"The House is a Wreck."

Here we go again!

 

So, once upon a time, (about 24 years ago), I went to Girl's Camp as a ward camp director. Incidentally, that was the last time I went to Camp as anything but a visitor until 2011. But that's beside the point.

 

When I returned from Camp that year, I walked into my empty house without Todd (who was at work at the time). Our house then was a tiny 900-sq.ft. house over the river. I must say that I still remember the tears coming to my eyes when I walked into my gleaming, immaculate kitchen. Todd had taken great pains to make sure the house was perfect when I arrived. (In those days, we didn't have a dishwasher, and he had not only washed the dishes, but also dried, put away, and also put away the dish rack that stayed continually on the counter. So it was a pretty amazing sight.) It was a wonderful gesture that really touched my heart.

 

Fast forward now to 2012. When I returned from Girls Camp this year, I had Alyssa and Darcie with me, driving the Suburban, which was filled with all our camping gear. Todd had Emma at work with him. Knowing she would be excited to see us (well, excited to see her Darcie!), and would be tired of spending days with Daddy, we stopped there first to pick her up and take her home with us. My conversation with Todd ran something like this:

 

Todd: (apologetic tone) "The house is a wreck."

 

Me: (sleepy and totally not worried about it) "That's ok."

 

Todd: "No, really. The house is a *wreck*."

 

Me: (figuring I've got myself and 2 healthy teenagers -- we can handle a little cleanup) "It's O.K. Really."

 

Todd: (his tone now implies that I'm not understanding his point at all) "NO."

(then, full of meaning, he said) "I *WRECKED* the house."

 

Me: "Uhhhhhh........"

 

Todd: "But I gathered up most of the plastic, so you can get in the front door...."

 

Well, that's a comfort. .... I think.

 

Now, in Todd's defense, you must understand that I started this. Really, I did. It all started with this:

 

 

That's the wall mural that greets every visitor and resident who walks in our front door (just out of camera range on the left of that window). It's at least 20 years old. I remember being here when it was put up. It's 3 wallpaper panels, surrounded by a homebuilt frame of mouldings. And it's not that it's all that bad... but it's pretty outdated, and not my decorating style at all. In its day, it was great.

Since we've lived here, I've talked about removing it. But there have always been (and still are)numerous other projects that have taken precedent over this one. So it has remained.

Until now.

Now, if you were mere days before getting married, what would you be doing? Because Brandon got enlisted to climb the scaffolding on the stairs, and remove a mural for his mom. Good thing he loves me, huh! First came the moulding -- and let me tell you, it was a real stretch to reach it:

Then came the wallpaper panels. Most of it stripped off cleanly, and we only needed a little bit of wallpaper stripper to remove the last bits.

When I left for Girl's Camp, the wall looked like this:

Yes, that's mint green underneath that. Ooh, Yum. Not.

And may I take a moment to show you the adorable little gifts that our stake leaders were "pranked" with at Girl's Camp? Click on the picture to read them all. If this is any evidence, I'd say that "Kamp Kind" was a success. They can come back and prank me anytime!

Meanwhile, back at the ranch....

Todd again enlisted Brandon for assistance. And this is the view that we came home to find:

If you paid attention, and looked REALLY closely in those first photos, you might have noticed the old, original, acoustical "popcorn" ceiling. Yeah, that ceiling ran through most of the upper level of the Haven, and some of the lower level, too. Bit by bit, we've gone about removing the popcorn. The kids each worked on their own bedroom ceilings. But bedrooms are an enclosed area, and the open entryway/hallway/dining room is one continuous, LARGE popcorn area, and also adjacent to the living room popcorn. We've overlooked removing it.... until now.

Todd figured that as long as he had to repair the big wall before repainting -- which included patching and re-texturing -- and since half the family was gone, it might be a good time to tackle the de-popcornization of the ceiling. Yes, we're back to the Domino Theory of Home Improvement!!

He didn't get as far along in his project as he'd hoped to do before we got back from Girl's Camp. But I'm ok with that. And by taking down the popcorn, he discovered places in the ceiling that would need to be patched (silly sheetrockers from the mid-70's that didn't do a good job in the first place!).

Since then, he's worked on patching as time has allowed. Which hasn't allowed too much, because directly after Girl's Camp Week came Wedding Week -- out of town. Plus, we need to put some plastic back down before he can continue much more.

And do you know what his concern really was?

He was worried that I might be upset about him starting a project and tearing up the house when we had the wedding bearing down on us.

Was I upset??   NOT  IN  THE  LEAST!! I'm so thrilled to see it happen! And besides, it's not like we've got wedding events actually happening at our house. So, it's very easy for me to walk out the door, right past a bit of a mess, and I can totally forget that it's even happening.

That is, until he enlists me to help him put plastic back down while he patches more ceiling spots, including all the way down the hallway (not shown in these photos). And there's still the dining room ceiling that is connected to this, but not yet attacked.

Yet.

It's ALL good!!








P.S. With the probable bonus of replacing the old light fixtures with new ones!! WOOT!