Word of the year

2 years ago, I came up with the concept of having a word of the year. A word that would (hopefully) guide my thoughts and actions in the coming year. My first word, for 2015, was simplify.

I had recently begun appreciating how liberating it was to get "stuff" out of my house, and wanted to continue that process with not only my physical belongings, but perhaps more importantly my time commitments and my mental clutter. We had, for several years, been wanting to sell our house and move into a different one, and I knew that I would need to do a lot of decluttering in my home in order to have it ready to sell. And, indeed, toward the end of 2015 we listed our house for sale; an event which actually inspired my 2016 word of the year: change.

We bought a lovely fixer-upper house across town at the end of 2015, so I knew a move would be happening. We had to do a LOT of major remodeling to the new house. Husband's job security was not looking good and I *hoped* a change would be happening in his employment situation. Our eldest was about to turn 16 and get his drivers license, Change was in the air!

Little did I know that our change was going to be so much bigger than I could have imagined, with my husband getting a job promotion/transfer that would require our family to relocate from North Carolina to Louisiana. Change encompassed him moving in March while I stayed in NC to wrap up the boys and I's school years, finish working on house #2 (house #1 thankfully sold in March) and prepare house #2 for sale all while packing for a cross-country move, and trying to find schools and a house in a state I had never even set foot in, from 1000 miles away.

Change came in the form of moving to a place where literally the only person I knew was the realtor who helped us buy our house. It came in learning to live with my husband again after 4 months of being a single parent. It came in understanding different cultural expectations and seeking places where I belonged.

It was during one of my many NC-LA drives (I think I've made the 14+ hour trip more than a dozen times. Matt has made it zero times, but that's a post for an angrier day) that I began thinking about what my word would be for 2017. I tossed around a lot of options. Kindness was one; it's been a rough year, politically and interpersonally. The world could use more kindness; heck- my family could use more kindness!

Kindness is a good and important word, but ultimately I chose another word that is an adjective/verb combination. I'm kinda digging words with relevant meanings in different parts of speech. Hence the title of this blog.

I spent a lot of time deliberating the word deliberate (see what I did there?), primarily in its adjective form, and have chosen it as my word of the year.

Deliberate: (adj) done consciously and intentionally. (v) to engage in long and careful consideration

I want the things I do to be deliberate. I want my time to be spent in meaningful ways, and my words to be thoughtful. I love that deliberate is an adjective that deliciously merges back into 2015's word, simplify. I want to be deliberate about what comes into my house, both in terms of physical items (I'm thinking healthy foods, quality furniture; clothing and supplies that are an investment and not a passing whim or "because it was on clearance") and the words and images that enter our minds and hearts through the people, music, television/movies/internet/games, and books that we invite into our home.

I want to intentionally finish the myriad of crafty works-in-progress in my not-yet-organized den. I desire for my money and my time to be spent well, in places that matter. I yearn for a weekly meal plan that has us using ingredients we already have on hand. Join me as I attempt to live life deliberately in 2017!

If I could invent an app

it would be something that could translate my thoughts directly into blog posts.

I have thought a great many lovely blog posts in the past 5 months, and have written exactly none of them.

Until today.

moving and the Olympics

It occurred to me, this morning, that this is the longest I have been gone from North Carolina in twenty years.

First of all, it bothers me that I can say anything was twenty years ago because in my mind I am still 27 (which probably explains some of the dumb things I still think I can do, but that's another post).

This thought came to me because later this week, I will be driving back to North Carolina to prepare my house for tenants. The thought went exactly like this: wow, the last time I was away from NC for this long was when I was in Africa.

I spent most of the summer of 1996 in Swaziland in Southern Africa. 20 years later, I have fond and vivid memories of my time there and I would love to be able to return some day. One of my best (and most surreal) memories is of watching the 1996 Summer Olympics in Swaziland. We were 6 time zones ahead of Atlanta, Georgia, where the games were held. Ironically, Atlanta was only 5 hours from my home in NC, and I was half a world away in Africa.

The 1984 Summer Olympics were held in Los Angeles, and as a 9 year-old child, I was living in Marin County, California. My parents took me to see the Olympic torch as it was run through a nearby town, and I watched Mary Lou Retton and her team earn several medals. This was a HUGE deal since I, too, was a gymnast. My sights were instantly set on Barcelona 1992 when I would be the 16 year-old gymnast achieving the same feats.

