Our new favorite thing to shout at each other is "dults". We are dults. We are dulting. Lookit us dult. We bought power tools and a lawnmower, we bought a nice gun safe (so glad no more 3 flights of stairs!), then we went home (to our house!) and had dult beverages. Hardcore dulting. Rubber boots and party pants.

Spouse got approved for the 3 month stint back from whence we came, 4 time zones away. At first they didn't want to send him because he is green, but then nobody else volunteered and they were gonna have to mandate someone. People have kids and this is for summer, nicest part of the year in alaska. What dummy wants to go to the expensive east coast and deal with that mess for 3 months? So he leaves in a couple weeks and we are scrambling to get the painting arranged so we can get our stuff moved in before he goes.

While the cat is away, the mouse shall play. Right now i gotta pitch my decoration ideas at spouse and sometimes he is less than enthusiastic so HA! now i just get to do what i want instead of having him creep around all nervous when i start doing things. Yes, go to the east coast, spouse. Come back when it looks nice.

I'm gonna do an accent wall above the fireplace and in the corner where we have to mount the tv (because he rejected my furniture arrangement plan over some silly "traffic flow" issue, come on). The hardest part is finding something that doesn't look like cheap stick-on garbage, but also isn't $15+ a square foot, or both. Also something i can do myself. I got roughly 40 sq ft to cover so that adds up, and of course everything i like is expensive. I found this "blue pine" lumber and i think it's just the ticket. Apparently the grey/blue color is from the fungus due to the bark beetle that is devastating forests and they're selling the damaged wood as "blue pine" - morbid but cool, right? Personally I think it's really pretty and interesting and i want to experiment with a darker stain, see how the mottling comes out. (Also it's inexpensive and i think it will only be $2-3 a sq ft, win-win.) So i can use it for the accent wall and shelving, etc. through the house. I'm not telling spouse about it because i think he will be skeptical when looking at the rough wood. No no, spouse, it will be glorious. Trust me. It's perfect for dwarfy speakeasy.

I have power tools now (good ones!!) and a garage to work in, so let the games begin.