All This Plus a Blog, Too

Projects around here don't get done fast. Or efficiently. Or in logical order. Not at all.

In fact, if you're looking for thoughtfully researched, well-planned, competently executed, finished on time, poetically blogged projects of hip, cutting edge renovations, you won't find them here. Believe me I aspire to that (well, everything but the hip and cutting edge. I gave up on that pretense years ago), but this is not that blog. This is the blog where projects happen while the homeowner is flying by the seat of her pants through doubt, stress, and exhaustion. This is the blog where projects get regularly interrupted by pots of macaroni and cheese, emergency Nintendo repairs, homework, and the fact that the household is out of clean towels.

Sometimes, it causes me blog envy. Kit over at DIY Diva is not only able to but often does work several 16-hour days in a row on her 19th century brick farm house and gets crazy loads of work done in just a few hours. The Petersiks at the wildly popular design blog Young House Love just pitch in together as a couple and improvements seem to go from demolition to pillow fluffing in mere days.

Neither views are exactly accurate or fair to those bloggers, all of whom are awesome in their own way. It's just that their time and priorities are distributed in different ways than mine, because they are different people. Kit's a young twenty-something who doesn't have kids. The Petersik's blog is successful enough that it's their full-time job (eek! How scary that must be at times!) Their lives are unique to them, and not mine. And then theres the illusion provided by a blog itself, where the process or mess can be edited down to 1200 words and 8 to 10 carefully staged photos.

All the advice says bloggers should "stay on message," stick with their theme, and concentrate on it. I decided to start a blog about an old house renovation, it's true. I'm disinclined to be slavish about sticking to one subject for a number of reasons, but the key one is this: it's not all me, all the time. There are things going on in my life besides home improvement projects.

Right now in my life?

School has started.

That's Ben and me fooling around with my cell phone camera right before he walked into the classroom on his first day of third grade. I love that cheezy (yes, when we're talking about that face, it's spelled with a "z") smile on Ben.

We're also ready for some football.

That's my oldest son with the pigskin, in a game last season. This is his senior year, and the family is looking forward seeing our son and brother play.

I'm baking cookies.

And muffins and brownies and......Four boys keeps me in the kitchen cooking. And then loading the dishwasher. And then cooking some more. The real reason I didn't show you anything more than the soffits and ceilings in the progress photos of my kitchen painting project? The counters were stacked full of the day's clutter from feeding a large family. Yep, while I'm in the middle of painting the kitchen.  Does my kitchen ever close? No. Is my kitchen ever clean? Rarely. But there's always something good to eat.

I'm planning a big yard sale.

There's the gritty reality shot for this post. It's the tubs of clothing and miscellaneous stuff that has been stacked and growing in a corner of my dining room for months now. I've also got furniture, housewares, a mechanic's tool bench, and other things the previous owners left behind. While I've considered simplifying things for myself by hauling it all to Goodwill, if I can get even a couple hundred dollars out of it, that's welcome capital for checking things off that huge list I have going.

I like to have fun.

Granted, my idea of fun is having a glass of wine while reading a book (and if I can manage it, having Mr. Man Friend rub my feet at the same time). But all work and no play make a girl, well, bitchy. It's best to build some time for yourself into every day.

As I wrap up writing this post, it's apparent to me that it was almost entirely "off message." There's nothing in here about vintage anything or renovation updates. But it's more honest than staying 100 percent stuck to a blog theme, I think. I am very okay with that.