Out With the Old, In With the New

Check out what's happening at our house this week (photo of breakfast area, taken from in front of the great room's fireplace, right)...all of the old paint, wallpaper/borders, etc., are in the midst of being removed...and this is what chaos really looks like! The furniture that's left in the house for staging purposes (and to make certain that the house is considered neither "vacant" nor "unoccupied") is piled in the middle of the floor...covered with protective plastic sheeting to minimize any damage from the dust and drips. Good thing, too, since they painted the ceiling today. Tomorrow: the walls get a coat of Builder's Beige (much the same color that you see on the walls already...only it will be fresh, as they say).

I hate this much confusion in our lives, but it must be done...or, at least we believe that by doing this, we will be able to sell our house in MO much faster than if we didn't...and get on with our new lives in NC. Still, I can barely find a perch in the middle of all this dust & clutter. Yeeeooow.

To keep myself sane in all the hub-bub, I am concentrating on a new knitting project...two socks at a time on two circular needles! Missy M actually got me going while we were at her house for Christmas, loaning me her book "Knitting Circles around Socks" (shown, left). Unfortunately, she found the book to be frustrating, as all the steps are written for right-handers...something she finds too many times. It took me a while to plow through the directions and decipher the diagrams, but I think I finally figured it out. As you can see in the photo, I've made it through the heel(s) and am well on my way on the foot(s)...er, feet. I try to do a little on this project each evening in order to calm my anxieties and settle me down for sleep. Learn something new each day, right? Right!

In addition to all the inside work that's being done by our contractor, Leave It To Weaver, Mr. T. and I grabbed paint brushes this afternoon and took advantage of our first (and potentially ONLY) "warm" weather day (55 and windy) since all this began. After the contractor's guy finished power-washing the house, Mr. T painted the trim and the columns on the front porch, while I applied the stain to the deck out back. Both projects turned out well, and we are thankful for having this brief opportunity to tackle the exterior details that needed decent weather for doing.

So, how will we be spending New Year's Eve tomorrow? Probably recovering from another work-day around the house. But, never fear. I do have a bottle of Stone Hill Winery's Steinberg White chilling in the fridge, and I found a couple of festive wine glasses on seasonal special at Schnuck's today when I went to get us a salad for lunch...and we have some party hats from last year that didn't get packed. I guess the movers thought we might need them...? Maybe we can get some Chinese Take-out and then clink our red glasses of white wine to toast in 2009! We're such party animals, aren't we?

Here's hoping that it will be a good one for us all...