Before & After - A Tale of One Living Room

Would you like to know a surefire way of how to spend quality time at your computer, writing hour after hour, cranking out words and making significant process on your WIP?

Easy. Have your husband paint your living room. =)

Let me explain. We've ben trying to sell our house for months now, and the market is just down in this area and its not great timing, but its the only timing we have. We're moving to some land in the country but we can't finalize things there until our house is sold. No huge hurry, other than we'd like to go ahead and get settled. Well, we just switched realtors to a woman in our church, and she suggested we paint the wood paneling in our living/kitchen area in hopes of encouraging a seller and providing a "cheap" (ha! have you ever bought paint?) modification so we wouldn't have to lower our asking price. Since Hubby is still off work due to his broken ankle (long story there, if you're not aware of it already - regardless, its healed now, he goes back to work next week) said he would handle it, no problem. So he painted. And painted. And painted. (most of painting lies in the prep work, I found out!)

If you didn't know this about me already, I am what you might call a tad bit...OCD? Organized? Ridiculous? lol Just pick one. I can't STAND a mess. Even when my hubby started moving furniture to the center of the room to start this whole ordeal, I was following behind him with the vacuum. I had to try to do SOMETHING to make the mess look better. I'm the girl who randomly straightens the stack of brochures or magazines on bank counters or waiting room tables, and can't sleep at night if I know a picture in the house is hung crooked. (high-maintenance? strange? quirky? again, just pick one!)

So in order to survive the chaos (see picture below) I stayed in my haven - my little home office - and WROTE. In doing so, I could almost forget Hubby was slaving away all evening in the front of the house. He did nothing else since Monday! A full week, and its done, totally by himself with the exception of my father coming by a few evenings over the course of the week to help out. And might I brag that they did a mighty fine job?



Here's a good "before" pic in the middle of the chaos:

Another "before" pic of the kitchen area (with the beautiful roses my hubby sent me last week to congrats on my signing with a literary agent!)

Another "before" shot in the chaos! (gotta love the blue tape on the trim!)

And the finished result: TADA!!!!

.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.

And here's me as one tired, worn-out, glad its over Vanna White:

I do enjoy being married to a handyman! Sometimes, I truly believe he can do ANYTHING. Very convenient, but more than that, I stay so proud of him! Not only can he figure anything out, he does it WELL. But maybe most of all, I enjoy being married to a handyman who lets me be high maintenance in my office and avoid the whole mess until its over and time to clean up. =)

So, you want a little computer-time? A little WIP-focus? A few chapters under your belt? Just ask hubby to whip out a paintbrush and a few rollers. (just be prepared to shell out some thank-you-golf-money when its over!)