This is how it starts.

Now that I own my house (along with my stupid mortgage company, that is) and my roommate has moved out, I have started the process(es) that need to happen before Mom moves in. Definitely the carpet in the living room needs to be replaced. Not only is it likely the original carpet in the house (built in the 70s) but former roommate's dog not so completely house trained. Originally I was thinking we'd just do that and new floor in the kitchen/dining room (original vinyl, avocado green and fake wood grain) but it occurred to me that it won't cost so much more to do the rest of the house at the same time. That thought meant I packed up everything I own in the other three rooms of the house (roommate had all the living room furniture) and stuck it in the garage. (I'm using the bedroom that will be Mom's, it's not getting new carpet as she doesn't want carpet. It has a concrete floor that will be getting refurbished and painted. Yes, I think it's going to be really cold in the winter. She says that's what throw rugs are for.)

The next thing that thought meant was considering scraping the popcorn ceilings while there is no furniture in the rooms, and flooring that is going away. THAT lasted as long as it took for me to try a spot, discover that the ceilings must have been painted at some point, so the whole getting them damp to scrape thing wasn't working. Which lead to Plan B, repainting the ceilings.

Which lasted long enough to paint the living room ceiling. After two passes and 1.5 gallons of paint, I looked at the ceilings in the other rooms and decided they weren't so bad as all that.

What happened next? I bought a new coffee maker and toaster. They're stainless steel and lime green. What could THAT possibly lead to, you might ask? Well, the lime green just doesn't go so well with the vintage mint green currently on the walls. And since I decided that means I need to paint and also change the back splash ... then I might as well finally do something about the cabinets. Which aren't totally hideous but the wood is kind of dry and also very grubby from former roommate whose personal hygiene was about on par with dog's house training. BTW, every woman I've told this story to nods immediately and understands why I have to paint. Every man but one has looked at me like I'm crazy.

I Googled for some vintage color inspiration and came up with this.

While I wish I could get me some lime/apple green counters, that won't be happening anytime soon. Also I think this is too much white, so I am going to go with white for the main part of the cupboards, turquoise for the doors. Lime green for the top part of the wall along two edges of the room, turquoise on the rest. I know Mom thinks this is too much color, but I LIKE color.

Now you would think this is enough for anyone, right? Of course not! The next thing is the bathroom that will be Mom's bathroom. We had planned to paint (it's yellow, she wants light green). I wanted to change the fixtures (light switch, etc.) and had decide on white porcelain. Simple but pretty. While shopping on eBay, I came across towel bars that are brushed nickel with white porcelain accents.

Which led me to look at the current light fixture and decide it's hideous. Which led me to buy a brushed nickel light fixture at Home Depot because my guy says he can easily install it.

White Rabbit

It's March 1st, so that's White Rabbit. 

I used to work with a lady (Kay) who had this thing with her mom. On the first day of each month, they would try to be the first one to call the other and say "White Rabbit." My other co-worker, Hipty, and I added our own twist: on the last day of the month, you want to be the first one to say Black Rabbit. On Halloween, it's Black Skeletal Rabbit. We further added that if you aren't the person who said it first, you tell the other person that they suck. I'm pretty sure it was me that added that, he beats me to the punch a lot. Even though we haven't worked together for a long time, we stay in touch and still do this frequently. I think I should call him later and see if I can win this month.

If Kay ever explained to me how this got started, I can't remember. I should Google it.

I'm back on the blog because my sister is considering starting a blog for Haven in the Hollow. Her yard is an officially sanctioned bird and wildlife refuge, and she gardens prolifically. I'm very envious of her as she lives in northern Iowa, where wonderful brightly-colored birds are native to the area and/or live there a good part of the year. She gets birds such as the indigo bunting, Baltimore orioles, humming birds and CARDINALS! We see plenty of hummingbirds when we camp in the mountains but most of the those other birds never come out here. I have heard a few reports of random cardinals in Colorado, so maybe someday... We have lots of brown birds here, such as the bazillion sparrows that visit my bird feeder.
In any case, while I was messaging with her about Blogspot, I came to my blog and realized I haven't written in almost a year. I get these bugs about it and have good intentions of blogging more regularly, then life and Facebook and Pinterest get in the way.Now I'm back and having intentions again!

A lot has happened in the past year. I managed (by the skin of my teeth - and where does THAT expression come from, anyway?) to refinance the mortgage by myself. That means that after August, my roommate will be moving out and my mom will be moving in. We're all full of plans to put in new carpet (a MUST) and paint the outside of the house as well as a couple of rooms inside. I have to get a baseboard heater installed in the room that Mom will be using, as it currently has no heat. Can I just mention that heating a house with electric baseboard heaters is perhaps the stupidest idea ever? There is no forced air and the heaters are all under windows, so guess where most of your heat goes? Unless I won the lottery, there is no way to convert to having a furnace, as there is NO duct work in the house at all.

The even bigger change for me is that the company I had worked at for 28 (holy crap!) years closed in August of last year. The accounts were sold to another print company in Boulder, and as I tease my old boss, I was sold as well. I'm of course happy to still have a job (printing is not exactly a booming industry) but it has been and continues to be a huge adjustment for me. I had been almost fully in charge of my old company for the past few years. Now I'm just doing customer service and I'm in charge of NOTHING. Apparently I have control issues. Who knew?