After nearly two years of living in our ‘new’ home, we’ve gone and done it. We’ve painted the entire place. It started with Nici’s bedroom and bathroom. And then the girls’ bedrooms and bathroom. And then we said what the heck? And we went for it. And I spent the next week moving things from one room to another, trying to stay one step ahead of the painters, while my husband was dining on Indian food across the pond in Nottingham. Good times.

Not really. Although I handled it so much better than I thought I would. Particularly considering that She Who Cannot Say No not only said NO but said it one day into having Already Said Yes. Last week, I told a good friend we’d watch their dog. That was before I went and booked the painters. And then this dog went and pooped all over my house. Not once. Not twice. But six times. On my freshly (and expensively) cleaned rugs. Throw in a few pee spots, too. And I did the unthinkable. The unimaginable. I called his parents and said I’m bringing him home. That is a big one for me. Because I’ve been known to rent myself out as a human doormat at times.

So now the house is freshly painted and I’m wondering why I waited so long. Except that I know why I did. It’s a pain in the ass! Choosing the perfect colors for our sun-bleached rooms. Rehanging art, mopping dusty floors. At least my husband is home for a couple of days to help out. And now that it’s painted, I’m finding a million more projects that I want to tackle, of the home improvement sort. Window treatments, reupholstery, you name it. Starting with replacing the tired-looking Oriental rug in the great room with something a little more family-friendly. I absolutely love these faux bois Flor tiles. Love them! And with the rate of juice box spillage in our great room, I think they’re perfect.

But it’s the window treatments that are killing me. A bit of an overstatement? Not really. They are quite an investment, and so I want to be sure I get them right the first time. Especially taking into consideration the view they frame. And okay, you might decide to judge me a bit here, but I’m telling you that there was nothing else on TV this summer, and so I tuned in to that Tori Spelling reality show, and she had these amazing window treatments in her master bedroom that just haunted me, but in a good way. They had trees on them. But not just any trees. Perfect trees. And so since the first viewing of Tori’s perfect tree-print window treatments, I’ve spent countless wasted hours on my computer late at night Googling over and over the most ridiculous search terms, trying to find that stupid fabric, and the best I could come up with was this Osborne & Little fabric. I’m thinking it’s the best I’m going to find, and that it’s going to be precious in the soft green color on the windows in the girls’ little study off of their bedrooms.

And I just received word today that my mother, GiGi, is coming in to visit for five days in mid-November, with the specific goal in mind of painting a mural of sorts in the same area that I intend to use that tree fabric; the girls’ study area. Not quite a study yet, it’s more of an extra playroom at this point in their lives, so really a fanciful mural will be the icing on the cake. So I sent my mother a copy of our current favorite children’s book, “Kaito’s Cloth,” for her to use as inspiration. The illustrations in this book are amazing and GiGi’s a gifted artist, so I think between the two, the girls are going to be pretty lucky with the finished design of their special little corner of the house.

Now I just wish I could fast-forward to November…