Department of Gross Materialism (Renovations)

[amazon_syren]

We have been cleaning today. :-)

I can now see most of the surface of my desk (and my bedroom floor! Yay!) It's amazing what you can do by putting books away. :-)

Note to self: I need more book space. :-)


I just recieved a box from amazon.com! :-)
Yay! :-D

I ordered a(nother) copy of "24 Italian Songs and Arias" (medium-high voice), specifically to get the accompaniment CD that comes with the book. (I could not get it on its own).
So now I have two copies of the sheet music and -- more importantly -- I have a digital copy of the accompaniment. This means that I can (with Paul help -- this may take some doing) make a CD of, oh, ten to twelve of my favourite Italian art songs to foist off upon give to large numbers of family members. :-) Yay! :-D

I got my passport photos taken yesterday. Now I need to worry about getting the passport. :-) (apparently the wait is back down to about three weeks. So good. Paul and I are going to Ithaca for a few days this coming Summer, so we need to have our passports updated (mine expired last month, and Paul's expired a few months ago, so it is *definitely* time. :-)


I have been dreaming of bathroom renovations again. :-)
The kind of renovations I can't currently afford. Alas.
I want a whole new bath-tub + walls-around-the-bathtub, and a new counter-top, in the upstairs bathroom.
I want to install a shower, and a new sink-and-vanity (a much smaller one, but with *some* storage because there won't be anywhere else to put the towels otherwise) in the basement bathroom.
And I want new flooring and fixtures for *both*.

Oh, for $5000+ of scott-free money. ;-)


After that would come the kitchen.
Which would be difficult, I think.
I would want entirely new cupboards and shelving. The cupboards and shelving would take up the same space but (A) they'd probably come out a *bit* farther from the walls (on top -- even an inch would be enough), and (B) would - ideally - use the space a lot more efficiently than the current shelving-layout does). There might also be, say, a couple of cupboards with windows in them (or something, just to make the kitchen look less like a giant wall of cupboard doors.
I think I would try to keep the colours in the butternut-and-sage family that they're sort of in, now -- just because those colours (A) are in the rest of the main floor, and (B) will go nicely with the wooden hutch that's currently living in the kitchen and holding all our good dishes. :-)

I would also want new floors in there -- probably textured-ish sheet-flooring made to look like hardwood or just plain-old 'vanilla' sheet 'tiles'... I'm not sure.


Also: We have a big heap of gift certificates from various places (mostly the Bay) that we have to use up. Before July 7th.

As such, I begin making a list:

1) A picture frame for my grandfather's painting.
2) A *really* tall floorlamp (ideally in a mahognany/walnut finish) for the living room (beside the embroidered chair) so that I can have a reading light near the couch.

3) Potentially: Some reupholstering for Paul's ancient lazy-boy recliner (I think it was his grandfather's. It's very comfortable. It's also horribly, horribly ugly due to the ripped pleather cover, and the stained and tattered floral *partial* slip-cover at the head-rest). If the Bay does re-upholstering (and if the GCs will cover the cost of pick-up, work, and delivery -- or even *mostly* cover the cost there-of) I think that it would be an appropriate use of funds. :-) (Good gods, that thing is an eyesore!)

Anyway. I dream and I dream. :-)

Off to look at belly dancing classes. :-)

- TTFN,
- Amazon. :-)