Peace, Quiet and an Unholy Stench

So Saturday I was out in that addition off the back of the house we call "The Spa," priming the baseboard for the living room, and I was all by myself. Why? Because the spa still stinks. It's like the Phantom Tinkler had a knock down drag out with a box of scented candles. It's a disturbing smell. The combination, both acrid and sweetly chemical, confuses the brain, which starts to try and separate the layers, which means your nose starts to take in MORE of the scent, which causes a distinct retching feeling in the gut.

The bright side was that I was not disturbed by any questing children for a whole 30 minutes. Oh, they tried. They came out, opened the sliding glass door, took a whiff, turned around and went back into the house. After the first couple minutes, my nose became somewhat immune to the smell and I happily painted, thinking whole and complete thoughts in the quiet room. It was even better than locking myself into the bathroom.

Eventually, we'll have to rip the carpet off the floor to get rid of the smell; but, for the moment, it's a place of quiet, if sensorily disturbing, contemplation. I have to finish painting the baseboards, and this is also a good time to start my exercise regime again. Since Oldest Child is now homeschooled, she can keep an eye on the boys while I get my twenty minutes on the elliptical machine. It helps that I'm breathing through my mouth while I exercise.

We also got a dumpster from the county on Friday and are throwing out piece after piece of junk. The chairs, mattress and ab workout machine that were in the spa (and now are unfit for human use) were tossed, along with the carpet we pulled out from the living and dining rooms. My job today is to sort out the clutter and stuff in the laundry room and the middle storage room in the basement, along with whatever I can get to in the shed. No biggy. And it snowed last night. Still, a happy home is a home without clutter.

Here is a picture of the living room rug we got from Flor. We picked our carpet tiles and came up with a configuration we liked. The furniture you see is not destined to stay.