Of course, less than a year later I would find myself uprooted from my home state and taken to North Carolina (which I hated for the next 4+ years) where there was no gymnastics facility nearby.

It's funny how life comes full circle, and once again I have been uprooted from a home state that I love, and I'm watching the Olympics in what feels, at times, like a foreign land. Side note that during all 3 of those pivotal games, USA women did very well in gymnastics.

Progress

Wow, it's been two weeks since my last complaint post.

I'm no longer counting days.

I am making progress.

Good things that have happened in the past 2 weeks:

• non-stop Olympics watching
• birthday getaway to Disney World with hubby scheduled for next month
• found a renter for my other house
• got certified for work as a substitute teacher
• I have run or done an exercise video 3x/week

This, despite a week of rain.

Despite a rough start to school for 2/3 of my boys.

Despite being frustrated at lack of money.

Making progress, y'all. One day at a time.

More fight, less flight

I live here now. No matter how bad or hard it seems, I live here now and leaving isn't going to fix my kids' problems (or mine).

More fight, less flight.

Still fighting the good fight for my kids' class schedules. I am probably now known as "that parent" but I will stay and fight until I get the right classes for them. 

I need them to learn that some things are worth fighting for. And by them, I of course also mean me.

22 days down. 654 to go.

Update: we're good on 15/16 total classes. Sometime you have to lose a battle to win the war. We're going to win this!

25 days down. 651 to go.

If I want to

At the bottom of each post, I have a countdown. x days down, z days to go. It started as a pep talk to myself (congrats on enduring 2 weeks in your first-world prison!) as well as a consolation (it's not a life sentence; I don't have to stay here forever.) Even if I hate this place and all the struggles I'm having now, I will be free to move in just under 2 years, if I want to.

If I want to.

Fight or flight

a physiological reaction that occurs in response to a perceived harmful event, attack, or threat to survival.

Flight would be so easy. 

In 14 hours, I could be back at home. A home I am still paying for, paying to cool and have water and gas on, and for the lawn to be mowed. Home where my friends and my kids' friends are. Home where there is no question as to which math course my kids should be signed up for next year, and no trying to figure out which system of brackets are glued to my son's teeth (did you know that there are like 27 different systems of braces, and if you don't find a new orthodontist who works with the same ones that are currently on your child's teeth, said child will have to have said braces removed & replaced at a ridiculous expense to you? That's true!)

But would flight be too easy?

I want, no, need my children to grow and learn, and sometimes that comes through suffering. Because life isn't easy, and I don't want to rob them of this opportunity to experience something new. A chance to prove to themselves that they are strong and capable of doing hard things.

But they did hard things last year. All three of them moved to new schools in a new school system last year. They spent 180 days in that system, making friends, learning what was expected of them, making plans for the future when that future was abruptly brought to a screeching halt. Like a wild frog picked up by a well-meaning child, they were plucked out of the familiar and put down in a new environment. 

-----

I am fighting (for now). School starts a week from tomorrow. I am trying hard to make this work. 

But if it doesn't, school at home doesn't start for three more weeks and we could be back there without missing a thing.


20 days down. 656 to go.

resigned

/riˈzīnd/

adjective 

• having accepted something unpleasant that one cannot do anything about.

verb, past tense

• voluntarily leave a job or other position

My name is Carol. I live in Louisiana now. It is a 2-year sentence.

I have resigned. I am resigned.

I live in Louisiana now.

18 days down. 658 days to go (using May 18, 2018 as the hypothetical last day of school for my kids next year).

I keep renaming my blog.

I am indecisive.

It'll probably change again.

heartache and bruises and letting go

Well, it's over friends.

(At least I think/hope it is.)

Our realtor came over and took pictures of the house this morning and soon everyone on the interwebs can see what I've been doing all these weeks. Really, it's been months since we began this project, but the biggest push (and the inception of this blog) can only be measured in weeks.

I don't have to paint anymore. Which is great, because over the weekend I threw away 3 of my 6 paint brushes because I neglected to care for them properly. Kind of an apt analogy for my life right now.

I spent this Mother's Day weekend busting my butt to get the house ready for this morning's photo shoot. I spent more time on a ladder (and accidentally splattered more paint) than I have since... well, since last weekend. But whatever. 

My right arm aches from hours of brush-stroking my hallway walls after I discovered that a paint roller made the base coat of what I'm guessing might be pre-1950's milk paint chip off like cheap nail polish. It's a long and tall hallway, y'all, with a wall that extends up the stairs. My arm aches.

