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April 1, 2007
HOME DEPOT, IKEA, AND A CELERY GREEN WALL
Or, why it's dangerous for a writer not to have a deadline breathing down her neck!
I feel a bit reluctant to mention this after Beth's fabulously flattering intro ("Phenom," she says! I must share that with my 5 year old. As in, "Your mother the phenom says to clean your room!" Might work ...), but my next contractual deadline isn't until September. Considering some of the deadlines I've hit in the past, September feels like eons away! Especially since I'm already part way into the book, thus lessening the daily page count required for maximum sanity retention.
In other words, I'm not currently under that horrible malady that writers call "deadline dementia." Which means
that I have guiltless hours that can be spent doing something other than writing. It means I have time to play with my kids. It means I have time to take out the trash and do laundry (that, perhaps, is technically a downside). It means that I have time to think about fixing up the house.
Seriously, for the last few years I've had a pretty heavy writing schedule (and before that, a pretty heavy lawyer-plus-writer schedule). But last year, I knew that I wanted the first part of this year to be relatively deadline free. My reason? We adopted a three-year old daughter last October, and I wanted the first chunk of this year to be about home and family, not work, especially since I wasn't sure how easy the transition would be for our new daughter, our five year old, or the family as a whole. As it's turned out, everything has been wonderfully easy, seamless, fabulous. But since I didn't know that seven months ago, I planned for downtime. That, frankly, is one of the things I love about being a writer. I may not be in charge of covers or print runs, but I do at least of the illusion of control over my schedule.
Also in anticipation for the arrival of Daughter Number Two, my husband and I sacrificed our master bedroom. We moved to one of the smaller rooms and turned the master into a playroom. Unfortunately, the spare room we moved into had previously been the "extra" room. And into the extra room had been dumped all of our extra stuff.
And since I'm a writer and my husband is a librarian, our extras tend toward books. Tons of books. Books that take up four walls of bookshelves. In the smallest room in the house. Now with a kingsize bed.
Yikes.
Double yikes when you realize that getting into bed requires shifting sort of to the left so as to avoid whacking your side on the bookshelf. So one of my major "to do" projects has been to buy a bazillion bookcases, make a wall of books in the living room, and make the bedroom for the bed, a dresser, and a tv. Period. (I should probably add that giving up the huge room to be a playroom was no sacrifice. I'm happy with just a bed. That part of the equation was fine with both me and my husband. The contortion aspect, though ... not so much. And we were about negative 27 on the aesthetically pleasing scale.)
The trouble with "to do" projects is that I've had a list of them ever since we bought this house in 2004. But who has time? Certainly not me.
Not, that is, until now.
So there I was with some deadline downtime. And a new Ikea about ten miles away. And a Home Depot just around the corner. Honestly, what's a girl to do?
Apparently, a girl is to paint her living room.
I mean, bookcases are clearly a priority. But I can't be expected to put bookcases up on the icky white walls that were apparently painted by the previous owners in drab, flat white just to sell the house. How dull. How tedious.
I settled on green because the five-year-old gave me a thumbs-up when I suggested it (what can I say--she has a good eye), and then I schlepped me and the girls off the store, where they played sword fight with the wooden paint stirrers while I looked at paint samples, finally settling on one I thought was perfect, but the nice stranger in line beside me said was too light. Since she seemed to know what she was talking about and I'm so clueless about this stuff I usually drag my mom along, I took her advice, bumped up to the next color level, and went home with two gallons of "celery green." (The lady was right; the color looks fab. I really should have gotten her phone number for future consultations!)
After a morning of taping and covering floor and furniture, plus a visit from mom to watch little helpers, and Wall Number One was painted and dry before my husband got home from work. And you know what? It was easy. Truly. Even with the kids under foot and painting their own little section of wall.
So easy in fact, that I think I created a monster, with the monster being me. I painted the opposing wall, too, the next day, even without Mom there to child-wrangle (am I brave, or what?). And I picked out a color ("Rosily") for the other two walls. I even picked out a color for the library and the playroom, and I'm serious toying with painting our long, dark hallway. More terrifying, I find myself eyeing the wallpaper in the kitchen with the same disdain in which I hold the ugly, ugly cabinets.
