Back to work

Friday evening my family and I came to The House of Goodwill for the long holiday weekend.  It was the first time here this year; the first time back since we left the week before Thanksgiving.

When we left in November, the trees still had some leaves.  They are all off now.

When I stepped out on the back porch, there was a view of the lake (as well as the neighbors' houses) that I had never seen before!

Directly behind our house

It's neat to be able to see all of this; since all these trees usually obscure the view.

(Which makes for great privacy in the warmer months.)

I can even see the barn and the pasture land where I hear the cows all summer across the inlet.

Santa brought me an electric blanket for Christmas; it's been warm enough that I've been able to have my coffee and read outside almost every morning (with my blanket).  Without all the leaves on the trees, the bird show has been even better.

It has been so utterly and perfectly quiet in the morning hours.  (And really all day.)  The geese are the only sounds I hear outside.  It's just so peaceful.

My family left but I stayed this week to paint.  I need to get the hallway and foyer finished; it would be hard to paint with my dogs here as well as three humans coming and going.  So my husband and son are doing work and school back at the home/house while I'm here working by myself.  I really don't mind being alone too much.

I thought I had some "before" pics of the hallway, but I guess I never took any.  I'm painting more 1970's molding, taking it from dark to white.  It's about a five day process to degloss it and put the five coats of paint it needs to cover it.

Here is how it looks after a day of deglossing and one day of painting:

The hallway is shaped like a T.  Here is the section leading to the foyer.

3 door frames to paint.

3 bedrooms are off this section of the hallway.

Fortunately, the door frames have already been done (I did them when I painted the bedrooms they are attached to), so here I'm just doing floor molding.

I'm also doing this small segment of the foyer.

The foyer is so big (ie - it has TONS of dark molding everywhere), that I've been working on it in segments.  It's a lot easier to eat an elephant that way!

I'm also painting the baseboard molding in the master bedroom closet - I never did it when I painted the bedrooom, but want it to be consistent with the rest of the house.  No pic of that.

Nothing particularly fascinating work-wise going on at the moment.  Just lots of painting to do.  (And praying.  And audio book listening.  And music.)

Thank you God, for such an enjoyable project.  Thank you for peaceful mornings.  I'm so grateful.