zoom in

WARNING: This is not a short post...more like a chapter in a book.  It's about a tall, slender older lady who reinvents herself with a major makeover.  I call it, FIVE SHADES OF GREY.   Not as riveting as 50 Shades Of Grey, from what I've heard,  but hopefully captivating enough to keep you reading to the end. With that said, let me set the scene. What used to be my pantry with one wall of floor to ceiling cabinetry is now a walk through to my new half bath.  So instead of two doors and a window in a 4 1/2' x 6' room I have three doors and a window and a 32" wide floor to ceiling cabinet. (I should say, will have, shortly.  Another post coming on that.) That left a scant 27" wide wall space for a piece of furniture.  I thought this should be a secretary.  I never went anywhere without my tape measure and I think I measured at least 30 possible candidates before finding one that would fit. I spotted this one through an open door to the backroom in a

This morning I was off for the YMCA before sunrise.  Pretty impressive, right?  This is how that works.  I really don't like to exercise so I joined the Y to guilt myself into exercising.  You see, if there is one thing I dislike more than exercise, it's spending money on something I don't use. It was a little nippy this morning and about a mile down the road my feet are feeling like a little heat.  That's when I realized I was wearing birkenstocks and not tennis shoes.  So I took the next left and attempted to take another left but that happened to be a one way so I went 1/2 block further to the alley.  Remember, it's not light yet, headlights are on.....and my foot hits the brake.  It was an automatic reflex.  I have trained for this and my body responds from lots of practice. This was in the back of my van faster than you would think I could move. (and it's not lightweight wicker either.)  I continued on home and shoved it into my garage.  Then back in

Just to let you know I am ever so close to publishing my post on a piece of furniture for my new pantry.  But not just yet.  In the interim I decided to give you a peak at what's up next when that pantry/powder room project draws to a close. The last week of July, I had some of the hardwood floors in my home refinished.  I won't go into the details as my family and friends who follow this blog are already all too familiar with that saga.  But, I was not completely satisfied and finally last Tuesday the problem was resolved.  That means I can now move forward with my plans for three rooms that have been sitting vacant for seven weeks while all the furniture was piled in another room.  sigh! This was my bedroom but is soon to become my creative center.  I hope to make the adjacent room, seen through the pocket door, into a place to photograph small projects. But first all this woodwork needed to be wiped clean of sawdust.  Then primed and painted.  That meant remo