Paige Davis, Eat Your Heart Out!

It’s Spring Break in sunny Central Florida, so lots of moving and shaking at Chez mimi. Instead of lying around on the beach with the rest of the tourists, we’re in full-bore home improvement mode.

The men who are recovering my counter with granite came to make a balsa-wood template of my kitchen today. That was cool. I’ve never seen a butane glue gun before. About two weeks from now, I should have lovely new counters that will demand a lovely new tile backsplash. More work on the horizon. (Please, God, let it all be done by the end of the school year…)

Exciting news: I now have a ceiling!! My lovely drywall contractors have put up a ceiling in my bedroom, complete with knockdown texture. They’ll be back in the morning to paint. You know what that means. Freshly painted ceiling needs freshly painted walls. So we’ll be painting tomorrow afternoon, of course.

In the midst of that, we’re ripping out the ruined carpet (nine days without power in the middle of August, courtesy of Hurricane Charley, destroyed it) and putting down parquet. That involves carpet knives, knee pads, saws, and cursing. It will be gorgeous when we’re done, though. Better yet: I have a very, very good shot at sleeping in a real bed, not just a mattress on the floor, by this weekend. Woo hooo!!

Today I painted DD’s room. Pink, natch (she’s five). I grit my teeth when I bought the color (protesting gender expectations, yada yada), but it looks pretty in there. Now DS wants his planets and aliens. Must strip wallpaper first…

How the hell do those people on TV get things done so quickly?