And we come to the half way point of summer.

If I were to look back at my past several summers I surely would see that I usually have over-analyzed my inability to hit my stride until this point.

This year, I've just been living my life, and you know, I kind of had to sit and think for a minute about that fact that, at this point, summer is both half empty and half full...mostly full of fun.

We've had two weddings, an explosive fourth and a trip to the beach.
We're headed towards several more trips, and some home reno again, but this time with the support of good friends and some good cocktails to keep us keepin' on.

As Tim and Devin were doing some electrical work this past week and putting in a new light on my front "Zen Porch," it was revealed that Gwynn's bedroom, with its bowling alley length and roof influenced ceilings, has long been labeled, in the breaker box as "Fun Room."
Well in this house, in summer especially, every room is a fun room. In fact a gentleman who is related to the people that used to own our home stopped by our house today. We had him in for a bit, and he walked through the house with us, reliving childhood memories and repeating how this is such a great place to raise kids. Truer words could not be spoken. We have been truly blessed all the years we have lived in this house. The house that has a fun room is also a fun house, and it has been a fun summer so far.

And if I were a gambling girl, which I am, I'd bet the best, as always, is yet to come.

Dearest Love of my Life,
All I ever really want you to do is paint my house.
Really.
Just like Jon Bon Jovi in that movie "Moonlight and Valentino."
You want to turn me on? Just paint my house.
I don't want you to build, or remodel, or support, or install, or plumb. Not that you can't do those things. You can. I just don't like you when you do. I don't like me when you do. I don't like us when you do.
From now on, let's hire things out, and we'll just paint.
Sincerely,
Your Loving Wife

See, we've been under the spell, here, of a stubborn bathroom for nearly a year. We started a so called "cosmetic" re-do at the end of last summer. We always seem to get to a point with our summer money where we know what we can afford to do, but sadly, once we are at that point financially, we are also at the point where our time is compromised as school lurks just around the corner. Last summer we stripped VERY stubborn wallpaper, and painted, a very bright and unforgiving color, over very much not so nice walls. School started. We stopped there. Short of a new vanity and hardware and toilet and flooring. That all would have to wait until later. And it did.

Then, spring brought a sign. A chance to have some help installing the toilet came our way. And we took it. Along with help getting the floor started. But we had to stop there as other responsibilities loomed, and April break brought travel. So new toilet and half a floor it was for several months.

Finally, in this first week off for summer vacation, while the kids went to stay at Camp Grandparents for a while, we figured the time and money were both ripe for just finishing up the job. Quick and simple. Do the floor, vanity and molding. Yet it has been a roller coaster of this that and the other thing going wrong, right down to a faulty gasket in a beautiful, even a little pricey, Delta sink fixture. Yep.

So again, it has cemented my belief that you can only be good at so much on the home front. Tim and I are pretty good in the marriage relm, and have pretty cool kids, so I always feel like we have those areas workingly under control. Then there are the other things that eat up life...work, house and home. We do fine at work, and home too as our place is cozy, decorated comfortably, we keep up on laundry, do fun stuff as a family, and cook great meals. You know what we truly SUCK at though, and I hate that word but it SO fits here, the HOUSE part...as in HOUSE fixing, HOUSE cleaning, HOUSE maintenance...we suck at it all!

And I don't know that we are really all that bad at it. It just is NOT what we enjoy. At all. Either of us. We do what we have to. And we know what we'd LIKE to do TO the house. But it is the actual doing that is like torture. Especially in the summer, when time is available, but books, and the boat, and kids, and good food, and travel and fun calls.

So the next time we get an idea to redo/fix/demolish/update or renovate our pain in the ass turn of the last century farmhouse, it will be a phone call, and I do hope it is Jon Bon or an equivalent look alike that shows up on my doorstep to help out. Tim and Dev will probably be out on the boat, Gwynn and I will be putzing around the house, doing whatever, myself probably watching, happily, from an adirondack chair, sipping some wine and reading a book. The job will get done, family balance will remain as it should be, and all will be right in the world again.

And before that, we WILL finish this ALBATROSS of a bathroom.

But from now on, let's come to an agreement. You, babe, just paint my house:)