I moved the ball forward a little further.

Let's see, where was I?

Well, in a nutshell, I sanded and patched and sanded and patched for about 2 weeks. This is AFTER Jimi so very generously came up and spent 2 of his very valuable days establishing some shape on the ceiling corners. Seriously. And it still doesn't look that great. Finally



I decided that I was done sanding and patching, and began to prep to paint.

I'm using milk paint from the Old Fashioned Milk Paint Company. This stuff is kinda tricky. It's a bag of hydrated lyme, powdered milk and pigment. You mix it with water to turn it into paint, then you paint. Sounds simple, yes?

Well, of all things, I dislike doing drywall the most, as stated. But painting comes in a very close second. For some reason I was expected about 5 to 600 sq/ft coverage per gallon, figure 2 coats to cover, that's 250/300 sqf per gallon, right? Not even close. About half that. I blended what I had many times until I hit on a decent light sage color for the ceilings, did my cut in and started to paint. Ran out about 1/3rd the way through what I had hoped to accomplish with those materials. No way around it, I was shut down on that project for a week while I ordered up and got in more paint. Sigh.

So, I threw what effort I could into finishing at least one room. With a second thin coat on the ceiling, I decided it was good enough, and started in on the walls. What was supposed to be -in my mind at least- a yellow, turned out to be some really strange mustard colour. Again, going through 2 to 3x the amount of paint I expected, I managed to finally get all joint compound covered.



Second coat applied, still wet. Joint compound still clearly visible. Sigh, ,

And then, while doing laundry on sun morn, the dear ole not so egregious prius decided that it had had it's 200th birthday, so it's about time to throw a code. The check engine light came on, and the gas motor now no longer shut off. Mileage really started to suffer, I was back down in the range of 30-33mpg. So, on monday, I took it into Starks Auto, to make a long story short, (very long, involving bicycle crashes and other more fun stuff) it was a blown fuse.

So, the third coat:



Better. Still looks like Gulden's Mustard though.

But, the colour really started to grow on me.

Then yesterday, I went after other tasks, and listed the little playhouse on craigslist,



that's it in the foreground.

And Kelli contacted me, and WANTED it. For the kids, for a chicken coop. And by golly, she was going to make it happen. She bounded into the backyard with a neighbors utility trailer hitched to her Chevy Tahoe in a few hours, with her sister, niece and various offspring and other folks, and we had that thing loaded and gone in no time. Horse folks, these people, the last of the great american 'can do' clans.

last night, she sent me this pic:



Which I gotta say, really made my day.

So, today, I took a deep breath, and went after a project I've been dreading since I first conceived of it last fall. I've got lots of friends, who, -sorry for the biased cliche`- have -shall we say- last names that end in vowels that know how to do this stuff, but I am clearly out of my depth here.

Onward through the fog.



The slate is yet still another wonderful find from the the Habitat for Humanity Re-Store. We really love those folks.



So, the idea is to have a place to take off boots/shoes and stuff before walking on the floor proper. Further, the black slate is supposed to capture sunlight and couple that heat directly through the concrete board to the sand and then the tubes in the radiant floor system. Give it a boost as it changes from this zone into the bedroom zone. Both zones sends and returns pass through this section.



Gives an idea what I'm trying to do colour-wise. Capture the green and the wood, and balance it with the wall colour. The pic doesn't show the colours well, it looks better than this in person, really. Promise, honest, you'll have to come see.

And yes, one thing about projects like this is that no one ever bothers with the wall plates/outlet covers. I bought a few boxes of'em, and now whenever I'm just standing around staring blankly into a corner, I can slap on wall plates until i find something else I'd rather do.

PS,

And in other news,

At night, the bears come and eat the bird feeders, yes, the bird feeders themselves.
Now no more bird feeders, sigh.