2016 in Review

A new year brings new beginnings. I feel as though I've been working on new beginnings for a while now. Loosing someone has a way of doing that. About the time you think you have it all together a memory, a song, a card, a small note with his hand writing suddenly appears. You fall off your plateau of calm into a crying phase.
You have small bouts of insanity where all you want to do is lay on the floor and give up. Giving up is not in my vocabulary, to say nothing of Mr. P would not be happy with me drowning in self-pity. After giving myself a good swift kick in the bazooka and a strong talking to, a couple of cups of coffee later the game plan was soon formed. I knew I had to stay busy, there were lots of projects put off for many years that I wanted to work on, I needed and wanted change in my home. I felt as though I needed to take it from a "we" to a "me."

At the top of the list of things to do was to scrape the popcorn off the ceilings. The messy day to day task began. For many of you, the undertaking would not have been as much fun. I will own it and say I had an absolute ball. It all began in the master bedroom, almost 2 years ago. How is that possible? It doesn't feel that long ago, the room was emptied plastic put down. The sprayer was filled over and over again for the scraping of the dirty popcorn to fall freely to the floor. Once all of that was completed the painting of the ceilings began. The scrapping of all 9 rooms of ceilings took almost a full 2 years. I took the summer months off concentrating on other projects, picking up where I left off in the early winter months. The scheduling might not have worked for some, for me, it worked out perfectly. It's possible the break from the scraping and painting of ceilings kept the fire in me going to complete the task.

Late December of 2015 began with the taking of walls out, between the living room, into the kitchen and dining room. Looking back through pictures brings up a lot of memories, there were a lot of gatherings around the old island and dining room table. Those memories don't fade away, they stick like glue, it's now time to make new memories. To put new laughter and good times back into my home. Moving into January the work in the kitchen began, oh happy day. It's been the largest change to date and still not finished. A gal on a tight budget has to do things in stages. I feel so blessed each time I walk into this room and see the changes made, the up to date styling, the lighter look. The island no longer has that yacht feel, the new counter top on the island is clean and fresh. The sink side of the kitchen is scheduled to be replaced this year, pulling that area all together. The kitchen also has a desk with quirky corners that will be revamped and matching counter top installed.

As 2016 closed projects were still in progress around here. I've almost completed 2 of those with a reveal to the first one coming soon, something I'd been wanting to do for a very long time. I hope you'll continue to follow my journey as I embark upon this new life.

I pray all of you had a wonderful holiday and great beginnings for 2017.