painting

We are slowly making inroads on what needs to be done at the new house. At least in making a list.

What needs to be done and what needs to be bought and what we can afford are very different things.

The living room needed to be painted. There were marks on the walls from where things once were. I could not find the shade of grey-beige ( apparently called greige on pinterest blogs) to match what mom had so I had to start from scratch.

I am behind on fashion and style and I hear that grey is on it's way out but after years of a nutmeg brown at my current house, I needed something different. All those years of HGTV have to pay off somehow.

I googled south facing living rooms with lots of light and came up with a few possible shades. I got testers of four shades of grey at just under $11 each. I painted a chunk of two different walls with each of them so I could see how they look as the light changed in the room throughout the day.

One read a light grey. One read blue. One read green. The last was a darker grey that DH was sure we wanted but after seeing how it came out, it definitely would make too dark of a room.

We ended up choosing the one I had originally thought called Grey Owl by Benjamin Moore. It read well in the room and didn't clash with the carpet that I can't afford to change. We worked our way through mudding and sanding and washing the walls and part of the living room is done.

Paint is NOT cheap. Lordy. But this kind I bought covered well and we did the whole living room with one gallon so that is not bad at all.

We plan to steam clean the carpets in there. They have this huge 5 piece china cabinet set that also holds the TV. It's not something I will keep in the long run but the $ for replacing it is not top on our list. The units will have to stay pulled out until the TV provider can come in and do the wiring for it all.

 Most of the furniture they had there will stay as ours is staying here at the house for DS2. Ours is now from 2008 and quite worn. Eventually I will replace mom and dads but for now it's fine.

I plan to paint mom and dad's room next.  It is actually smaller than the one we have in our little house. And no ensuite, but then we didnt' have that here either.

There is a lot of guilt in painting over what mom did and I know she would be choked at the chaos of the house right now :-) 

August Change

I rolled and got the usual mix of $100 worth of change.

It went into the bank today and made another small movement towards my $1000 TFSA goal for the year.

Feels like everything is moving slow.

First week back

Ok not a full week but three days,

and only staff

I have not been able to spend ANY time in my room this summer.

Not only do I have to unpack everything as half the school were moved to new classrooms, I need to set up AND I need to plan.

There is often time during those first staff only days to get a few things done but not this year. Out of three days, all but 2 hours were in meetings. Super frustrating as there is so much to do. Hard to focus on yet another new initiative when your mind is whirling with all you have to do.

My butt is sore from sitting and I am feeling overwhelmed with all I have to go back and do this long weekend.

Work in progress

Last weekend before school starts back.

I am, as the title says, a work in progress.

Another summer gone. That's two in  a row now. But I would not trade my July with dad for anything, even if I did experience selfish moments of wanting time to myself.

I am grateful beyond all for the last couple months where we are able to do a lot of things, even if we had to pace and plan the energy for it.

I am grateful beyond all that he died peacefully at home and not in the hospital, languishing.

The aftermath of this has been tough. One of my sisters and I are coexecutors. The other two have legitimate health and mental health issues and that makes it hard, especially when their behavior is...…… greedy and selfish. Other family drama has happened too and it is very upsetting.

It has not been an easy two weeks as we start this process of paperwork and breaking apart all the things that made mom and dad's life.

I am grateful we did a lot of the land sale/transfer, as well as the house transfer last winter so it could fully meet dad's wishes. It also saved us from having to go through probate.

The house is a hot mess right now and I can feel mom twitching at that.

My husband and I will be moving in there after things are settled, so that also means saying goodbye to my little home of 23 years. A lot of memories here as well. My younger son will stay here at the house until at least next spring which gives us time to move in bits and pieces and not have to make rush decisions.

It also means 2 sets of home bills, though DS2 will be paying the utilities here once we are gone.

All this paperwork and details has once again pushed the grief part away and I dislike that.

Journey's end

I lost my dad yesterday.

I left him Thursday night watching Football. I went back yesterday morning to make jam with the raspberries he made and he was gone.

It just doesn't seem real.


just...…….gone