Time

I have some time to kill. What a strange term but true. After all if we aren't doing something useful isn't is like killing time instead of using it for something worthwhile.

There are so many things right now that I am waiting for. I am waiting to go to Italy to see my daughter. I am waiting for my mom to pass on. While I wait I live my life as best I can. There are so many things I can do with my time and sometimes I do what I should and other times I am just a lump.

In 2002 I bought this 906 sq. ft. condo. It has 2 bedrooms and 2 baths. My mom has the master, someone other than me has always had the master. It was pretty white bread, plain walls, mint green kitchen, ugly linoleum in the bathrooms.

My first room to paint was the little hallway. Tiny space with three doors and a built-in cabinet that would later be taken out in favor of a lovely corner cabinet in teak. The little hallway is the color of pumpkin pie. It is warm and dramatic in such a small space.

The next color decision was also easy. Red for my bedroom. It is a soft red but not bright or dark. My furniture glows against it. I finally tok down the massive white closet sliders in favor of a design of my own making with painters canvas and strips of red oak. My friends can't believe the stuff I do. It doesn't seem like a big deal to me. The bedroom floor was the first to go. The carpet had been so nasty!! I put in a black border and did swirls of amber over the main body of the floor. I swore that it was too much work and that acid staining was in my past. That would ony last just so long. The floor is aging beautifully. There isn't a day that goes by that I do not look at my floors with pride and appreciation.

I would paint my bathroom twice. The last color is a vibrant gold. I really though of a breast fed baby's poop when it was going up. I would re-furbish the exhisting cabinet, replacing the sink and ripping up the old linoleum in favor of beautiful Italian tiles. The old aluminum medicaine cabinet came down in favor of a rich Tuscan mirror. The kitchen is also a goldish color. When I made the decision to paint the dark wood cabinets (plywood for the drawers and lower doors) my friend, Pat, was agahast!! You can't paint wood! I agree if it is good wood, but this wasn't. The first time she saw my beautiful purple cabinets with their fancy brushed nickle knobs and pulls, she realized that I do know what I am talking about. My living room would be another two color thing. The first one was bland, peachy. Not right with the rest. The kitchen is open to the living room so it needed to work with it not against it. I had already purchased my purple chair and ottoman, the new leather was a rich rusty brown, the walls are now that bright green that you see on all those commercials. Imagine my surprise as I saw what I had thought was an unusual color feature so prevelently in so many ads! Now the living room and mom's room all have the acid stained concrete, in the living room we did an awesome broken checkerboard design. Mom's room is like an edge carpet with in the floor. Hers is harder to keep up, the walker and the constant rolling about in her desk chair takes the sealer down all the time.

Time is what you make of it.....