But, I gave the remainder of my 5 gallon bucket of hallway (and supposed to be for 2 other rooms which we're now not painting) paint to a friend today, so it's over.

Have I ever mentioned that I am extremely impatient? My phone and computer probably hate me because I've been refreshing Realtor.com so often, checking to see if my listing is live. As of 8:08pm, EST, it is not.

Which makes it even more illogical that I have also been waiting all day for realtors to call me, asking to show my house. Hint: they didn't. Because they can't see it yet.

My legs are covered with bruises from encounters with ladders, furniture, and tools this weekend. I'm not caring for myself well, physically (don't ask about the huge second-degree burn on my forearm from a coffee spill last week) just like  I have not been caring for my paint brushes. 

I had a really crappy Mother's Day. My air compressor stopped working (this is a really weird thing to start the crappiness of a day, but I never claimed to be predictable). The deck of the riding lawnmower was off-kilter which apparently my 16 year-old mower told be about the last time he mowed bit I forgot, so the 2 weeks' growth of grass loomed large in my yard. My husband was 950 miles away and no one thought to pamper me on what is supposed to be at least one day out of 365 that I am treated like the princess I secretly am. And I was just. so. tired. Weary to the bone, but driven by the perfect image of how I wanted my home to appear in its listing.

I cried, last night, as I drove to Tropical Smoothie Cafe to buy myself dinner at 6:30pm because no one offered to cook for me or suggested that we go out to eat. I took a bath after I finished painting last night and watched an episode of Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt which I don't quite like but for some reason am compelled to keep watching. And I took the entire day off work today to do my part in getting my house listed (my part, admittedly, ended before 11am but my youngest ended up staying home, sick, today so I didn't even get to chill alone.)

Still, life goes on. The fate of my house is now out of my hands. In addition to being an impatient perfectionist, I'm also a bit of a control freak so the whole process of letting go is really hard for me.

But I'm doing it. Bruises, heartache, and all.

the last

I often find myself wondering these days about "the last."

Is this the last time that I'm going to eat at a particular restaurant before I move?

The last time I'm going to have to buy paper towels here?

The last time I'll see a casual acquaintance before I move?

The last mortgage payment for this house?

I don't have a firm move date set. All of the home furnishings and "stuff" that I am taking with me are moving the week of June 13. I will be on vacation here the week of June 19. And I scheduled a hair appointment for June 28.

Beyond that, the boys and I just need to be in Louisiana before August 8, when school begins there.

How quickly will our house sell? If we don't get a fast offer, we could conceivably stay through July. We are not taking mattresses or our couch with us. We could slum it with paper plates and Netflix on phones & laptops for quite a while!

Should we pay for a pool membership here, knowing we may only be able to use it for a month?

Do I schedule a trip that I really want to take for July, knowing that I may have to drive 13 hours from my new home to participate? And if so, do I deposit the boys at grandparents' houses, within 4 hours of our current home, while I go on the trip? Or do I leave them at a new house which isn't in a neighborhood, where they know nobody and their dad is at work all day. Yes, they are big kids, but sometimes that makes the prospect of leaving them alone even more harrowing than when they were younger!

When do I take my canine and kitty companions to Louisiana? Would I worry more about them if the neighbor watches them here while I'm gone in June, or if they're home alone all day in a new house, in a new neighborhood.

No answers. Only questions.

Other things I've done this week (2)

Once a week, I try to post other things that I've accomplished the previous week which weren't ill-fated weird interesting enough to write a post about.

Other things I did this week

• updated some of the electrical outlets and switches in the kitchen
• moved the refrigerator to a different wall in the kitchen which made a HUGE impact in opening up the room (that, and the light paint on the walls)
• decided to list the house as it is next week (eek!)
• returned a bunch of things to Lowes because I am not going to do those things. Gotta love money being returned to my credit card statement!
• cleaned up hubs' mess from the living room ceiling project 
• took everything off of 2 metal bookshelves that were in a bedroom, disassembled them, moved them into the dining room, reassembled them and put everything (and more) back on them PLUS threw down some carpet remnants to cover the nasty floor and moved the table into the dining room. (this was an exhausting afternoon)
• hauled 2 contractor bags of debris out to the curb. Gosh, I love living in the city and having bulk trash haul services!

