Big happenings at the LBL

Well, just because we haven't been updating doesn't mean that there isn't a lot going on! Last Tuesday Rob snapped. The front bedroom, now to be known as the office, was almost set up with furniture and electronics and Rob said, "This room has to be finished before school gets underway!" Needless to say, this may have been an idea that he should have had the week before. Whatever. Out with the furniture and electronics, out with the baseboard, out with the ceiling fan. Then we worked from the top down. We primed and painted the ceiling, getting rid of some inexplicable stains (have I mentioned before that I hate popcorn ceilings?) and put in a new fan. After settling on a color - 'Fresh Guacamole' - we tackled the walls. First on the agenda was a large hole in the corner. It was a hole in a patch, believe it or not, but the original hole had been too large to patch with the kind of patch they had used. Out come the drywalling skills, and Rob had it properly patched in no time. Primer, paint, the hideous blue has been replaced by a light and fresh green, perfect for stimulating the mind to write pages and pages of music...or blogs. Then new wall sockets, phone jack, light switch, and blinds. All the furniture is back and the room is big enough for two desks, a large digital audio setup, bookshelves, and the piano. It's not done, but all the big stuff is moved in and it doesn't feel crowded, except for the shopvac that hasn't been moved out yet.

Now to the outside! Saturday was the exterior paint party. The beautiful light beige that we had picked out called 'Crêpe' got onto the wall and said, "Here I am! I'm yellow!" We were a little surprised and are currently hoping that this yellow effect is because some of the blue is showing through and that the second coat will clear it up. Even if it doesn't, the house looks so much better! Granted, the first coat isn't all on yet. The gables were too high to get them with the ladders we had on hand, so we had to borrow a 25' ladder from Katie's church. We managed to get two out of the three gables done yesterday, and the last one and the second coat should go on, or at least get underway, tomorrow morning. Our goal is to have all the exterior paint done by the end of the week. Fairly realistic.