One Thing Leads to Another

Now, if you had a three hours all to yourself on a Saturday, what would you do?

Read a book?

Watch a movie?

Start a fun new project?

Me? I pulled a Frankie Heck and started taking care of random crazy home improvement projects. If you give a moose a muffin….

We were doing a family pick-up in the living room before the rest of the crew took off, and came across this fine piece of Joey’s artwork. There’s no way “Pig of Glory” (yes, that is the official name he was tagged with by the artist) was going in the trash, so I stashed it in the closet for later.

Then I realized that “The Winter’s Night” — from winter — was still sitting on a shelf, waiting for me to come back to it. Hmm. OK! No time like the present. I grabbed a couple of canvases and just wrapped the paper around the edges, tacking the sides down with electrical tape*. Quick and dirty, but thanks to a couple of push pins, they were up on the walls within the hour.

Next up: finally changing the lightbulbs in the chandeliers. The situation in the workroom was particularly bad, because it was hard to see, and kind of depressing. The ugly smoked glass domes were so dusty. Rather than try to dust them, I took them down to clean them. Two and a half hours later, I had to leave, and the globes were only half done. Look, though!

First, fine 70s glass. I really don’t know if they came this way, or if they were just coated in the thirty years of the original owner’s cigarette smoke.

Either way, kids, don’t smoke. Look at the next stage, after a soak in a vinegar bath and some time with the pot scraper:

Can you see why I couldn’t stop?! Wait — there’s more:

TA DA!! And you would not believe what a difference it made. This room is BRIGHT. I had no idea it was so bad!

Funny thing, though, rather than be sad that my peaceful hours were wasted on this kind of madness, I think this was the best Saturday in weeks. Now the only question is how else can I transform this house for zero dollars?