it's about time!

 I love the color of our living room, but it needs a nice fresh coat of paint.  I am partial to Sherwin-Williams, and no, I don't get a cent to say so.  Their Emerald covers a multitude of sins, makes the walls look so nice.  

Our living room used to have blue carpeting, but Paul and I ripped that up and put in laminate flooring that looks like wood.  It's still nice after all these years, not even sure how many but over ten, maybe 15.   Not perfect, but we still like it.  But:  we never replaced baseboard trim!  You can't really notice, because there's much furniture in here ha, but now that we've gotten rid of some and done things differently, it looks awful.  Since we're supposed to replace all the flooring in the kitchen and living room, and it's been imminent for YEARS now (the kitchen tile has so many cracks...subfloor issues, we replaced the cracked ones and the new ones cracked too.)(I'm a brat, don't want to put LVP down in the kitchen and have it clash with the living room, only want it if we do it all, down the hall too, which still sports blue carpeting, ugh). 

Anyway, life happens, and we don't always get what we want, so we survive.  We can't get new floors, but we can repaint the walls, and put in baseboard trim.  (Why put in new trim when you are going to replace the floors?  that was my mentality for years, but hey, if you're NOT getting new floors, well...get the trim, right?)

So the paint is on sale for 35% off, and I have to pick a color and order a few gallons.  I'm thinking to paint the ceilings too, it always brightens up a room.  

It's a challenge for me to find the middle of the road concerning the house.  I want comfy and welcoming and clean and warm.  I don't need it to be the latest and the greatest.

Happy Homeowners.  If you're just regular people, you can never get ahead.  The appliances take turns breaking, the cars take turns needing expensive fixes, and kids keep needing expensive surgeries.  It would seem that if we just had a little bit more money (or imagine this:  a LOT more money!), things would be so much easier, better, more fun.  Why, we could just replace the refrigerator instead of using a blow-dryer to melt the ice off the seized up blower!  We wouldn't have to tweak the washer all the time, re-spinning the clothes after it throws the F20 ofF28 code!  We wouldn't have duct tape on the broken kitchen tiles, or use an old push mower because it got old, fixing the riding mower every year after mice chewed the wires.  We would buy a new Dyson, and a new mattress, and a new vanity and top and sinks in the main bathroom!  (The bathroom was a DIY dream, but now...more like a nightmare...that burgundy counter was painted gray/blue, with a shiny epoxy finish...which has now turned yellow and sad looking...the oak vanity painted a dark gray (Urbane Bronze), new drawer pulls and spray painted door handles...it looks like someone TRIED.)

No, we make due.  We know that having lots of money doesn't really make people happy. Look at the movie stars, with their multiple marriages and drug problems.  Lottery winners are notoriously unhappier in the aftermath of sudden wealth.  

And, it's all such a smokescreen.  It won't make us happy because we would just want MORE.  The richer, the pickier.   When I was a kid, meat for dinner meant some ground beef in the spaghetti sauce or fried spam with the pancakes.  Payday meant we got a chicken leg.  We got a bag of chips on payday too.  We therefore appreciated things, so much.

So make the most of what you have and be thankful.  I am well aware that we are actually quite well off, considering.  When you think of the living conditions of most people in the world, well, we're okay.  

This fine morning, Sonja, Charlotte Claire, and Camille left to do some work, cleaning and installing insulation.  Paul left for a few hours to do some odd jobs, so I was here alone.  I sat and put my feet up, then got busy.  I vacuumed (which requires taking the vacuum cleaner apart and clearing the clumps of dust and hair, for some reason it just keeps clogging), and mopped, cleaned the bathroom, washed dishes and used soft scrub on the counters.  I vacuumed the furniture and dusted, and straightened up the deck. I turned on the pool filter, and emptied the dehumidifier.  

Then, a second cup of coffee, and ahh, my comfy chair.  Now it's time to move again.  Paul is home, and I'm thinking of taking a swim...

Tomorrow, the beach!  And, Maeve Louise is coming for a visit!