The Best Laid Plans...

On my post on Friday, I was super-duper excited that I was going to be painting (and completing) the diva's room.  You know that old saying about the best laid plans of mice and men?  Yeah.  Uh-huh.  Didn't happen.

Saturday brought rain, rain, and more rain, as a low pressure system went through our state, so I should have had plenty of time to get all that furniture painted and out of the diva's room, right?  Not really.  I did start the morning with putting the first coat of paint on the rocking chair and one of the end tables.  Let me tell you...  T-E-D-I-O-U-S.  Especially the rocking chair.  Painting with a brush just takes F-O-R-E-V-E-R.  I probably spent 3 hours on both pieces and still managed to have running paint dried in places I didn't catch.  Grrrrrrrrr!  And they're still not done!

Then, the hubs managed to seduce me into laying down and watching "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" with him.  I have to admit it was nice to snuggle up on a rainy day and watch a movie with him.  I can't remember the last time we carved out any time to just be with each other.  But that didn't get the furniture painted.

Sunday morning I got up again at 8 am and commenced painting the 2nd coat, which took another couple of hours, so at least they're that much closer to being completed.  However, I still have to start painting the other end table, which is sitting there looking all forlorn with its 3 coats of white primer.  Not to mention the boys' nightstands.   The hubs comes in and remarks, "That'd go a lot faster if you had an electric paint sprayer,"   Errrrrrrr....

You would think I had all day Sunday to get it done, so it'd all be finished right?  Nope.  Not even close.  Yesterday we cleaned out our garage.  Hey...  When the hubs is actually not having to work, or bale hay, or take care of fence rows, or feed cows, and is actually home and says he wants to accomplish something...  Well, I jump right on that.

Now, you have to picture our garage.  Really, its just a square hipped roof unattached storage building of all things junk.  The only thing that makes it a garage is that it has (well, had - more on that later) a garage door on it.  We don't even think about parking a vehicle in there.  Not to mention that his Dodge Ram won't fit and neither will my Yukon XL, but now my HHR - that would fit.  If there was room.  If you could even get into the nasty mess.

Last winter during one of our epic winter blizzards, a strong north wind completely pushed in the garage door and partially took it off its track, so it was half falling into the garage. So, for the last 8 months we've looked at a garage that we could not even think about getting into.  Now, most people would get right on fixing that.  Us?  Master procrastinators.  Too cold to take care of it in the winter...  Too busy to take care of it in the spring...  Too hot to take care of it in the summer...  Yesterday?  Perfect.  (We sound a little like Goldilocks, don't we?)  Yesterday was just right.  Highs in the upper 60s.  Gentle north wind.  So when the hubs said, "Let's get 'er done."  I said, "Okay!"

What an undertaking!  First we had to get the stinking garage door down, which was still partially hooked up.  And the hot mess that greeted us behind the door?  O.  M.  G.  Eight months worth of dead leaves, trash that had blown under the door...  Everything was covered in dirt that had blown in there too.  A north facing garage in Iowa?  Bad idea.  The boys (to their delight) even found dead bird and rabbit carcasses.  G-R-O-S-S!  We dragged it all out into the yard, sorted through all of it, and then either pitched it, burned it, or kept it.  Fun times, let me tell ya.  It'll never be a showcase garage like I see all over blogland, but it serves it purpose for the time being - until we get that 2 car attached addition we want (years from now people, years).

Seven hours later....

And the trailer full of cast offs....

But here's the silver lining to all my best laid plans being derailed...  Guess what we found in the midst of all that mess?

WOO-HOO!

When my Dad passed away, my brother and I divided everything.  I couldn't get rid of a thing for the last four and a half years.  Most of the stuff in the garage was things that I didn't really want, have a place for, and didn't know what else to do with.  I mean, it was my Dad's.  I couldn't just throw it away.  I even had clothes of his in there.  So, yesterday was kind of sad too.  I faced facts that I couldn't possibly hold onto everything and he wouldn't expect me to.  And I finally recognized, four and a half years after the fact, that's he's far passed caring about such things.  With some tears, I got rid of pretty much all of it.  However, finding the paint sprayer and even a Skil saw that I didn't know we had in all the boxes of his things - well, it kind of made me feel like he's still looking out for me after all these years.  That paint sprayer is going to make my life much easier.  Thanks, Dad.  

So, today the hubs is all rared up to get some yard work accomplished outside.  The weather is gorgeous again and in Iowa, when the weather gives you an opportunity to do something, you'd better do it!  

Today we're going to take this:

And make it look like this:

Exciting, no?

So, the diva is going to have a wait a little while longer for her room transformation.  And I'm going to have to wait a little longer to reveal my furniture rehabs.  But you know what?  The outside is going to look GREAT!