That time of year

(originally written January 10, 2011)

It always happens. Every year, when school is back in session, I ALWAYS catch some sort of bug. No matter how much vitamin C, echinaecia or any other concoction of suppliments and precautions I take, the germs overwhelm me and I get sick.

This time I’ve managed to catch what feels like is the beginning stages of bronchitis, which I haven’t had since I moved to NY 15 years ago. The annoying part of it is that I feel fine except for this awful sensation of fullness in my chest and coughing.

Augh.

I decided to still go to work since I feel well enough to get something accomplished. Better than sitting at home and wallowing in self-pity I suppose.

Over the weekend we did manage to make some progress in the attic. Okay, Garry and his friends made some progress in the attic, I went to a class on eastern healing practices. I really had nothing to do with it.

The grant folks are running heating elements up to our attic so we can (eventually) use it as a third bedroom/office space. Since our heat is hot water baseboard, there needed to be a wall installed so they have something to put the heating element against. Our attic is all peaked so we would have to build the side walls in.

Off to the hardware store Garry and his friends went where he picked up a bunch of 2×4′s to make the wall frame. On top of that (since we’re at the very beginning of our home renovations) he picked up a nail gun, an air compressor and a miter saw. Even though those tools set us back a few hundred dollars, they are definitely tools we will use over and over again and will be worth not having to borrow from people.

I told him that he could get the miter saw on the condition that we install crown molding on the first floor. I *love* crown molding. Love love love love love it! Plus, a lot of the molding around the doors and the floor needs to be replaced eventually, so a miter saw will come in handy for those projects as well.

The frames are complete on both(!) sides of the attic now. Eventually we’re going to install the insualtion, make sure the soffetts are correct (to prolong the life of the roof) and THEN we can drywall everything and PAINT! (I want to paint before we have carpet installed for obvious reasons of not dripping paint onto brand-new carpet).

Of course, now that this tiny bit of project has been completed my mind is WHIRLING with ideas for the attic. Okay, it has been for some time since Garry and I decided that the attic would be “my” domain where the basement was “his.” We could still veto any projects that were way out of line, but not everything had to be fully agreed upon.

So, I’m thinking of painting the attic like a sky. I had a bedroom when I was a kid that was painted blue with clouds everywhere. I really like the idea of doing that again. Since the walls are peaked, I can’t really “hang” any artwork in there, so at the very least, the walls should be visually interesting.

There will be layers of carpet – the first will be just a simple, neutral berber carpet and we’ll add smaller, decorative carpets as needed. I never thought I’d have more than one carpet in a room, but for some reason I’m gravitating toward something very cozy in that space. Maybe because it’s been so cold up there all winter. Once we get the heat and insulation in, it will be much cozier.