Well,  so far I am batting 100%!  The brick mason loved the entry hall floor also.  He even reached down to feel it and marveled over it!  He is coming back this week to point up the rather large brick stoop at the front door.  I had never thought of redoing the whole thing but it does make sense....especially since Fax decided he would do it.  (An impossibility.)  It looks like most of the joints need mortar again,  but what an expense!  I feel there isn't much we won't have touched and repaired or painted or whatever in getting this house to market.  

Things seem to finally be coming together.  In fact,  the plumber,  the tiler, the electrician,  garage door installers and installers for 2 other doors and who knows who else are all converging here this week!  My dear, late Father-in-law would have called it a "whole Flotilla!"  Just the thought of it makes me nervous,  but I will be busy painting inside.

It never ceases to amaze me what a difference a fresh coat of paint can make in a room.  I painted my oldest son's room yesterday...basically the same color,  Linen White with Bone trim,  (exciting,  huh?) and it looks so much brighter and warmer.  At least it made me feel like it was worth the effort when I finished and gave myself a (tired) pat on the back.  His room is referred to as the Bonus Room over the garage.  I took one look at where he possibly would be located (near a full bath) and asked the RE Agent if she had a contract with her.  He was such a nightowl that I spent 2 years looking for a house with a bedroom for him far removed from the rest of us!  (It also took that long for our house in No.Va. to sell,  so I saw plenty of houses to help me know what to look for.)  So,  here it is now~practically empty and more tidy than it has been in years....waiting for the next teenager!  I should mention that he is the Lead Programmer for the Computer Game "Call of Duty" and much of the work was done right here at the computer in his room!   He is someone who has followed his dreams since he was 5 years old and hooked on Miss Pacman!

Enough reminiscing...what I want to say is that I had a task ahead of me which I dreaded:  scraping wallpaper paste off the walls!   In an earlier life I spent weeks at a time removing hideous flakes of paper off Victorian hogs hair plaster walls with a razor blade.  (And other methods I don't even want to recall.)  But nothing had prepared me for 1980's wallpaper which "pulls off easily leaving a film for the new layer of wallpaper!"  Well,  what if you don't want wallpaper?  What if you want nothing more than a nice,  smooth,  painted wall???  The film does not come off easily.  In various rooms it didn't come off without lots of wallpaper remover and razor blades (again,) and sand paper.  Its a messy,  horrid~~strenuous job and I still had a laundry room and the downstairs bath room to do!  So I said to myself,  "Self...what are you going to do?  You don't have a week to spend on each of these rooms!!!"  Well!  I decided to grab my electric hand sander and have at!  And it worked!  (At least I think it worked!)  In less than an hour the walls in the laundry room were silky smooth.  Now,  I don 't know if I dare wet them to see if any more paste is left to create havoc...I am thinking that tomorrow I will try some primer and see what happens.  But all I can add is "Phew!  That wasn't even very messy!'  Full "steam" ahead!!!