So, I took a week off for "vacation," so if the issue that hit the streets Wednesday looks weird ... don't bitch at me.

I put the word vacation in quote marks because vacation for me isn't about getting away. Oh no. That would require money I can't spend. (Note this ... it becomes ironic later.) Instead, since I financially married myself to The Money Pit almost 3 years ago, vacation means me taking time off work so I can make my house more habitable.

The goal for last week was to get the upstairs hallway and stairs stripped and stained. Some dumbass who owned by house before me power painted all the walls in that generic rental off-white without using drop cloths -- and then installed fugly carpet, which I ripped out as soon as I took ownership.

Well, one day, one trip to Lowes and one mental breakdown into my "vacation," and plans had changed. I figured that since the stairwell hadn't been painted yet (to over over ugly off-white) I should do that first, in order to not duplicate the mistakes of the previous owner. Plus, parts of the hallway ceiling seemed to be coming down, so I figured I'd patch that right up and then paint.

Well. Come to find out some f*cktard had put WALLPAPER on the hallway CEILING and painted over it. So instead of a quick patch job I was left with a long process of scrapping off the old paper and about 5 layers of paint.

I lost it.

Thankfully, Robert took over the job of scraping, but he was not on vacation, so the process is still, well, in process.

So I began to paint. That was one week and two days ago. It's still not done. I did get a ladder of death from our business manager, bless his heart, on Monday, but I have been so burnt out -- and busy with school and dance classes and going back to work -- that I haven't gotten on it yet. Hopefully, that will be remedied tomorrow.

In my frail state I made both a good homeowner decision, and what I am afraid was a bad homeowner decision. I bought a $6,000 water softener from Rainsoft. They gave me lots of nice-smelling soap, though. Granted, I needed the water conditioner, but one that is $6,000? That's more than twice what I paid for my car! Like I said, in the chaos that was my most recent home improvement project, I was vulnerable -- and the presentation was really cool.

Speaking of home improvement, my tax refund came in. Since the gutters on the back of my house are literally dangling by one nail (not kidding), I am going to replace the back with Rainhandlers. They seem much easier to maintain, since my house is really, really tall. Plus, I'm going to install two more replacement windows. Par-tay.

One last note: Before vacation, I finally made it out to the new IMA. I went on free day, when they opened the new Eiteljorg Galleries. The note I want to make is, the Neto exhibit is kinda cool with the tent and rubber balls and I think the pink shag carpet is Neto's as well, but I can't help but think it's not "art." Granted, this isn't my forte, but if rubber balls and shag carpet are art, where do we draw the line? Does Chucky Cheese and any retro '70s Mystery Mobile now art?

Posted by lgauthier at February 24, 2006 04:39 PM