The problem is that when you move, even if you have the same amount of space (or more), things never fit the same way again. It's like losing the last 2-3 pieces out of a jigsaw puzzle. Now I have more wall space (technically speaking only), but most of it isn't usable in the way I need it to be. There are too many door frames and window frames in the way, or the furniture is now in different places than in my previous house, as dictated by my new floor plan. It's very annoying.
Parts of my living room now have walls vaulting up a full two stories. That's great and all, but what the heck do you do with all that dead space? No one wants to sit around (or stand around, for that matter) getting neck cramps from trying to gaze at pictures, however big, 20 feet off of the ground. So what am I to do? It's a mystery.
A week from tomorrow I get to drive to the airport to pick up my girlie for Thanksgiving Break. I'm looking forward to seeing her, of course, but this means that I am in a bit of a tailspin this week, particularly after getting behind last week while I was under the weather. My goal was to have finished my sewing room, cleaned the whole house, and gotten--some 15 months later--all of my pictures hung at last. Guess what three things are still not done.
So far, I have 1 coat of paint on all of the cubby shelves (my last set, thank goodness!) in my sewing room, and a second coat on the two bottom shelves. Keep in mind each shelf has three cubbies on it, so you can imagine the amount of time and effort it's taking to paint the inside of what amounts to 21 boxes without painting all of the blue wall behind them. Finishing these shelves is important because I cannot finish unpacking and organizing the sewing room without them, nor can I hang my intended pictures in that room till I can see where they'll fit once everything's been put away, never mind if I'll have room will left over for other surplus pictures.
While waiting for hours for my flipping Schwan's guy to show up today, I did get a head start on some of the cleaning. The entire living room and dining room has now been dusted (no mean feat considering I hadn't done it in probably a month because I was working on the stupid sewing room before getting sick and delaying things further), except for the dining table because it is currently serving as Sort Central. I also have gotten half of the closet in my office organized. I know it sounds like these things should be unrelated, but they aren't. I have never been one to clean a single room at a time. I always have multiple things going at once because there's almost always overlap. For example, today, some of the stuff that needs to be cleaned in the sewing room belongs in the office, but before it can go in the office, I must first remove all the smaller picture frames clogging the shelves (which I have now done) so that those things will fit in my office. I had put off moving the smaller frames because first I had to finish getting all my furniture arranged and rooms cleaned (no point putting clean frames in a dusty room) so that I could finally decide which pictures should go in which room, and I couldn't really do that till I had them all out where I could see them and know what my options were. Also, I couldn't really place all my smaller prints until I had sorted out where all the big pictures were going, so I'd know what spaces I had left for them.
It's like freaking photographic dominoes around here today.
Before my choral practice tonight I spent a good 2-3 hours dredging out all the already-framed photos and putting them up all over the guest room so I could see what I had. Good thing there's no guests, because I'm pretty sure no one would be able to sleep with all those faces staring creepily at the bed like a silent and judgmental Greek chorus. Next I drug out my empty frames so I could decide which graduation pictures should go in which frame since none of those ever even got framed, what with the girlie graduating approximately ten minutes before moving and everything. So I knew that in addition to the framed pictures I already had, I'd have to leave spots to add the newer senior/graduation pics into the house-wide distribution mix.
When I got home from rehearsal, I spent another hour arranging and rearranging my BIG pictures to see what would work best where, relocating half of them from my original plan for the house. They still need to be hung, of course, but neither the hubs nor I were in the mood to drag the big ladder through the tight corners going from the garage to the living room. But I feel better for having a real plan now, because at least half of the picture jigsaw puzzle is now done. No doubt there will still be some jockeying of the other pieces as I try to fill in the empty spaces with whatever I can make fit.
In the meantime, the living room is 2/3 done, the dining room is 2/3 done, my office (at least as far as cleaning goes) is 1/2 done and organization is 3/4 done, and the sewing room is maybe 1/3 finished. I still have pictures to hang and pictures to display throughout the house, meaning I will finally be making said house (grudgingly) into a home because I will finally be admitting that this move is not going to unhappen anytime soon. I still have floors to do, the kitchen to do, bathrooms to do, and painting to do--though that part at least can wait a bit longer.
I've got Magic to Do, just for you...
I've got miracle costs to defray.
I've got dust to reform, meals to warm.
Pics and things to hang by storm,
As I clean the house todaaaaaa-ay-ay-aaaay.
And as if all that weren't enough, I still have to find the time to shop for Thanksgiving in there somewhere as well.
Anyway, if all miraculously goes well, then somehow everything will get done in the next week and I'll be able to cruise till Christmas, happy in the knowledge that not only will my house be clean, my sewing room and office fully functional and my clothes all laundered, but all of my framed art and photos will finally be hung by the chimney (and every-freaking-where else) with care, in the hopes that no
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