This week's challenge is called ...

...

"Renovate your dining/living room in 5 days with a 5-year-old, 3-year-old and a 1-year-old under foot! And to make it not quite so easy, throw in a husband who is limping around on crutches!"

After 5 years our downstairs is more than ripe for a fresh coat of paint, plus, a new dining table and chairs were badly needed. I phoned around a bit and found a caritative organization that was happy to come get our old furniture. So, I did a lot of cleaning out the last few days (the sideboard and hutch) and everything was picked up this morning.

And while they were at it I let them have the couches too, and removed the rug. I was happy to see the couches go, for various reasons (I won't bore you with details). The pick-up guys fell in love with my couch table, so I had to make sure they didn't take that one, too! (Because then, where would Lenny hide? ☺)

And where is the new stuff, you may ask? Well, the dining room furniture resides in a dozen boxes in the basement. These are some of the boxes in my laundry room. Yep, we will have to build everything because I didn't want to spend a crazy amount of money and wait for 2 months for the really good stuff that already comes built. Still, this should be much better than what we had. Maybe the table will even not wobble! And I DARE any kid to put a fork into my new oak table!


Ina didn't care today that she had to eat her lunch like this. As long as there is food she is happy, table or no table. Once Neil comes home we will move the patio table inside, I think. If he can let go of his crutches long enough, that is. He somehow hurt his foot so his day off tomorrow that we want to spend painting will probably be partly spent in a doctor's office. Oh well.

And why do we need to be done in 5 days? Because that is when we will pick Grandma and Grandpa up from the airport! (Grandma, we are using really good paint that is suitable for people with allergies, hardly any smell.) We will move the blue couch from the guest bedroom to the living room until the new couch comes, which should be in 2-3 weeks. So don't worry, we will have somewhere to sit. ☺

And pack clothes for all kinds of weather. It is definitely April here. We went from THIS on Sunday to 2°C/35F and cloudy with a strong wind this morning.

Well, time's up. I better get some things done around here while Ina is napping!