"Vacation" Home

This is from Ty Pennington's At Home magazine.

Have you ever come home from vacation at a great resort and felt a huge letdown when you entered your own house? ....designer Amanda Sandberg and her husband, Blake, have made it their business to remake houses to feel like a getaway all year round. Amanda and Blake are serial renovators: They buy unly-duckling houses...and while living with their own family in the house, renovate and decorate to create an irresistible idyll. Then they sell the home---furnishings, artwork, and all--so the new owners can enjoy the total experience.

How cool is that? That's their job together. Buy it, remodel, redecorate. A total blank canvas in each room that it your JOB to paint, find and make art for, accessorize, co-ordinate. So cool. It immediately captured my imagination.

Mind you, I wouldn't be a good fit for that life. I'd loose my mind living in a constant state of remodeling. Or at least, I couldn't live in a constant state of remodeling AND homeschool. If the kids were gone all day and my job while they were gone was painting and projects, maybe.

But, the other piece of this puzzle is that I STINK AT FINISHING PROJECTS. It's sad, but true. How many weeks ago was it that I set out to rearrange and redecorate the school room? And I put a lot of hours into it. And the basic floor plan and elements are in place. But it's not finished. Even as I type, the wall above my computer is bare. I want to hang two "water lillies" paintings up there...one by Toa of Boy and one by Sweetling. Plus Toa of Boy's self-portrait and Sweetling's self portrait. But I haven't yet, because I also want to get frames for these pieces. I can't afford frames right now, so the wall is bare and the precious pieces of art are in a box somewhere. I should put up the art, unframed and then get the frames later, but I haven't. Along one side of the room are three boxes of books still waiting to go *somewhere*, and three empty boxes, also just waiting.

And since you've joined me in my little arm-chair psycho-analytic session, I think what happens is: I get to a point where I can't get the project done as perfectly as I had envisioned it, so I stop working and never complete the project. And I fine little excuses like, "oh, I can't get frames right now" to justify the line of boxes left waiting on the tarmac.

Ok, that's pathetic. I'm getting off the blog now and finishing the schoolroom. Bet I can have the little unfinished bits all wrapped up and put away in about half an hour.