Dover Gray, Mark Twain Gray Brick, and Cathedral Stone. Those are the three hideous shades of gray my dear pal Andy has painted his living room and door in. We’re close enough friends, having known each other all our lives, that we can rag on each other in a fun way when one does something the other finds laughable or gross. To me, gray paint is as bad as pink carpet is to him. Gray has always been my least favorite color.

I just hope this is the last of the string of curses his washer has brought him. The last one was the painter dripping paint on his printer or something like that.

As for our own walls, Tom already picked up some wallboard joint compound for the second bedroom, which is where we’re going to start this weekend. That room’s still going in lavender, but I decided against a patterned paintbrush overlaying it with pink roses. I’d be too afraid I’d hit the ceiling or not make straight enough strokes with the thing. Gonna do the laundry room in pale pink, instead, and the master bedroom will still be mint green while the kitchen is done in deep turquoise and off-white throughout the rest of the place. It’s going to be done a little at a time. We’re going to add a fine texture to the paint so we won’t have to sand. It’ll add about $4 to each gallon of paint, but will be worth it. We’re going to leave the smooth wood at the peak of the cathedral ceilings in the living room as is. It contrasts nicely with the lighter colors and I don’t want either of us climbing up that high anyway. That’s gotta be about 12’.

Over the last weekend, we washed the bedroom and bathroom drapes. Not the raspberry drapes I just bought, but the sheer inner ones that have been here and that provide privacy when the outer drapes are pulled back.

We also rearranged the living room a bit. The couch is now facing the TV, which means it’s now in the middle of the room. We pulled the treadmill out of the corner and by the front windows where the couch used to be. It looks much better this way, but now the empty corner where the treadmill used to be is calling for a tall fake palm, banana, yucca, or cherry tree of some kind. That and a new couch/recliner are still down the road as we have other things to focus on now that are more important.

I love this house’s heater too, and the way it blows hot air for shorter amounts of time than warm air for longer periods of time. Just wish they’d stop with the damn landscaping! That really, really spoils the daytime peace around here, though I’d still rather that crap in our own spacious home than Jesse’s crap in a tiny rental.

Next door’s got me a little nervous parking in the carport now instead of the garage. I hope it’s because they’re going back out and not because they’re going to make some racket in the garage. I still worry about him becoming a bit of a workshop junkie. It usually seems to be within 4-6 months of moving in next to quiet people or them moving in next to us that they go to hell. Then again, we were always next to renters and that right there usually makes a big difference.

No workshopping for old Bob after all. He just pulled out.

So back to those darn annoying landscapers. I asked one of the guys when I went out walking if they made him do that every day and he said pretty much. They have 160 acres to tend to and it’s pretty much an all-day thing every day for a few months during the fall. Really makes me think harder about soundproofing some of these windows (you can supposedly do this by adding a second set of windows and there’s a company that does this for this reason). This has been going on since 7:50 and it’s not even noon yet. But would it block the sound or just soften it? If you can still hear it anyway, so what? Still, while it’s dead quiet at night, I had no idea it’d be this noisy in the daytime. In some ways, the Jes pest’s place was quieter.

I enjoyed my walk, though due to my hips not being used to the continual and brisk motion these days, they’re a bit sore. But that’s why I added variety to my routine besides strength training vids. I jogged some of the ways too, as usual. I went further than I did yesterday and was out there for almost 40 minutes. I really got to admire all the different houses and the way they have their yards and patios decorated with an assortment of trees, flowers, wind chimes, and mini statues. You can definitely tell old people live here. Younger people wouldn’t appreciate their property as much or how it looked.

During my walk, I saw two cats and some playful squirrels. The only real annoyance was the landscapers, of course, working all along the road that runs along the back. Maybe I’ll take the iPod next time. It’s amazing how many people are up and about that early.

I took a walk down a dead-end to one of the houses we considered that was going for just 10K at the time we only had 3K saved up. This was when the market was really down and things were way cheap. The house is only a couple of years older than this, but is bigger and has 3 bedrooms. Had we gotten that place, it would’ve been quieter for traffic and landscaping, but who knows about the individual people as it has houses all around it, unlike this place.

Sugar was so cute earlier. I forgot to latch the door, so as usual, the little devil busted loose, but Romeo stayed home. I was sitting on the stool eating a bowl of cereal at the counter when I heard the packing paper rustling that he loves to play in (and sleep in). Then he came over and ate some of my cereal with me. He had 4 pieces of Captain Crunch while I ate my share, haha.

Molly hit my LJ blog last night. I asked Aly if she went there in hopes of my making it public, or if she just likes to appear on my tracker. Aly said she supposedly does it to make sure I’m not talking about her. *rolls eyes* Gee, that’ll stop me.