Paintbrush In Hand

Although I still feel less than myself since being so horribly sick, there is still work to do before I get caught up in reservations and gardening (along with all the fun stuff associated with owning a campground--cleaning toilets being my least favorite). I am painting the finished wall today and anticipating moving the furniture to it's new locations. When we purchased the campground I had thought I would have a nice little cottage style home to live in--not attached to the store--so I didn't pay all that much attention to the living quarters. I soon discovered that living away from the store would definitely be harder as we are open 12 hours a day, 7 days a week. So this has become our home. It is crowded and not exactly company friendly so I spend my insomniac hours planning and my waking hours implementing those plans. I have learned so much in the past five years. I have mastered many new skills. I have always liked to paint (walls, not pictures) and I don't think a whole month has gone by without some paint job by me. It is not unusual for me to respond to the store buzzer with brush in hand. Paint is so amazing. It transforms so much. Unfinished to finished, unclean to clean. I just love to paint! Given the current economy and my love for HGTV all my new plans involve remodeling using only what is on hand. This has been so hard for love of my life! He would rather make as many trips as possible to various stores per project. I find it as challenging mentally as physically. I am quite happy with the results, too. This winter we added a wood burning stove with two eyes to the area behind the kitchen. I added to my cast iron cookware from second hand stores and we have enjoyed quite a few meals cooked solely with a wood fire. I can also keep my tea kettle going all day this way. We built the kitchen we have now in what was previously the laundry room. The kitchen area that was here had less than 4 feet of counter space and hardly any cupboards. There was a lot of wasted space in a storage area behind the store area and then there was this huge laundry room (11X11). We had to buy some new cabinets and used the existing ones as well. Currently we have four different styles of cabinet doors. Hey, it's eclectic and the paint pulls it all together. I bought a beautiful old library table at a second hand store and refinished it. I can now seat 10, but the table is too big for the space it is in. This is what prompted my newest project. We had built an area to house our freezer (a necessity for my garden) and a second refrigerator. I had insisted on a pocket door for this and Drew was none too happy that my new plans took down that wall and the door (don't worry, I am working on new plans for said door---don't tell Drew!). In place of those appliances will be banquet seating with storage in the benches. This meant that I would no longer need the peninsula that we built atop the half of a wall we left up. That is down now and I just painted that wall and I am patiently waiting for the paint to dry so I can move my table to it's new location. We reused most of what we removed and still have some sheet rock left for another (as yet unknown) project. Unfortunately I didn't think to take any pictures before I started--but use your imagination. Taking a cue from RV's I have tried to use every nook and cranny for storage. My pantry is only 8 inches deep and 30 inches wide, but it goes floor to ceiling. Love of my life finally finished my new base cabinet and counter top area near the wood stove--only 12 inches deep, but it holds all my cookware. Above this I hung an old display fixture from our previous venture-it used to hold pager housings. It is heavy duty and I use it to store and display my cast iron. Above that I installed a shelf to hold all my cookbooks. Of course being a short person I keep a stepstool handy. Now that my tour is over my paint should be dry....time to mop!