We left off with pictures of the dining room and things half done. I still have some things to do to make it "done" and "clean" and "non-crackhouse-like". Let's pick up where we left off with the interim.

The formal living room only had one working light switch attached to a plug. We hired an electrician to come in and add a ceiling fan and four recessed lights, since it will be our office space. Without the burgandy shades on the windws, it was already lightened up like Michael Jackson in the 90's, but then I painted the walls Ralph Lauren Cobblestone, which is another ever-changing color depending on where you put it:

I used the Cobblestone in the half bath downstairs also, which got new granite countertops in Carioca Gold since the old ones looked like someone had taken their Dreamsicle, smeared it all over the vanity, then hardened it and overcharged the builder for such a terrible piece of material:

If you can't tell, I had the light fixture changed out AFTER I painted, leaving a decorative wallpaper box. I still haven't fixed it. That's procrastination, baby, my specialty. We went and got a standing handtowel holder for the bald spot:

but other than that, we are thrilled with the granite and the job the installers did. You can't tell where the seams are and it looks like grown-ups live here. A little radon poisoning and we'll really be adults.

The final wall to paint in the dining room that I had hoped I didn't ruin completely was fairly easy to paint with Behr Bellagio Faux:

although I cannot stress enough how much it looks like shredded diarrhea:

The table and chairs were a little tough to get in around the banister in the foyer, since the builder apparently designed that in the bathroom with one hand filled with Tiger Balm and his little friend. Why do they not figure in for things like king-sized beds and huge mahogany tables having to go in around banisters?

I had worried that the living room would seem small and our furniture would dwarf it, but was pleasantly surprised that it is bigger than I thought:

and our furniture does compliment the wall color well, which wasn't totally unplanned but is not to be confused with matching your leather sofas to the miniblinds:

I will give an unsolicited piece of advice and say that when you are moving in, put up the shower curtain before you do almost anything else, because using the odds and ends of sink parts to hold it up looks a little trailer and takes away from the weeks of work you did to bring the house into the 21st century:

I'd also recommend that you clear room in the rooms for all the furniture you plan on buying, so that you can actually get from one room to the other without climbing over your new desk in your sweaty clothes:

In the background, you see that I, as in ME, as in PEEJFORPREZ, won the door fight. We went to Lowe's and I chose an affordable, leaded glass door. Mower was not happy with the purchase, and I gave him a choice of an oval leaded glass or a square leaded glass with a Texas star in it. The guy helping us mentioned a mahogany door that was twice as much but had a bigger Texas star and wrought iron in the glass, and Mower slipped in the excitement he created on the floor in his rush to buy it. It looks pretty good when there are not mountains of boxes, paper, and office equipment preventing you from seeing it.

I spent a few hours on the kid's playroom, putting up removable stickers in various money-sucking cartoon character shapes. I forbade the children from touching anything until I had taken photos to prove that it was once a clean area with no strange smell or tiny daggers imbedded in the carpet as Mommy Booby Traps when I go in to get them for the bath. Bubba always calls the house a Dream Home, and while I wait for the money-sucking creators of Backyardigans to come out with a poster for the blank spot on the wall, I put up these cute saying strips to honor her Dream Home:

The closet is filled to the brim with additional toys in containers while there looks to be room for more on the shelves, which are just waiting for a small giggling child to climb up and test the strength of the anchor in the wall:

Mower moved the tool bench to look for something I told him was in the room in a container. I immediately went bitch-nuts on him for being so stupid--don't let them know that you can move something out of the way to get in the closet! The longer they think nothing is in there, the sooner the structural integrity of the house can hold out. Once they realize there are containers of balls, building blocks, train sets and other things which will then be dumped out and rolled down the stairs, the whole thing will just collapse around us. Or we will at least be unable to reach the porn DVD's upstairs for a short time while we wade through millions of Legos.

One thing I insisted on for this house was landscape lighting. Mower calls our walkway the landing strip and ducks when he comes in because he's certain a Cessna is going to land in the front yard. I don't think it turned out too horribly, considering it was my idea and I have had some really stupid ideas:

Home sweet home. Or it will be when we are done, which will hopefully be this week. I cannot stand still having boxes in the office, the white bunkbeds not put together, Mower doesn't have a box spring for his bed, the mirrors in the bathrooms all need to be replaced, the ceiling and walls in some areas still need to be painted and Bubba's pink dresser is still in the Ikea box, awaiting me to swear and sweat to put it together so she, Lil' Dude and Goofball can paint Barbie or Tinkerbell shit on it so the baby can lick it off in a year or so. What? You don't give your kids lead-based paint to nibble on in the crib? Shame on you.