vmac+cheese

Things have been crazy around here this last month. Crazy how? Well, first the holidays — which should be obvious in and of itself. Then, the big move (again, obvious). It feels like I haven’t had a weekend off in ages, since lately the weekends have been jam packed with Target and Home Depot runs, as we try to get our new place in order.

Since it was a three-day weekend this last weekend, Joe and I decided we’d spend all day Saturday painting our new dining room and living room. The “before” was sort of mossy-lime green color. A perfectly lovely color, but not in my dining room and living room, and not when we were planning to decorate with espresso tones, dark greys and oranges. Here’s the before:

Several things:

1) Please don’t judge on the random and completely non-balanced selection of things we have in these shelves. We’re working on accessorizing and putting things in their proper place.

2) I’d like to note that this green color of paint was paired with crimson red velvet window treatments, which we’ve replaced with simple white linen curtains. All signs point to the previous tenants being color blind.

3) That glimmer of a flame you see in the fireplace was our sad first attempt at starting a fire. We purchased some very hard wood, which didn’t want to light at all. After this photo was taken, Joe’s solution was to throw a bunch of junk mail we had received on top of the logs and then set all the papers on fire. I love him dearly, but he was obviously never in Boy Scouts.

When that didn’t work, he wrapped the logs up in brown paper grocery sacks and set those on fire. I said, “Honey, we need longer burning kindling to get these logs going. Pieces of paper aren’t going to do it.” He replied, “This will work great!” And then, “What’s kindling?” He also scoffed at my seven years in Girl Scouts on his way out the door to get some wood chips from Ace Hardware, in the hopes of those starting a fire with almond wood. If you can’t tell, the moving and the painting almost resulted in a divorce. But we talked it over, and solved everything with a big bowl of ice cream.

And the fire? Turns out the secret is to buy a Duraflame equivalent:

What’s that, you say? You love the new gray walls? We love them too. On my computer, the color of the walls is looking strangely periwinkle, but I promise, these walls are definitely gray. The name of the color is Morning Fog. Morning Fog is gray, not periwinkle. Here’s the color sample from the paint store:

In case you’re wondering, yes, those are the red velvet curtains folded up on the floor. Let’s get one thing straight: I adore red velvet cake. Red velvet curtains are another story.

I guess I should also acknowledge the fact that these are the first pictures I’ve shown you of the new digs! The shot above is of the formal living room. Me likey. Here’s our dining room, amazing bay window seat included:

We’re still working on getting dining chairs. One thing at a time, people. The living room has a nice bay window seat of its own:

Here’s the door to the living room, which leads out into our foyer and a long hallway:

This house was built in 1914, and now that I think about it, it’s kind of amazing that I’m living in a house that’s almost 100 years old. Dudes, check out that BEAUTIFUL double crown molding at the top of the ceiling!

As I’m sure you can tell, the taping and the painting and the touching up and the fireplace and all that has kept me busy. So busy in fact, that yesterday morning, my body said, “Eff you. I’m done,” and decided to shut down for the day.

It was right before breakfast when I started to feel a little funny. Then I started ralphing. Then I felt like a dying laptop battery — I’d lay down, recharge, and feel okay, but the minute I’d get up, I had no energy and walking to the next room felt like I was trying to run a marathon. My body ached from head to toe (what I’d initially though was muscle pain from painting turned out not to be). I alternated from being freezing cold to having intense hot flashes. I couldn’t eat anything. I could barely drink water. I took a hot bath at 7:30pm, then afterwards, and had to be helped into bed I was so fatigued (Joe to the rescue!). I went to sleep at 8:15, and slept until almost 9 am.

I know what you’re probably all thinking: Mono!

Nope, had that in college. And once you get it, much like chicken pox, you’re set for life. Except, I got chicken pox twice. But that’s another story.

Pregnant! Sorry to disappoint, but no. Definitely not.

Swine Flu! I thought so too, but I had no upper respiratory symptoms. It was weird.

When I got up this morning, I was still a little shaky, and definitely didn’t have a ton of energy, but by 2 pm today, all was well again. It may have just been a 24 hour bug, but I also suspect my body finally revolted and said “Slow down! You need to take a break before you totally burn out!” Thanks, body. As always, you were right.

Filed under: Beautiful Things