Projects that I need to finish

• reinstall crown molding in the living room. A complicated project because I need to buy 1" x 2" trim to complete the gap formed by the ceiling beams we installed
• finish painting around the ceiling trim in my bedroom
• decluttering & organizing the house to get it ready to show (did I mention there are already 2 couples that are ready to see it the moment it hits the market??)
• if I'm really ambitious, hold a yard sale on Saturday morning. I need to. I have a HUGE pile of stuff sitting in the corner, ready to sell.

Updates on projects that I needed to finish from previous weeks

• reinstall doorknobs on bedroom & bathroom doors.
• buy more paint for my bedroom
• prime and paint laundry room and bathroom doors 
• sand & paint the hallway walls
• prime and paint more of the staircase railings
• find the screws for the air vent screen that I took off 4 months ago so my cat will not continue to crawl into the ductwork
• paint the remaining wall of my living room 

Hubs' weekend project

You may recall that I mentioned my husband's weekend project was removing living room ceiling tiles.

Just like in the hallway, we uncovered bead board, and, as always. clues about the original layout of the house.

There was apparently a wall on the other side of the front door (which is at the bottom left in this picture), creating an entry hallway. This confirms our theory, based on the huge hole in the paneling at the bottom of the stairs, that there was once a doorway that aligned the front door with the stairs. We were planning to restore that doorway, if we stayed here.

The problem, as you can clearly see from the above picture, is the nasty, jagged line in the ceiling (also, not pictured, are two circular holes: one in the "hallway" and one in the actual living room, that indicate the former location of light fixtures).We had already planned to paint the ceiling, so I did some quick measuring and determined that this break is almost exactly 1/3 of the way into the room, so we could put up a faux beam to cover the gap and another one, symmetrically, on the other side of the room. The plan was mostly brilliant except for the fact that the room is just over 13 feet wide while the longest board we could buy is 12 feet long, so we had to piece things together.

More pictures to come, but the ceiling did get painted (I am still scraping paint splatters off the floor to prove it!) and a gorgeous black fan installed. The light kit for the fan didn't work so well, so we'll have to return it and get a new one. 

Sadly, I had to return hubby to the airport in the middle of a thunderstorm AND rush hour traffic on Monday afternoon, so now I'm on my own to finish things up.

The finishing-up has a definite end point because the other half of his weekend project was convincing me to list the house now, unfinished (it makes me cringe just to type the word!)

Inventory is low in our local housing market, and we live in a highly sought-after school district so our agent is convinced that with the amount of square footage we have and the improvements we've already made, the house will sell quickly. Cross your fingers, because ready or not (emphasis on the not), our listing goes live on Monday, May 9!

Weekend update: my kitchen painting project

So much has happened in the past week! I've been too busy doing to write it all out until now.

The big deal is that hubby came home for a visit! I didn't tell the kids, and left late on Thursday night to pick him up from the airport. Their reactions when he went to wake them up on Friday morning were priceless!

After a walk-thru assessment of the house which he hadn't seen in 2 months, we made a weekend to-do list and headed to our favorite date spot, Lowes. Seriously, 3/4 of our date nights end up at Lowes after dinner!

Hubs' weekend project was removing the living room ceiling tiles, like I did in the hallway last week. His other project, unbeknownst to me, was convincing me to list the house before I was ready. More on that later.

I went to work updating light switches and outlets in the living room. Here's a  peek at the mess I was dealing with. Can you see those fabric-wrapped wires in the outlet box? Probably not, but I assure you that's what is in there!

My big project for the weekend was painting over the faux wood paneling in the kitchen. Of course, I don't have any actual "before" photos, but here are two random, real-life (aka messy and yes my dog eats his food out of an old saucepan and his current water bowl may or may not be a serving bowl with Christmas designs on it) pictures I found on my phone.

I chose Olympic's Sky Splash, which is the perfect neutral blue to accent the super clearance deal tiles I found for the backsplash (Style Selections Floriana Heather Subway Mosaic at only $1.99/ sheet!), all of which would look dreamy against the Fusion Mineral paint in Bedford which I chose to paint over the cabinets. 

 

Toss in an Ikea farmhouse sink and this is one swoon-worthy kitchen in the works!

I put the first coat of primer on and immediately yellow stains began bleeding through. So I switched over to a tinted primer for my second coat, but still had some pretty significant bleeds. Being the impatient person I am, I used the paint next because, hello, it is paint + primer. This went over much better, and after a second coat the only minor issue that I could see (and probably only because I painted and was looking for problems) was slight tinting in the grooves of the panels.