I mean, if it only took one day to paint a wall, in just a week I could have a new kitchen and maybe even new bathroom fixtures! Maybe I could even screen in the back porch! Heck, I can probably figure out how to fix the wood rot on the back porch cover. How hard could it be to --
{Ahem}
Ah, excuse me. I get a little carried away sometimes. And the living room was no exception. Although we'd planned to wait until April (two books means two "publication date" checks) to fund The Great Bookshelf Buy, I just couldn't resist. So once again, me and the kids schlepped to a store (this time Ikea) and after filling up on Swedish meatballs and mac & cheese, managed to buy five of the things, along with glass doors, height extenders, and the various knickknacks that one is forced to buy if one wanders through Ikea.
One day later, with the help of the girls, the furniture in the living room was completely rearranged and the shelves were assembled and installed. Unfortunately, the black backing looked hideous (way too dark for the room), so I removed it, letting "celery green" shine through. I love it, and it got the seal of approval from husband and kids.
By lunch the next day, most of the books from the bedroom had been transferred (though not properly arranged). Bringing the sum total of days for total living room transformation to about 2.5.
Whew.
(Have I mentioned I tend to go a little overboard with the project thing at times?)
My friend Julia London came over to lunch with her camera, because, of course, I'd been giving blow-by-blows to our friends in New York, Kathleen O'Reilly and Dee Davis. So courtesy of Julia L, here's a picture of the fruits of my efforts (but without all the books, as only a portion have made it so far). And, hey, as a bonus you get the girls' pictures, too. (The marks on their faces are kitty cat whiskers. I am, apparently, raising a litter.)
So this is what happens when I don't have a deadline. Yes, my dirty little secret is that I procrastinate by redecorating.
Honestly, I need to dive headfirst into a heavy daily page count. I mean, if I don't I might find myself stripping wallpaper, steam cleaning the carpets, or drywalling the attic.
Worse, I might actually do a load or two of laundry.
Posted by Julie Kenner at 1:40 AM | Comments (13)
Comments
I, too, have an irresistible urge to plunge into a large scale bathroom remodel. How bad could it be, right?
Somebody stop me.
P.S. Your little kittys are too cute!
Posted by: Beth at April 1, 2007 12:49 PM
Your bookcases look great!
So do your "Kitty Cats"
Posted by: Louis at April 1, 2007 3:01 PM
Ooh, just reading this makes me want to go take a sledgehammer to our musty old bathrooms and remodel!
Hold me back...
P.S. You litter of kittens is tres cute!
Posted by: Beth at April 1, 2007 3:48 PM
Julie,
We are sisters under the skin! My reward when I finish a book is usually to paint a room. Last time it was the living room which is now a mottled sky with clouds looking blue (plus totally fab shelves that Cowboy made for me). The time before it was the dining room which is now a deep red.
Laundry? It'll still be there tomorrow.
Eileen
Posted by: The LC Eileen ![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.literarychicks.com/nav-commenters.gif)
at April 1, 2007 4:00 PM
Looks great! I hope you make it through all the rooms you want to. I secretly enjoy this too but after TWO house and painting EVERY room in each house, the "fun" aspect is gone. :S LOL
Posted by: Amber at April 1, 2007 5:22 PM
I would enjoy the time off and continue redecorating. The wall looks fabulous and those bookshelves are great!
Posted by: Jo at April 1, 2007 8:17 PM
Ah! Eileen, clouds! I love it. I would love to do something like that in the house, but I think my husband would balk (though I still fantasize about doing an underwater mural in the bathroom. Light blue on top for the sky, dark blue for the water. And fishes and whatnot. Of course, I can't draw, so they'd be sucky fishes, but still ...
