Home improvements

Have you noticed how one little purchase can start a cascade of other… problems?  My small third bedroom is known as ‘the computer room’ and has one bookcase.  And cardboard boxes full of shit.  That bookcase, a cheap white laminate KMart special that was inherited from my ex-mil is seriously full and seriously sagging from the weight of books and magazines.  I thought I wanted built-ins until I got a couple of estimates and decided my budget wasn’t that rich.  I found some bookcases at Home Decorators that I was on the verge of buying.  Which meant I’d have to put them together, which I don’t mind, but is time consuming and requires a lot of floor space.  And well, my knees weren’t looking forward to crawling around in the floor.  But I was game.  Thank goodness, a chance trip to Costco solved my problems and I bought two Kathy Ireland bookcases fully intact.  Getting them home and getting them in the house and out of their giant boxes is another story altogether…

I didn’t want to install the bookcases in a room with tired old paint on the walls so I decided to paint.  That presents another problem of picking out a color, but eventually went with Sherwin Williams’ ‘Gracious Rose.’  I like the idea of living in a room that color…..a lot.  It’s purty and the bookcases look good against it.  Or against the one wall that I have painted.  I have three more walls and trim to go. 

About painting…  Let’s not even begin talking about the problems that painting entails.  I don’t want to  begin adding up how many trips I’ve made to the paint store and the big box home improvement store.  And the receipts for stuff that I needed…and still need to finish the job.  About not washing the paint out of the paint tray.  About a paint roller that’s frozen solid in the freezer.  About the cheap brushes that I found in the garage.  About the spackle that wasn’t adhering.  About Kilz.  About, about, about; well, you get the idea. 

But I haven’t put anything in the cases yet because there’s more to bookcase than just unpacking those babies and filling them up with books.  I have to shim them and level them and attach them to the wall so they don’t topple over.  Plus the ex says they’re too pretty to mess up with books and shit and maybe I should just set pretty little doodads on them.  Huh?  I don’t think so. 

But back to the problem.  Now the carpet is looking seriously ratty.  I’m thinking of looking at hardwood flooring.  Maybe a filing cabinet to match my bookcases.  They have a nice big matching desk too.  And a hutch!  Will it never end?  Help meeeeeeeee…