(an "after" picture will go here, eventually, when I remember to take one)

Other things I've done this week

I think that on Tuesdays, I'll try to post other things that I've accomplished the previous week which weren't ill-fated weird interesting enough to write a post about.

• installed blinds in my bedroom
• hung curtains in my bedroom
• painted 13/16 of the walls in my bedroom (I ran out of paint...)
• painted all the baseboards, trim, and doors in my bedroom
• primed and put at least 1 coat of paint on all of the trim in the downstairs hallway.
• went camping and rapelling/rock climbing with my Scout troop on a weekend with deleriously perfect weather.

Related projects that I need to finish

• reinstall doorknobs on bedroom & bathroom doors.
• buy more paint for my bedroom
• prime and paint laundry room and bathroom doors to complete the paining of all trim/doors in the lower hallway
• sand & paint the hallway walls
• prime and paint more of the staircase railings
• find the screws for the air vent screen that I took off 4 months ago so my cat will not continue to crawl into the ductwork
• paint the remaining wall of my living room (in all fairness, this involves moving the TV and I should probably have help to do that. Sometimes I do acknowledge my limits. Most often when the consequences may be expensive.)

85 years of dirt on my head

(you should sing the title of this post to the tune of "99 bottles of beer on the wall.")

All but one of the rooms on the first floor of my house have acoustic ceiling tiles Apparently, this was all the rage in the '40s and '50s when people were updating their homes. I mean, I'm glad it's not popcorn ceilings (I'm looking at you, 1970s...) but it's not a look that I find attractive. Especially when tiles in every room are sagging and discolored. The ceilings were one of those "we'll get to it eventually"-type projects when we first bought the house, but now that we're moving, everything has to happen now.

It all started--accidentally, of course--in the lower hall. I was peeling the layers of fake dark wood paneling off the walls (evil eye again cast on the '70s) and had to remove the crown molding at the ceiling. So I kinda wiggled one panel out of the ceiling and then 3 or 4 more to see what was underneath. It looked like a silvery-gray wallpaper with a faint damask print. Cool, I thought. Maybe we could just leave it like that.

Nope.

A few weeks later I was talking to my contractor about the ceilings and he said, "let's take a look at what's underneath." Before I could protest, he pulled out a utility knife and cut into the wallpaper and then through some fabric to reveal bead board planks underneath. Although this was a great find, it also meant I had to continue the project since my ceiling now had an ugly gash in it.

Here's a look at some of the materials I pulled down, including a diagonal strip of wallpaper that was at the top of the walls.

I avoided this project like the plague. Or like the asbestos that I feared was lurking in the tiles. But faced with several other half-done projects and no clear direction on what to do next, I decided to tackle the hall ceiling today.

• Confession: I do not know if my ceiling tiles have asbestos in them. I never had them tested, partly because I'm too cheap but mostly because I didn't want to be responsible for knowing if they actually do contain asbestos. Let's just go on the pretty good assumption, based on the careful inspection of my contractor and I, that they don't. (I know, I know. This was probably very stupid and I'll regret it in 20 years when I get mesothelioma or some other horrible lung disease.) I wore a respirator mask, was careful not to break any tiles, swept twice then mopped afterward and showered myself. That's about as safe as I'm willing to play it.

Regardless of the composition of the tiles, they (and the wallpaper, and the fabric) were holding up a lot of dirt. I like to think of it as 85 years worth of dirt even though I know the tiles were not installed when the house was built. Just humor me, because it FELT like 85 years of dirt as it fell onto my head, down the front of my shirt, and all over the floor and stairs.

Here's the project, mid-tear down. You can see the exposed bead board at the top, the fabric & wallpaper layer hanging dangerously over an exposed light bulb (don't try this at home, kids), and the ceiling tile toward the bottom.

Also shown are the not-yet-painted bead board walls, the painted bedroom door trim (yay, me!), the presumed former doorway which we discovered at the end of the stairs when we pulled down the fake wood paneling, and the stairway railings, of which I have painted less than 1/3 (boo, me).

