more work around the house, hiding the formica

Today was still very cold, so no work outside. We did get almost 1 1/2" of rain yesterday, so that was very good and I did not have to worry about watering at all today.

The area of the wall I patched is looking good, but when I held the outlet cover up, I realized that I also needed to patch above the outlet, so I did that and then left it to dry. With the wall patching still drying, that left me looking for something else to do instead of painting, as that would have to wait.

We have several large boxes that have been in the living room since we moved and several other boxes we had brought over to go through "later". I decided that "later" had definitely come and we worked most of the morning going through the boxes of kitchen, desk and just misc stuff, deciding what to keep, what to give to Goodwill, what to take back to storage and what to toss. In the end, I had a small box for Goodwill, one of the big boxes 1/2 full for storage and a full garbage bag, plus some new things in the kitchen and the desk. The living room looks SO much nicer without the boxes sitting there. I hid the piece of formica my mom uses as a table under the loveseat. I just hope we can remember where it is if we need it!

I also want to do something about all the artwork we have needing to be framed. I had some 11 x 14 black frames I had purchased for some of my mom's old photos, but they turned out to be 8 X 10. So, I found two saluki prints, one which is a cheap knock off version of the real print and I've never been happy with, and one that I need to mat as it is an odd size. The print whose quality I wasn't happy with was 11 X 14 and fit perfectly in the frame. I hung it in the kitchen up fairly high on the far wall. The colors look great and from that distance you can't tell that the clarity is not all it could be. The print that needs to be matted is almost large enough for the frame. I need to get a piece of acid free white paper to put behind it, but for now there is just a tiny edge of cardboard. I hung that on the wall you pass closest to when you walk into the kitchen. I think it looks great there. We also found an old southwestern themed trivet that we hung on the wall above the telephone.

I also rehung the framed tile that we have always thought looked like Bally. It now hangs in the dining room facing the keyholder tile of a red saluki.

I have another piece of saluki artwork that will look good in the laundry room, but it is in a very thick mat. I've had a bit of trouble finding a frame that it will fit in, at a good price. I'll check Garden Ridge after Christmas and see what I can find. We also got our order of 3 large posters this week, two of which will go in the dining room. But, they will run about $25 each for the frames, so they will have to wait a bit. I did find two nice smaller frames for a few pieces of art in my mom's room. I purchased 3 11 X 14 black frames I had hoped would work for the Ruritania ads that I want to frame up in my room, but I will need a 16 X 20 frame for them, so I have to return those. I'm still not sure exactly what I am doing in my room, as I am waiting to get a new frame so I can FINALLY frame up 'Azali's Domain'. Again, that will have to wait a little bit.

After dinner, the patching was dry so I was able to paint that area of the wall and touch up where I had caulking yesterday. I also touched up the bathroom, but the wall there was stripped back to the wallboard and I think it might require a second coat of paint.

Mom did a lot of work in her room today and there is a lot more space. There is still tons of stuff that needs to be put somewhere. That is our major problem... no storage space. I am hoping we can figure out how to use the space in the dining room closet better once the lamp and its box are out of there. Speaking of the living room lamp, I am hoping we will get it hung this week if we can get Neil back out here. I also bought a lamp on ebay, but I don't think that will be here in time for him to hang, but I should be able to hang it myself, just have to figure out what to do with the ground wire.