Yesterday, hubby and I tackled the bedroom, moving enough stuff out so two walls are clear to paint, nailing in the mouldings, pulling out picture nails and hangers, and spackling and caulking. Today I’ll tape the rug by the trim, sand the spackle, and prime the trim and patches. That’s it. Tomorrow I’ll paint the two walls.

Doing it bit by bit will prolong the agony of having a bedroom in disarray, but it’s more realistic and will give me time for other things that aren’t painting. That’s a good thing.

I have to avoid messing up the horrible wall-to-wall any more than it already is, because we figured out how much it will cost to put in laminate flooring. Ouch. Before we do that, I need to find a reliable paving person. So far, we’ve had one mason who scheduled and broke two appointments and never called again, one who’s supposed to be doing work for the next-door neighbors who hasn’t shown up for them, another who cancelled and rescheduled, then didn’t show up for the second appointment and didn’t call, and a landscaper who rescheduled three times before he stopped returning our phone calls. This is nuts. At this rate, I’d better learn how to pour concrete myself. Before we get a new bedroom floor, we really need a safe front walkway. Getting a reliable masonry person around here, though, is harder than getting anything else we’ve tried so far.