How to finish hanging curtains

Part 2 of my first post about how I hang curtains (part one is here)

1. Move some more furniture and paint more of the wall. The wall nowhere near where the curtains will be hung. Because it seems like the right place to start.
2. Eat lunch. Attempt to locate paperwork for mortgage application. 
3. Read Pinterest posts about how high and wide you are supposed to hang your curtains. Decide that a lot of them look ridiculous and compromise by making marks 3.5" above and outside the window frame.
4. Debate about whether the ceiling, floor, or window frame is the most accurately level part of the wall from which to take measurements. Go with the window frame and hope for the best.
5. Dreadfully know in your heart of hearts that this is NOT going to be level and pray that it is not noticeable. 
6. Grab the drill, the previously labelled 3/16" drill bit, and climb on the ladder. Drop something small and metal-ish from the top of the 4' ladder. Be thankful you didn't drop the drill.
7. Drop the drill. No, really. I did.
8. Watch the 3/16" drill bit snap in half as the drill crashes to the hardwood floor below, gouging out a small hole in a thankfully (hopefully?) unnoticeable spot.
9. Find another 3/16" drill bit (thank goodness for the labeling and finding the extras). Notice, while removing the broken drill bit base, that the process of securing the drill bit in the drill causes the label to come off. Roll eyes and continue.
10. Drill holes. Attempt to insert drywall anchors, which, of course, are too big for the holes drilled with the correct size drill bit.
11. Repeatedly wiggle the hole larger with the drill bit, praying each time that you don't make the hole too big to hold the drywall anchor. Repeatedly try to insert drywall anchor with no success. Try to tap drywall anchor in with hammer. Only succeed in bending/damaging the drywall anchor. Curse.
12. Persevere.
13. Get all three brackets installed. PRAY that the rod will go through all 3 brackets. Rejoice when it does.
    
14. Figure out how to weave curtains onto rods whole holding them more than 6' off the ground. 
15. Close curtains. Revel in victory. 
16. (most important step) Trust that the weight of the velvet curtains will pull the wrinkles out eventually and that no steaming/ironing is needed.

