Saturday, February 12, 2011

Cleaning Spiders–and Elephants–out of the New/Old House

If you dropped by looking for Passion for Paint, I’m not hosting it for a few weeks – partly because we’re in the process of moving and partly because the link hosts are now charging a fee.

If you’re like me, you spend a ridiculous amount of time with your blog. But everything so far has been free. It’s been hard for me to justify the amount of time I spend blogging, but to actually lay out some cold hard cash? I can’t wrap my head around that yet.

Maybe after this move is over and I have a spare minute to breathe, it’ll make more sense.

Yesterday we went over to the new/old house to start cleaning before the painting begins. The house has been nearly vacant for the past 3-1/2 years, save for a bunch of spiders.

I’ll get to the elephant later.

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The spiders have been having quite a party, from the looks of things. The house sits on 13 acres, full of oak and pine trees.

And, apparently, spiders.

I started in the living room. See those lovely brown ceiling beams?

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Apparently, a Lionel Richie tune has been popular with the arachnids. {dancing on the ceiling}

From there, I moved into the master bedroom, aka Green Dungeon.

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See those french doors? They open onto the ‘spa’ room.

 

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Nothing very ‘spa-like’ about this space.

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More beams. Ugh.

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The Dungeon is getting painted today. I called in my Secret Weapon – aka BBH. He happens to be the fastest painter I’ve ever seen.

I’m trying Behr’s paint+primer. If it covers this green in one coat, I think I’ll write a thank you note to Behr.

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Here’s Sadie coming in from the spa room. We’re trying to get her acclimated to the new digs. She lived there from 2002 – 2007 and never, ever used the doggie door.

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Yesterday was a major success!!! She ran in and out, and out and in. And in and out some more.

If you have a dog, you know that getting them to use the doggy door is almost up there with potty training a toddler.

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I looked at these closets and thought to myself, “I think it used to be awfully dark in there.”

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Yep. I was right. It’s much darker than this picture shows, believe me. But I crawled in, anyway, shop vac in hand, and found a few more surprises.

 

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I’d forgotten all about this guy.

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I think it’s from a class I taught who-knows-how-long ago.

But it wasn’t as old as this!

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One of my mom’s high school awards. Her freshman year – 1942!

I thought it was pretty cool. She just shrugged it off. I guess she got a bunch of awards in high school.

Ah, high school . . . I loved high school. I didn’t get any awards, wasn’t a homecoming or prom queen, but I loved it. (Okay, so I was a cheer & songleader) I’m having such fun on Facebook, reconnecting with old high school friends. And some I didn’t even know back then.

But I digress. As usual.

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Have I mentioned in the last 5 minutes the house is old?

That means most of the outlets are 2-prong.

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And extension cords are 3-prong.

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So you need these little jobbies . . .

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. . . which add so much to the quaintness of the house. {j/k}

 

So after a few hours sweeping spiderwebs, vacuuming, and training  Little Miss to use a doggy door, we headed out to get paint before we completely collapsed.

Then I checked emails and Facebook. One of my friends on FB, who wasn’t my friend in high school, but has become a good friend now – still with me? – took this post and added his own feng shui problem.

 

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Do you sit at your computer and laugh out loud – literally, lol – and everyone in the room thinks you’re nuts?

Aw, c’mon. . . I bet you do!

This just tickled me, as well as all the comments from people who have no idea who I am, but were just enjoying a photoshopped picture of an elephant in my living room.

Thanks, Mike! I needed that last night.

Whelp, gotta run. Today is the first in what I’m sure will be quite a few paint days.

What are you up to this weekend?

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