Damn HGTV

It started with a catalog. Ikea. Evil evil place. The blinds on our arcadia doors to the patio are pretty shabby in their old age. Four kids constantly in and out doesn't help. So I decided that we should just hang some drapes instead. At least those I could wash right? So off we go to Ikea. You know, I never did see the drapes...If you have never been to Ikea it's quite the shopping experience. Hundreds of rooms set up. It's like walking through one giant mismatched house with no doors and more kitchens than you can't count. But oh what I wouldn't give to have that many bathrooms in my house! Ok, maybe not, I'm sure I would end up being the one to have to clean them all. So suddenly there we are staring at the coffee tables. We didn't have one currently because the I kept hitting my toes on the last one and got peeved enough one day to just throw it out. I really like my toes, and being able to get shoes around them. I have enjoyed the lack of legs to jam my toes on ever since. But life with 4 kids is starting to demand a larger area for board games. So when we found a rather large 2 level coffee table my dreams of uninjured toes was dashed. Of course this lead to the plotting of replacing more furniture. By the end of our walk we have picked out an entire new living room arrangement and dining room. I guess it's about time anyhow, I have had most of my stuff for over 5 years. I was pretty excited about redoing everything, though we only left with the coffee table that day. Since we have a roommate who is moving in January to her own place, she is the perfect person to pass on the old stuff too. But she has no where to store it in the meantime, so the plot just has to simmer for awhile...

Once we got home Hubby assembled the new coffee table. We put our feet up on it, flicked on the TV and life was good. Until HGTV came on. Design on a Dime. People with any sort of decorating bug should not be allowed to watch this show. My hubby and I are two such people. They were redoing a kitchen and put a couple stripes of paint up towards the ceiling. Cute. Can you say cute? I loved it. I batted my eyes at the hubby and begged for stripes of my very own. Not that begging was needed. I had painted my kitchen two shades of mossy greens when I first bought the place. It flows into the living room which I sponge painted in neutral beige and creams. I loved it. But a stripe, well a stripe or two would surely tie the living room with the dining room/kitchen wouldn't it? Of course it would! I still had all my left over paint so off to Home Depot for magic tape and paint brushes. I was giddy with excitement. We got home and Hubby said he could whip out his trusty level and pencil in my stripes for painting. Great! He penciled, I taped, then he painted. I was so excited! Then I ripped the tape off. My beautiful stripe that Hubby meticulously measured was crooked. Not only that, but it was about 4 inches wide at one end, and about 2.5 inches wide at the other end. This of course was not hubby's fault, but some conspiracy with the level and wall out to get Hubby. It took me two days to fix that stripe, with a tape measure and lots of patience I measured every inch of the stripe as I re-taped it. Then it happened. Not happy with just throwing a little fresh paint on the wall, no no no, not my hubby. Now he wants to do an accent wall in our living room. The outer wall of the stairs to the third floor. So I break out my tape again. One wall, I can handle it. At least he didn't chose the part of the wall that vaults up to the third floor...right? But of course painting for Hubby is a sickness. Once he starts, he wants new paint everywhere. So we ended up painting the fireplace wall and mantle. We were at that until one A.M. because of course Hubby couldn't wait until the next day now that he had his plan in motion. There were a few words exchange, some tears, threats of violence, but in the end, when it was all done, I have to say it looks great. It will certainly look even better when we get all that new furniture in. We decided to watch a little TV to wind down, but this time I put on a cooking show, because neither of us is ever rushing out to cook a meal anytime soon, and stubbed my toe on the way to the couch. Life is good.