Clean up day. Take up the tarps, pull up all of the paper and blue tape. Admire the paint job. The old woodwork was either dark brown or cocoa colored. Now it is all shiny white enamel. The walls are this soft changeable yellow green color. The floor still needs a lot of work. No decision on the wall above the fireplace but it is clean and freshly painted and no one knows we are working out a decision as it just looks like a wall. The accent color on the steps looks very nice.

The next executive decision. We will do a second coat of paint. But not this month. There is just not enough energy or mind left. The stair wall is still left to do, but it is all high edges and odd angles and is going to take some planning to do well and a day when Dear Husband is here to work with me.

Furniture pick up day. Once the van seats are out we are off to the shop to make our pick up. And there it was the rug, the Rose Damask Couch and the little Victorian side chair. We also picked up the rocker for our daughter's impending one.

Now the cleaning phase begins. When we selected the rug there was a dining room set arranged on it. The first time we will see the entire thing is when we unroll it in our living room. Vacuum the room. Unroll the rug, not bad, it will need to be professionally cleaned but doesn't have other than real life experience to it. Vacuum the rug, a lot, turn the rug over and vacuum the back side, a lot. Turn the rug right side up and vacuum again. Yup,this will work but I would like to get it cleaned, a cream colored background does show it's long life. Bring in the little Victorian side chair and the rocker. Nice. Now, here it comes, the Rose Damask Couch. Sitting right there in our living room.

None of us are sure of anything right now. So unexpected, so lovely, so different than things were. All I was planning to do was get a coat of paint on the walls to deal with the spots that grew after the hurricane. Now what I have is an entirely new room. The Rose Damask Couch sits there, covered in dust from it's previous home but basically spotless, hump backed, tufted, so different from our previous style. Tomorrow, I promise, tomorrow I'll clean you up and we'll get to know each other.

And today, I did.