Redecorating and Retreating

One thing I forgot to mention about my trip to Ontario: I had planned to do lots of walking, reading and knitting, but the first day I was there I saw how the wallpaper that #1 and I had put up when they moved into that house in 1996 was peeling badly.  I suggested that for a project while I visited I would remove the peeling paper and paint the walls.  That suggestion was quickly approved.

I really enjoy redecorating rooms, especially if they're looking somewhat grungy.  So I set to work on Saturday (which happened to be a rainy day anyway).  I peeled off the old paper and washed away the bits that were left from the underneath parts.  Then I patched the walls.  There was a bit of old paint left, but most of the walls seemed to be bare plaster.  To minimize the bump where the paint met the plaster I spent a lot of time and elbow grease sanding down the edges of the painted part.  That was a really worthwhile thing to do.

Because the ceiling had a lot of water stains, I used some Zinsser white for the first coat, to block the stains.  Then I bought a gallon of Behr paint and primer, pure white to second coat the ceiling and first coat the walls.

#1 had a few pots of paint left over from some bedroom redoes--about 1/3 gallon light blue, 1/3 gallon light pink.  I mixed them together and they made a really lovely lilac, but it was a little too intense.  Fortunately there was another 1/3 gallon white from another project.  When that was added, the lilac was really precisely the right shade to complement the tiles.  It took two coats to completely cover the white.

The final step was to paint the fronts of the drawers and doors beneath the long countertop.  A little scrubbing of tiles and floor and the whole room was just simply spiffy!  What a treat to see the change! It made a great project which was much more interesting for me than just sitting around lazily.

 This morning we were completely fogged in.  When the fog lifted all the filmy spider webs were revealed, a delicate beauty.  (There's a bit of reflection because I shot this picture through the window.)  It reminded Jim of his childhood, walking to school and disrupting the spider webs with a forked stick.

Over this past weekend I had the joy of attending an Art Retreat at King's Fold, a beautiful centre northwest of Cochrane.  There was rain for most of the weekend, but that didn't really bother us too much.  This is the view from the dining room, and on a clearer day you can see the mountains in the distance.   For my project impetus I was given Psalm 139, "You have searched me, Lord."  I had taken along my laptop because I felt strongly that I wanted to do some composing.  I was able to complete three pages of a four part choral anthem with organ accompaniment, covering the first six verses of the Psalm.  I so much enjoyed the whole experience; it was very positive and the work flowed along in an exciting way.  I hope to return to that composition and bring it farther along at some future date.  

For now it's time to do some cleaning and baking in preparation for a visit from Jim's nephew and his wife starting on Wednesday.