. I'm not sure how much I will share on my blog about my marriage and the end of it... those who know me best know I'm a very private person and the details of this seem like something that should remain between Scott and me alone.

I will, however, post about my life and what I'm doing, how I'm doing and how I'm growing- perhaps more for myself than anything else. I like the idea of keeping a record, something for me to look at as the year draws to an end and see what I have accomplished in my new life. I know that it won't always be easy- in fact, I'm guessing for the first few years I'll be put to the test more often than not. But I'm confident that I can handle whatever comes my way.

I've never been alone before. Never lived alone. This will be a whole next experience for me. Exciting and frightening all at once. I am definitely marveling at my new-found independence and the personal growth it will mean for me. I am in the process of fixing up a little rental house for the kids and me to live in. It gives me purpose and a place to channel my energy and emotion. And, as things look more and more as I want them to, I know I will really start to feel good about it and I hope it will begin to feel like home to me.

Tonight, since the kids are at my dad's for one more night, I headed over to do a little work in the yard. I've always loved the outdoors and working in the yard is what I call my "Zen activity." It helps calm and center me and brings me peace when I'm overly stressed. I love the sounds and the smells and the breeze... could do without the spiders, mosquitoes and 90% humidity, but beggars can't be choosers. Tonight I tackled the front yard. The yard in general is pretty weedy (this is an understatement...). The previous tenants moved out a few months back and though the landlord has mowed regularly, there are still all those weeds that decide they would like nothing better than to take over your yard if you turn your back for more than 30 seconds. And, because the yard is full of so many beautiful shade trees, it is also full of little offshoot saplings which have decided to give it a go in my yard.

Thus, I loaded up my gardening tools and my massive wheelbarrow into my car, headed over and set to work. It was hot and I was covered in dirt and sweat and smushed mosquitoes by the time the sun started setting, but all that didn't matter one bit. I can already see a real difference- gone are all the self-planted mulberry trees which were growing up in the shrubbery and the pine tree. The lily beds are all cleaned out of weeds and are now ready for a few additions which I'll take from my garden at the marital house and then mulch up nicely. I started cleaning out the side beds by the driveway too (though I found some giant spiders and a little patch of poison ivy- both of which slowed my progress by causing me to stop working for a bit) and got about half way down the side of the house. There is a massive overgrowth of mint on the street facing end of the house which I will have to thin- and perhaps have a girls' night mojito party with. But once that's done, it'll be completely clear for planting. I've never transplanted mid-summer before, so it should be interesting.

The backyard will be my next outdoor project. It's a really nice size and full of big shade trees- something my newly built subdivision house didn't have and I've missed dreadfully. It will allow the kids to play outside so much more than the old house ever did. It too is weed and sapling filled. Plus, it has this weird round little garden type thing in the middle which isn't so much a garden anymore but rather a circle of really HUGE weeds. I'm thinking perhaps of turning it into a fire pit area. It would be nice to be able to sit out in the evening and look up at the stars or roast marshmallows with the kids. We shall see. I'm full of ideas, but not of funding, LOL.

On top of yard work, I also have permission (and some funding) from my landlord to do some painting. The living room is a dark paneled wood and I'm itching to brighten it up. Same with the enclosed porch, which just calls for the old Hartman daybed and me with a book on a rainy day. I figure that I can do painting on my free evenings when it's too darned hot to be outside.

More than anything I know that these projects will be good for me. They'll give me purpose and keep me busy. I'm taking pictures of everything as I go along so that I can really see all I've accomplished. They're probably not exciting to anyone but me (and maybe my parents, lol), so I won't post them all that often- just often enough to give you a little peek into my new life.

That's enough for this rambling entry. It's already going on and on, offending my literary senses, LOL.