*Lyrics from St. Vincent’s song Surgeon from their latest album Strange Mercy. I totally dig her voice, their strange and quirky sound, and the fact that this album is so new to me. Have I mentioned that I love music? I do. Can’t help it. Wouldn’t want to.

With the fall season officially upon us, and with rain seemingly never ending, I am just now getting around to noticing that my blog is woefully out of date. Perhaps due to the marathon of painting, prepping and coordinating that I’ve been doing for my mom’s new place. Yes, yes, that’s it. My neglect for my blog is due to the work that I’m doing that I should be blogging about. A vicious cycle.

But, over at ye old condo we’ve made quite a bit of headway. Since last you saw pictures, we’ve completed the following: painted living room; painted kitchen; patched sheetrock in laundry room; painted ceiling and walls in laundry room (after visit from plumber); painted trim in entire downstairs, including doors; sanded and prepped baseboards for painting and reinstall (thanks to a lot of help from my sister and a friend); stenciled and painted a bedroom; painted other bedroom; replaced toilet in main bathroom (extra thanks to sis’ bf); ordered and received (and stacked and acclimated) flooring; and, received new appliances. Phew.

It’s been a crazy, break-neck pace, with barely a moment to snap a picture, let alone dust myself off enough to actually feel good about taking the camera out of the bag. Between the driving around (mom’s place is about 30 miles away), the physical work of fixing the place up, the stress of neglected duties at home (and an insanely busy husband), and the coordinating of extremely busy (and behind the Irene 8-ball) subs, I’ve been feeling pretty overwhelmed. They don’t call it sweat equity for nothing. Don’t kid yourself – renovations are hard, stressful, and make everything in the world feel like they’re spinning out of control.

But, I did manage to take a few photos during the past few weeks, mainly of my stencil work. Stencils do not equal wallpaper – remember that when planning your own space. They are lovely, and can offer great visual interest and textural detail to an otherwise flat wall, but they are not crisp, can never be crisp, and should not be expected to be. (These are really point for me to remember.) The great thing is, though, that because the stencil isn’t wallpaper, it’s also low commitment. You can have it for a year or two, and when you tire of it, just lightly sand it and paint over it. Simple. So that’s the reason why it worked in this space. If my mom gets bored of it, or if we need to rent out the place, or whatever, we don’t have a huge headache on top of it all.

Some pictures of progress, at least some anyway. More to come! Enjoy! xoxo