Remodeling is FUN, Dangit: Days Four and Five.

Day four.

Painted three more bedrooms. Spent more money at Walmart and Lowe’s and Home Depot. Exhausted. While painting Annie’s room we laughed about the GHOST EYE* and about how both girls will react when they see their rooms. Annie will do the Annie Face; Katie Beth will say “I liiiiiiike it!!!!!” in her sweet shy voice. We know them well.

*About that Ghost Eye? Annie has made friends with a little boy who lives across the street. A little boy who has been in our house before, he said. Been… in our house… where… he… saw… in the attic…. a GHOST. EYE. Awesome insight into how best to freak Annie out... Ghost eyes are flippin’ terrifying.

Oh, it LOOKS harmless enough…

My almost-70-year-old parents came over to help today. They removed the cedar shingles from Annie’s room and bless my moms heart, she filled in a zillion nail holes and my dad carted sixteen tons of cedar shingles down the stairs in 172 trips. Among other things they found to do all day long. I could NOT make it without them.

I just realized with great angst that we never took a “before” picture of Annie’s cedar-shingle-paneled room. I don’t know how we missed that, but her room was all “inside of a medieval castle” theme. Or maybe “inside of a tree house?” Either way, the cedar shingles had to go.

The kitchen chairs that came with the house. I can’t WAIT to shabby-chic-ify these things.

It’s 11:06 pm. I’m out.

Day five.
Katie Beth’s room doesn’t look quite so much like Taqueria El Lugar in the light of morning.

Oh, did I forget to mention that I was going with a Cheap Taco Stand theme for her bedroom? That’s probably because it wasn’t quite the look I was going for.

The look I was going for. Source: Pinterest.

Yeah, as I was sitting at El Lugar yesterday waiting for them to bring out our Number Sevens, I couldn’t help but notice the eye-blistering shade of Guadalajara Turquoise on the walls (it’s one of Ralph Lauren’s colors… probably), and had this sinking feeling that I’VE MADE A HUGE MISTAKE.

El Lugar. Not to be confused with my daughter’s bedroom.

I’ve heard rumors that you can see the turquoise paint glowing so loudly you can almost hear it, all the way out her bedroom window clear to Loop 323 like it’s the Springfield Nuclear Power Plant.

I was, shall we say… concerned, maybe a tad dismayed, but not so much so that I was willing to pick a new color and redo the whole thing; I have five bedrooms to paint, for Pete’s sake, and ain’t nobody got time for that. Assaulting Stimulating children with visual pain stimulation is good for children. I mean, I feel sure it is. Like jolts of electricity to their visual cortex or something; that’s got to be good, right?

Thankfully today it’s somewhat subdued in the light of morning.

Really, it is. It is. Really.

Or maybe, just MAYBE I JUST LIKE MEXICAN TACO STANDS, OK? Stop making a big deal out of it. Gosh.

Sherwin-Williams calls it “Mariner,” which doesn’t sound Mexican at ALL. Sort of deceptive if you ask me.

Spent part of today packing up the old house with all three girls.

Susie is screaming.

Katie Beth is slowing my roll by showing me Every. Last. Trinket she comes across. Look mama! Look! I found this plastic ring I got in my Valentines’ Day goody bag in third grade! Or was it second grade? Look! Mama look!

Annie is singing and dancing her belongings into the trailer one Barbie shoe at a time, because a trailer makes a great stage and she IS a singer and pretty much knows everything there is to know about dancing. But not so much about hard work. Serenity now.

Little girls who are supposed to be PACKING. But at least Susie isn’t screaming at the moment…

Why is it every time I move into a house there are 5,000 wire hangers left behind by the previous owners? And this, of course, after I have thrown away 5,000 wire hangers of my own. But on laundry day there is nary a hanger to be found. It’s a mystery.

Falling into bed at midnight again. Hubby moved our bed from the den where we had been camping out into our newly carpeted bedroom while I was in the shower, bless his heart, so night five = first night in our new room.

I love my life, my room, and my house, and I’m so thankful that God brought all this together for me.

Even though I’m gonna die from exhaustion and soreness.