The holiday rush
Do you feel that??? The hair on my neck is tingling, my shoulders are hunched forward and my eyes are starting to squint…the holiday rush is upon me.
Each year at work, mid November, it feels like everyone suddenly realizes that there are less than 30 days left before our facility closes for a winter break. And everyone tries to cram those tasks that have been procrastinated or just didn’t have time for, into those 30 remaining days.
I had hoped this year, since I, and most of the facility, have been housebound since March, that this madness would not occur… I WAS WRONG! Now, being wrong is part of my life, I have a four year old, I am wrong about a lot of things, but what bothers me is that this madness isn’t limited to the crazy people I work with, it has spread to my home renovation/restoration projects.
I usually have between three and six projects that I am working on at any given time—and now—suddenly—I realize that Thanksgiving is in a week, and Christmas decorating will begin immediately after! I am not like my childhood friend who had a tree up on election night (you know who you are!), I am impatiently waiting until the Friday after Thanksgiving to begin my decorating. But I suddenly have the urge to complete all of my projects before Thanksgiving!!!
2015 
2020 before reno 
New metal, Victorian style light with cut glass bulbs 
Cut-in tool 
2020 update 
2020 update 
New (to me) pewter sconces saved from Ebay and paint 
Updated sconce
Within the past week, I finished this project (3 more to go!), the second floor bathroom. When we purchased the home, it had been “spruced” up (I really need to scan the pictures from before, they are hideous!) and was given a “tin” ceiling. Weeeellllll that started to rust and I got the privilege to stand on a ladder for two evenings hand brushing the primer and paint to prevent any further rust. Then another two days on the ladder adding decorative opalescent paint (which no one can see) to the cornice and cutting in under the cornice with my kids paint brush (fun… no). The good news is, I didn’t’ fall once!
I swapped the green (every room in this house was green) for a soothing Benjamin Moore Buxton Blue (HC-149), swapped out the rusting chrome shelves for World Market, Mix and Match Marble shelves and the large chrome sconces for an Ebay find, pewter sconces (brought back from overly painted hell they were suffering).
the way they arrived 
you can see the pretty peeking out! 
60 years of dust on the socket 
Citristrip to the rescue! 
Finally, the way they should look 
unpainted, rewired, and perfect!
Before I call it officially done, I am waiting on a piece of fabric to make a small valance for the naked window and my son has said I need to rehang the “birds”, which are just pictures of the state birds from California (my birthplace), Pennsylvania (my sons birthplace), and New Jersey (my husbands birthplace). But for now, this feels great, it gives me a small amount of piece.
Now… where is my paint brush, I have another project to finish!