When I was in law school, I actually did go all out with the creative painting. The day before school started, someone rear-ended me and totaled my car. Instead of using the insurance money to buy a new car, I bought books. So I ended up with $600. I bought a Honda something-or-other that some guy was selling. It had no first gear and no paint. Just primer. So I went to the hardware store and bought a ton of spraypaint. I did it down the middle length-wise in dark blue on one side and light blue on the other. On the light blue side, I did clouds and a rainbow. On the dark blue, I did planets, shooting stars, and the like. It looked AWESOME, and I foolishly didn't take a picture of it.
It was the only car of its kind on the Baylor campus. THAT much is certain!
(Oh, and one wall of the living room is now "rosily." Tomorrow ... the trim!
Posted by: Julie at April 1, 2007 11:45 PM
I love the shelves with the color behind them--that looks fabulous! (And the girls are pretty wonderful also!)
Every year we use our tax return and do something to the house. We were hoping to be able to do both bathrooms this year, but after getting some quotes we decided that we had better just do them one at a time. We are doing the front bath now because I REALLY want the girls to have their own shower and there is only a tub in there which is a total waste of space at the moment! New tile on the floor, new tile in the shower, new vanity, strip the wallpaper (original to the house--circa 1973), retexture and paint....
I've been looking at my hallway also--if you get any great ideas on color, let me know! I have no clue either! *grin* Wal Mart had this great color called "Dune" that I used in my living room--kind of a coffee/mocha with a lot of cream. Looks good...
Posted by: Sheri at April 2, 2007 1:26 AM
Oh, Julie! I love the car story. My house is full of murals, too. Thing One has sharks in his bedroom. Thing Two has an African savannah scene with a cheetah. Their bathroom is a scene of Scooby-Doo swimming with lots of fish. When I sell this house, it's gonna take a lot of primer to cover it all up.
Posted by: The LC Eileen at April 2, 2007 11:29 AM
Ah, thanks guys for the kudos on the color and the kitties! Eileen, I know what you mean about primer. I told my dh that we just can't move. period.
And this fixing up thing really does breed intentions ... we've decided over his 4 day Easter weekend to rip up the carpet in the back part of the house and stain and seal the concrete. That's only 4.5 days away. Most likely I won't manage to talk myself out of it before that. Good wishes are appreciated. Chocolate more so.
And Eileen, my daughter is a Scooby-Doo fanatic. In that bathroom, she'd be in heaven!
(oh, and I did work on the book today. Really! And painted some trim, too!)
Posted by: Julie at April 2, 2007 11:56 PM
Julie, your kitties are so cute :-)
I'm a bit of an obsessive painter and decorator, too. A while back, when we lived in America, I decided to be a bit braver and deviate from our usual cream walls. I painted the entrance hall bright yellow.
Oh Patient One and The Teenagers came home from work/school, and were all, "Um, well, we like it but it's a bit, um bright." Which is kind speak for the fact that they hated it.
So the next day I painted it a paler yellow. When they came home from work/school that night, they were still all, "Um, it's just...it's just..." More kind speak.
So the next day I painted it the usual cream. They loved it. But they did ask me what color the entrance hall would be when they came home from work/school that day...I give up :-)
Posted by: Michelle C at April 3, 2007 5:08 PM
Next time *any* of you have any down time, you are welcome to come to my house to paint! Please!!!
As soon as we get back from our cruise next week, I'm getting quotes to have both the bathrooms completely gutted and redone (one at a time, of course). Last year we did the kitchen, which is great. Of course, then we had to buy all new furniture for the living room and dining room.
The sad thing is that even after the bathrooms are done I will still crave a new house. Because no matter how much we remodel, this one just isn't *big* enough. *sigh*
Posted by: Dia at April 4, 2007 12:58 PM
I once went for a whole "Pussycat Theatre" look around my vanity area. I painted the walls Barbie pink and then added leopards spaots in black and mettalic gold. I draped faux pearl strands everywhere and added a hot pink faux-fur area rug. It looked hot! I felt so vixenish.
Posted by: Janina at April 6, 2007 3:01 PM
