More work on the cat rooms, and tracks in the snow...

Gretchen is coming over Sunday to help work on the ceilings in the new cat rooms. I bought three rolls of paper. I'm sure it will take more for both rooms, but given the cost it seemed wise to underestimate rather than over-estimate. I decided to get a start on the knee walls, since my only real experience with wallpapering is helping my mother 35 years ago.

In those days, there was no nice flexible pre-pasted wallpaper. Nowadays all you have to do is wet the stuff in the bathtub for 10 seconds. Back then it was a messy job of mixing paste and putting just the right amount on with a big wooden brush.

Let's face it. What my upstairs needs is a total gutting, but that won't happen until there is a miraculous extra 30K in the bank. Until then, I'm just covering up what someone once considered a renovation.

Can you believe I've lived here for 11 years and still haven't removed the little stars the kids put up from the previous owner? In fact, one of those kids is in college and has fostered two litters of kittens for me. Times flies.

This damage, however, is my fault, from bashing the ceiling with the board that serves as a door into the knee wall.

I discovered that you shouldn't push the seams too closely together, or they buckle and don't lie smoothly. Better a small gap than a pushed-up seam.

You can tell the ceiling tile is under there, but it is a huge improvement. I find it amazing that I'm enjoying fixing up these rooms, when five years ago I would have found it a huge chore.

I shoveled my way out the wood pile this evening and found more cat tracks. The poor guy is wandering around in my back yard somewhere. Hopefully he'll head back down to the barn and find the food I put out for him (or her).

Nancy fed the cats in Ithaca today so I didn't have to haul myself all the way in and back, so I had a little time to spend on the computer (for myself). I had promised my sister business cards (Vistaprint keeps sending me "free" coupons, which of course they make up for in high shipping/handling fees). In with the free business cards was an offer for a "free" banner that somehow ended up cost me $6.95. Still a bargain:

I plan on hanging it on the side of my barn. I don't care who thinks I'm a crazy lady at this point.

I have a new blogging buddy. Myssie has decided cuddling is OK. Now if only Girl Bob would get brave enough to come down off the bottom step of the stairs and join us.