How I hang living room curtains

1. See curtains on clearance at Target. Find a matching pair and decide that they're such a good deal that you have to buy them even though you had no intention of hanging curtains in your house right now.
2. Go home and think about the other shade those curtains were available in. Realize the color you bought was not the best color for your living room, which is where you decide that curtains should be hung.
3. Spend all night thinking obsessing about the other color curtains. Try to tell yourself you don't need them while simultaneously praying that they have 2 panels of the same color and they are still in the store tomorrow and if they do then it is meant to be.
4. Go to work. Think about curtains. 
5. Go to Target on your lunch break. It is meant to be! Buy the other color curtains for your living room, and decide to keep the first pair for your dining room.
6. Leave curtains in Target bags in respective rooms for 3 weeks.
7. Start thinking about curtain rods.
8. Go to Bed Bath and Beyond one day and look at curtain rods. Realize you never actually measured the window, but do a good job of estimating the size.
9. Try to remember if the curtains have grommets in them, or if you need to buy clippy rings. Err on the side of buying clippy rings.
10. Think about how large and heavy (velvet) the curtains are and balance your desire for a thick, solid rod with the fact that the skinnier the rod is, the cheaper it is.
11. Look at a lot of options for a good 20 minutes. 
12. After carrying several different rods throughout the curtain department, find one on the back clearance rack that is the right length and a suitable color.
13. Grumble that you have to buy 2 finials and 2 set of clippy rings (buy 3 because heavy velvet) in addition to the rod.
14. See the matching tieback arms. Decide you must have them. And the 2 more matching finials that go on them.
15. Dig through the clearance finials, praying for 4 matching ones that you like will settle for.
16. Victory! Carry purchases to checkout counter. While walking, mentally calculate price and realize that you could use two $5 off $15 coupons but you only have one in your purse.
17. Leave purchases on the counter, go to your van, and dig through every storage drawer/compartment/pocket looking for your stockpile of Bed Bath and Beyond coupons that are always floating around in your van, except when you need them.
18. Decide to cut your losses and settle for only using one coupon when you know you could have saved an additional $5...
19. Use merchandise credit cards (a story for another time) and $5 coupon and end of paying less than $6 for the entire ensemble. Feel pretty smug.
20. Carry your purchases home to living room window. Locate curtains and realize they have grommets. Debate as to whether it is worth it to take back $6 worth of clippy rings.
21. Measure the window and realize that your rod is slightly longer than you would have liked but think about the Pinterest posts showing how to hang curtains higher and wider than you normally would. Remind yourself that there is no next-shortest-length rod on clearance and settle for what you have.
22. Assess the thickness of the rod (5/8") and the diameter of the curtain grommets (1 1/2"). Realize that it will look awkward and you really need a thicker rod.
23. Decide not to think about it for a while.
24. Realize, on this first hot day of the season, how much afternoon sun blazes through your westward-facing living room window. And how hot that sun makes the room. And velvet curtains are thick and will absorb sun and heat.
25. Process the fact that you really should paint the wall before you hang a curtain rod because the current wall color is nearly the same color as the curtains.
26. Think about how much a gallon of paint is going to cost, and the fact that you are currently in the middle of 3 other painting projects.
27. Remember that there is more than 1/2 gallon remaining of the paint used in the upstairs hallway. Paint a sloppy swatch on the living room wall and decide that it is perfect will do.
28. Grab a paintbrush and start cutting in!
29. Set paint brush on the edge of the bucket to help a child find dinner. Return to find paintbrush swimming in the bucket. 
30. Rinse out paintbrush and grab a new one.
31. Keep cutting in on the window wall. Wonder if the paint is too dark. 
32. Pull out the paint pan and roller. Pour paint into tray and pick it up to move it. Except pick it up by the empty end and pour paint all over your hardwood floor.
33. Calmly scream for children to bring you rags! Towels! Paper towels! Buckets of water! (how do you clean copious amounts of paint off a hardwood floor?!??!?!) Trash bags! Grocery store plastic bags!
34. While you are wiping and washing and wiping and washing, console one child who thinks you are mad at him because you are yelling for him to bring you cleaning supplies.
35. Resolve to never be so dumb as to dump paint on the floor again.Comprehend that this is why people cover the floor before they paint.
36. Paint. Smile because it's looking good! Keep going around the corner onto the next wall, pushing furniture and tossing boxes/bags/shoes/clutter into less inconvenient places in the room.
37. Become enormously hungry just as you run out of paint. Resolve to buy more paint tomorrow.
38. Try not to think about curtain rods as you go to sleep.
39. Go to the home improvement store to buy paint. Thank the home improvement gods that you were using one of the less expensive formulations of paint.
40. Browse the curtain rod selection while paint is being mixed. Find a thick rod, of the right length, with finials you can deal with, on clearance. 
41. Wish there was another rod at the same price for the dining room curtains. Look for the next cheapest clearance rod. Settle for it, even though you don't really like it.
42. Choose a curtain rod for your bedroom while you're at it. One that you love is also on clearance and is okay-ish.
43. Realize that the wall where you meant to hang the coat rack is now painted and clear. Decide that hanging a coat rack is less trouble than hanging curtain rods and decide to do that first.
44. Attempt to locate a 5/32" drill bit.
45. Dig through no fewer than 10 boxes with all of the tools tossed in them from the move. Curse the clutter and lack of organization. Blame your husband who did not keep them organized in the first place and then threw the contents of the garage into boxes and then moved to Shreveport leaving you to finish the house remodel alone (also another story).
46. Drag a folding table to the basement and attempt to sort/organize all of the tool-y things you find. Realize that you have a LOT of crap to organize. Try to focus on drill bits. Drill bits.
47. Take the first random 8 drill bits you find upstairs. Struggle to read the measurements written on them. Find one that is 1/64" smaller than the size you need. Decide it's not worth it to look for the correct size bit, and wiggle the drill bit in the wall to create the hole size you need.
48. Hang the coat rack. Feel smug. It looks AWESOME!!!!!
    

    

    It's late and the lighting is so terrible that you can't tell what color the wall is painted.
    It's Sherwin Williams 7533 Khaki Shade.

49. You're on a roll and ready to tackle the curtain rod! Dump out pieces. See that you need a different size drill bit.
50. Go back to the basement. Collect no fewer than 20 drill bits, knowing that-- somewhere-- there is still another container of drill bits that you specifically packed before the move, and head back upstairs. Pray that the size you need is among the 20.
51. Make a list of drill bit sizes, in 64th of an inch increments, through 1/2 inch. Do a lot of fraction math. Try to find a pattern you can follow as you write them out. Fail.
52. Wonder why there isn't a better system for labeling drill bit sizes.
53. Wonder why you just made that list because it has nothing to do with finding a 3/16" drill bit.
54. Spend 30 minutes printing labels for drill bits on your labelmaker, Rejoice when you find not one, but three 3/16" drill bits.

    

    This is the aftermath of my drill bit labeling project.

55. Start a blog to chronicle the ridiculousness of this process.