Week 3 - Family Room Decrapification

Before After

What a wonderful week! How can a week that starts and ends with a long weekend be bad? And Monday was a snow day. Is anything as exciting as a snow day? I’m hard pressed to think of something.

I did something I haven’t done in a long time on my snow day – cooking. Other than something quick here and there, I hadn’t done much cooking since before the holidays. So I started the day with an inventory of the frig and then got busy cooking – strata, mac and cheese, 3 pies (2 as thank yous and a small one for me) and some apple crisp. Since I had so much, I called Andrea and invited her over for mac and cheese before knitting. Ed, my plumbing savior, picked up his pie and I delivered Bob’s after knitting, which was fun. My neighbor even sent over a gang of kids from her church, who shoveled my entire driveway in 5 minutes. What a wonderful day!

Classes were cancelled on Tuesday but staff had to report. It was bitter cold out so I stayed inside and got lots done. There was no swimming so I headed home after shoveling out a path to the shed on campus where we store the Husker Cats food. Campus was back to normal on Wednesday and I loved getting back into the pool. I could feel muscles I hadn’t used in a month and actually worked up a sweat. Then it was on to Village Inn for knitting with the gang. It was great to see them all and there was lots of show and tell. From there I went to Menard’s to pick up a few things for myself and some shelving the boss wanted me to buy on my p-card. But the shelves were so heavy that I couldn’t even shift them, never mind get them into the cart. They were also enormous – way too bag for my Fit - so I left them there and headed home. I didn’t get there until after 9:00. What a long day.

I was dragging on Thursday but the day flew. Dale and I went to Menard’s with his truck first thing and got the shelves, so I didn’t settle in at my desk until after 9:00, then Dodie and I went to lunch at Panera for yummy soup and salad. By the end of the day, I was spent and since it was chickie-la-la week (free classes so lots of students in bikinis in the pool) and none of the normal gang was going, I decided to skip swimming and head right home. I got to Wahoo before full dark and in time to hit the bank. Then I sat down with dip and crackers with a glass of wine and a relaxing night of knitting in front of the TV. It was lovely. I did manage to go through my coupons and prep for food shopping on Friday but that was it for productivity. I could live with that.

I did a big stock up run to HyVee on Friday in preparation for 3 days at home. I had big plans for the weekend, mainly taking down the wall unit and culling everything on it. But before I started that, I had a fun day planned on Saturday. I finally prepped all my packages and got them in the mail just before the post office closed. Then Andrea was picking me up after her shop closed for a quick lunch at the high school’s soup supper then my first spinning guild meeting in Fremont. It was a back to basics class and I did my first spinning with a drop spindle, which was awkward but I think I did OK. From there we drove to Omaha, not in time for Penzey’s, which we just missed, but I was happy to do another Trader Joe’s run. I don’t think I’ll ever take TJ’s for granted. I didn’t need much but got a gorgeous bouquet for $3.99 and found enough else to fill a bag. I went to bed super early so I’d be fresh for the big move on Sunday.

As soon as CBS Sunday Morning was over, I got dressed and got busy. Step one was to take down the wall unit. The dust was ridiculous! I sorted the books as they came off – a big box to donate, a few keepers for upstairs, more for downstairs and another big stack to look through before deciding. Once the wall was empty, I brought up the teapot shelf from the basement and cleaned it up with my antique restorer. It’s turpentine based and so stunk up the house so I opened the slider and headed to BK. By the time I got home, the family room was freezing but much less fume ridden so it was on to step 2 – setting up the wall unit downstairs in the craft room, which required moving a lot of furniture. By the time I was done, my white t-shirt was gray and my lungs felt clogged. After a tea break, I started the seemingly endless task of taking basket after basket of books and stuff downstairs. My knees were screaming but I wanted all the heavy stuff done so I could have an easier day on Monday.

I had planned to go to bed early but 10:00 p.m. found me washing teapots so they’d be ready to display for my after shot. What do you think? I love it. Much less crap and a cleaner, neater look. Next step will be getting my chair and ottoman slipcovered and I’d better get busy on my felted rug. It’s about time I gave this room, where I spend 95% of my non-sleeping home hours, some attention. One of these days I’ll do that 2nd coat on the cutting in. Maybe in spring when I can open the door without dropping the inside temps so drastically. Yeah, spring. There’s a plan. : )