I Must Be Getting Older…

I live in an older house.  It’s about my age.  Older.  Ahem. 

My house is typical of the houses in this area of town built around that time.  It’s smallish – 1600 + square feet.  It’s built on a nice large corner lot and has 4 big beautiful oak trees on the lot.  When I say typical, I mean that there is a skinny 1 car garage, 3 smallish/average bedrooms, a teeny tiny bathroom in the master bedroom and a larger bathroom off the hall.  Also typical for this age/place – it has been added on to.  A narrow long room across the back.  It is a rather awkward shape, but does give some more openness to the house.  The kitchen has been ‘updated’ – some.  A laundry room addition was also made to get the washer/dryer out of the skinny garage.  All in all – it’s nothing special.  BUT, it’s in a ‘hot’ area of town, so it is EXPENSIVE as heck.  The going rate is somewhere between $190 and $250 per square foot.  For THAT price, in other areas of town I could have new construction, 4 large bedrooms/3 baths, a swimming pool and all sorts of "amenities". 

I live where I do because this is where I grew up.  Well, that and the fact that Daddy dearest likes me within a 2 mile radius at all times…

I don’t have much spare money – ever.  The house, when I bought it, had ALL walls painted beige, except for one bedroom which they used as an office and IT was painted a very dark hunter green.  A very yuppy attorney sort of color.  Oh yeah – they guy I bought it from was a very yuppy attorney.  Duh.

A couple of years ago I painted the kitchen – peach and aqua.  Yeah, I know.  Sounds…….er……..harsh?  It’s actually quite a nice combination – inspired by the fake-arse stained glass lamp on the ceiling. 

When Chickie got pregnant, the hunter green room became pepto pink. 

I am so sick of beige walls.  So this summer I took some of my limited funds and decided to paint my teeny tiny little bathroom.  How much could it cost, right? 

Now, as is – again – typical, for this type of house, the bathroom wall is tiled halfway up the wall.  The tile is a very light yellow.  Sort of a banana pudding sort of color.  The border tile is a very dark forest green.  So what color did I decide to paint the upper walls?  It’s kind of a cross between coral and flamingo.  What?  Pink, yellow and green.  They’re all on the color wheel!

I didn’t realize, for some reason, when I bought the paint just how bright it is.  Bright, vibrant, spirited…just plain LOUD!  But, by golly, I picked that color and I’m sticking to it.  So….. I needed something to break up the epanse of coral flamingo.  I thought some stenciling.  Yeah, that’s it.

Apparently stenciling is out of vogue…and you can’t buy the damn stencils anywhere .  They used to be EVERYwhere.  Now, they are NOwhere.

Plan B.  I found these cute little wooden boxes at Big Lots.  $10 for a set of 4.  They’re about 4×4 I think.  They are meant to hold pictures, but If I take the glass out, I can put little doo-dads in them.  BUT, they’re white.  I do NOT need to add another color.  heh.

SOOOOOO – I am in the process of painting my doo-dad boxes.  The inside will be banana pudding yellow and the outsides will be forest green.  Then I’ll hang them in a cunningly attractive arrangement and find the most amazing little doo-dads to doo-dad into them.  And THEN – nobody will notice that the walls are loud enough to wake the dead.

Sounds like a plan, doesn’t it?  I’ll, uh, let you know how it turns out.