I have neglected the blog. With the holidays and cooking and shopping and projects that never stop (which is a good thing)  it simply seamed difficult to concentrate long enough to write a post. Too much going on at the same time.

There were Frank’s and Alice’s Birthdays and  Holidays to get ready for, cook, shop, decorate. The Christmas Tree still takes residence in the living room, even though it has been relieved of most of the decorations. The birthday cakes are eaten, presents opened, candles blown out. 2014 was a difficult year. 2015 will be better, I am sure. I believe it.

Now that the holidays are over, I can reflect back on the past months and try to sort things out.

Projects we have finished:

• Alice’s first semester at Anoka-Ramsey College. She did very well. We are some proud parental units!  We sure are glad she is able to stay home and not go some 3 hours away. Not only because it is nice to have her  let the dogs out when we are at work (;   It is great fun to see your little child grow into a wonderful adult. It is an awesome opportunity to be able to watch it up close. She turned 20 this month.                   
• Paper floor in Alice’s room.  Amazing! What a way to update crappy floors on the cheap! We used builders paper from Menards ($11 a roll, have about 1/3 of a roll left over), Elmer’s glue and water based polyurethane. We cut paper in strips, soaked in water and scrunched it up lengthwise. We fould out that the longer your paper stays wet, the darker it is going to be when dried. It was fun alternating darker and lighter areas for a more natural look. On one of the tutorials that we found on Pinterest (Yay Pinterest!!) the lady was saying that one side of the paper dries lighter than the other. Maybe her paper was different, but we found no difference between two sides of the paper.  Now I am planning to do the stairs in paper too.  I would like to try the whitewashed look.
• Half of the wonky hallway floor upstairs finally and rather unexpectedly  got covered with plywood planks. We were not planning to do that bit of the floor, but after finishing Alice’s room, we sort of went ahead and cut the plywood and screwed it down. Still needs painting, but it is there.  It even somewhat matches the level of the other half of the hallway floor and reasonably connects to the bedroom floors. You can’t match things perfectly in the house that was pieced together over the years by people who got their supplies at a dollar store on clearance day. But you can dream and embrace! Pictures to follow.
• The plumbing that was diverted into the laundry room sink in the basement after the most recent septic adenture, finally got put where it belongs, in the septic.  I got the use of the little sink back! Yay! No pictures, We are glad to have it over with 😉
• Old sewing cabinet finally got painted and waxed.  Chalk paint made with Dutch Boy Tabby, Tree bark.  Finished with clear and dark wax.  Pictures to follow.
• Alice had a go at making shelves for her books. Great way to learn to use power tools! We had 1×12 boards that we cut for shelving. She sanded the edges nice and smooth with the mouse sander, stained with Jackobean stain and put a coat of polyurethane on top. We hung them with nice bronse brackets that we got on sale at Menards. Finished two and have at least four more to go. She got them all sanded, just stain left. Pictures to follow.

Looks like this is it. Not much when you put it in writing. In reality it is quite a lot and we are happy with our accomplishments. We are slowly learning to be satisfied with small amount of success rather than get discouraged by small amount of failure. It does not come easy, but as you get to this point, you become a whole lot happier being.  We are working on it  (;