The second bedroom/nursery redecoration project completed late in April and early June of this year to accommodate Wee Jamie and installation of a set of French doors instead of a large window was such a complete and smashing success that the Daughter Unit and I have gotten ambitious. She has passed the final portion of the necessary exam to get her real estate license, but still wants to stay at home with Jamie until next month. Speaking as the built-in babysitter, that’s perfectly fine with me. Looking at how very pleasant and attractive that room at the front of the house is now, a kind of Cape Cod cottage look, with very pale blue walls, grey-washed wood-look vinyl flooring, and ice-white paint on the trim, shelves, closet door and ceiling, we are getting ambitious. We are now looking to do pretty much the same to the den – a room of about the same size, opening off the living room. In some iterations of the floor plan for our house, that room opened into the hallway and functioned as a third bedroom. The original owners of my house used it as a home office – and we have used it as the TV room and set up the large closet as a workstation for the sewing machine.

The walls are hung with a variety of pictures, some of sentimental value, others of small value but attractive, and some just … because. The 1920s armoire that we raided off the sidewalk a few years ago and fitted out as a media center, and three bookshelves takes up a good chunk of space along two walls, and a pair of upholstered armchairs and tuffets take up much of the rest available. So clearing it all out, and shifting the heavy bits will be a chore that takes up the rest of the month. We’ll patch the walls and do the paint ourselves, and have Roman and his minion do the ceiling, the cornice, and install the flooring, too, if I can afford it. But the room and the closet will have to be emptied out, at least partway, to accommodate the painting and all. Not looking forward to it all – as the three bookshelves are fill of books and videos, and the armoire is full of DVDs, as well as the television.

We started today by taking down all the pictures. The Daughter Unit’s ambition is to work the real estate market, and eventually by the time that Jamie is kindergarten age, to purchase a house of her own a little way into the Hill Country. A fair number of household items are hers and will go with her – including about half the pictures. We wrapped up those and stowed them in the garage and filled up a box of stuff we decided we didn’t really care for any more for a run to Goodwill … and that’s enough for one day.