When will I ever learn?

Well, Monday morning, fresh from the hospital, my hubby and I decided to pull out of the real estate game. The bank didn't accept our offer on the short sale house we were interested in, and I didn't see anything else on the market that was in our price range and met our needs. (In fact, I like my current house better than most houses I saw).

So we thanked our wonderful realtor for all of her help, and then we took a collective sigh . . . and braced ourselves for the work of moving back into the house we had decluttered.

You see, I took those folks on HGTV quite seriously--down came all my artwork, away went all the family photos and knickknacks, away with all the small kitchen appliances that usually sit on the countertops. All of it got boxed up, along with a fair amount of Christmas decorations and stuff I'd pulled together for a yard sale. All of it went into storage.

So Monday, when we decided to Stay Put, we looked at the calendar and realized we could save a month's rent on the storage unit if we cleaned it out this week. So my dear hubby started loading his car and bringing stuff home, bit by bit. As soon as the boxes hit the garage, I began to put things back--searching for nail holes where pictures had hung, wondering where in the world all this STUFF came from in the first place.

But I'm happy to say that the storage unit is now empty. My garage is full, and the garbage man will have to pick up a LOT of boxes tomorrow, but the house is beginning to look like it did six months ago.

But now I've thought of all kinds of projects--painting ideas, and redecorating. I've still got the urge, but it's going to be much easier (and less expensive) to fix up the place I have rather than try to rehabilitate a place I have not.

One story: I have an office wall that is decorated with shelves--I keep little things on it, along with awards, etc. In the past I have won eight "Angel Awards" from Excellence in Media. They don't give the award any more, but I'm a little fond of my angels because of the name--Angel(a).

So earlier this week I put up the four shelves, lined up my little angels, and smiled at them. I'd painted the wall AND the shelves, so everything looked shiny and new. I was just beginning to clean up my mess when the two biggest shelves--the ones loaded with the angels--came crashing down on my head. Literally. I wasn't hurt, but my wood floor will never be the same, and my poor angels! Out of the eight, only three of them now have intact halos. The others--well, they remind me even more of myself, because a halo is quite out of my reach. :-)

That night hubby and I went to bed, and I woke at about three a.m. Didn't know why I woke, but about five minutes later, CRASH! Got up to peek in my office--yep, the other two shelves had crashed. One hundred percent failure rate, can't beat that.

So the next morning I got up and properly anchored every single screw. Don't know why I didn't do it right in the first place. :-/ (Actually, I do know why--because it's hard to find screws LONG enough to hold in the wall and yet SMALL enough to fit in the little slot on the back of the shelf.)

Have a lovely weekend. :-) I'm going to be resting. Or painting.

~~Angie