Chaos

Here's what our dining room looks like at the moment. Pretty much every plant, picture and tchotchke we own is crammed in there, out of the way of the painters.

As I write I am lying in the middle of our very blue bedroom, where the bed is still far from the walls as they dry. Weirdly, I don't smell paint very strongly, but I think that has more to do with my nose than the room. I really should have my sinuses looked at. I can't smell anything anymore, but in this case it's probably just as well.

Here are some "before" shots. Above, our old gray/brown paint, with most everything cleared out of the bedroom. This has all been painted over now. Dave expressed doubts about the blue paint last night. "I hate to say I told you so," I said -- and he replied, "Did I choose that?"

Ummmm...yes. Yes, you did.

The funny thing is, I actually like it, though the darker blue does make the room look smaller. Maybe when we move everything back in again it will look more normal. Photos to come.

And here's our mostly cleared-out living room, awaiting repainting. We eventually rolled up the rug and moved that big yucca into...

...the hallway, along with the fiddle-leaf fig. These plants are so big and heavy we couldn't get them any farther than that.

We moved our Dracaena forest temporarily into the front hallway.

I will be so glad when all this is over and the house is put back together. Having everything topsy-turvy makes me tense. And to make matters worse, the tree guy is coming today to remove our fallen branch and kill the ivy growing up the elders at the back of the garden. I have a real sense of dread about losing the ivy but I suppose it has to be done.