Relief!

Thank you, thank you, thank you to Mom for coming to help me with the house Sunday and Monday! Mom came Sunday morning, Waffle House breakfast in tow, and proceeded to work magic on my house. I moved from lying on the couch to lounging in various chairs in various rooms while she worked. At about 11:30 that night, as we were standing in my very unfinished dining room (the sheet rock is in very rough shape, we tore a closet out when we moved in and never patched any of it up, and the door to the one-day-porch has a long gap where the sheet rock doesn't meet the trim... let's face it, when you bought a house with 3 livable rooms and no kitchen, the aesthetics of the dining room are far from a priority!) Mom threw out the idea, "Hey, why don't I just putty what I can, smooth what I can, and throw some paint on these walls!". So, that is what she did. That night, she puttied some holes before bed. The next morning, she dropped the boys off at school and took me to my doctor's appointment.

The midwife checked me out and much to our amazement, I have had no changes since Friday. So.. she lifted my bed rest! I can't "run any marathons", but I can perform normal routine life stuff. This is very good considering I have no idea how I would have made it through the week...

After the good news, Mom and I picked out some curtains, found paint that matched exactly, grabbed some trim for around the door, and headed home. I picked up the boys from school while mom moved all the furniture away from the walls. When I came home, I sat and painted window trim while she edged the room. I managed to do the vast majority of my painting while on my rump... and Mom managed to kick serious butt on the rest of the room. By the time Jeff came home, the extra trim piece was added to the sides of the doorway, the trim was all painted, the corner cabinet that Randy made me in 2001 and I still hadn't painted- was painted, the walls had two coats of paint that the boys said looked just like melted chocolate, the curtains were hung, and the house was clean again.

I have lived here in this house for 4 years. I started out sleeping in the dining room. Every night I had to lie in bed and stare up at the holes and tears and the obnoxious gaping marks that the old closet wall left on the sheet rock. I had to cover up the door to the imaginary porch and the two windows because the trim wasn't finished and the gap down the side required extensive effort to fix. To have this room looking decent is amazing. We aren't saying it is finished... the sheet rock is still bumpy and needs a lot of work, the tacked up trim job I did is far from professional, the floor will have to be pulled up, subfloor laid, and then the planed flooring put back down... all of these things still need to be done. But, in the meantime, I can relax instead of cringe... and finally enjoy eating in a pretty room!

(Paint - Ralph Lauren Old Violin / Curtains from Home Depot)