The in-laws are planning a visit over in June. Used to be just Mum and the 2 brothers. Now one of the brothers has an entire family, so we’ll have all of Dublin landing on our doorstep. Five months to plan for houseguests should be sufficient for anyone. But not us.

No matter where we live, we’re constantly in mid renovation. We only finish when it’s time to sell a house. Sometimes we’ll give a little extra push when we know we’re having guests. That’s when we actually realize that we don’t have furniture or dishes. Stuff like that.

We’ll start to post our “to do” list so we can be publicly shamed into following through with these things. You may ridicule us, mock us, tell us it ain’t never gonna happen by June. Or you can choose to encourage us. The choice is yours.

Let’s start with the guest room. Apart from the lack of artwork and side table, it’s pretty much a finished room. And we have plenty of artwork sitting in closets just screaming to be seen! There’s also Bradbury border rolled up in a tube that we’d like to put up here. But that’s one of those things that will happen 10 years from now. The only other thing that bugs us is the glossy varnish on the doors, which is something we have to deal with throughout the entire house. Great woodwork, glossy sealer.

As with most of the house, this room didn’t need alot of work. We chose to laminate the ceiling instead of skim coating for two reasons. One, the plaster was very dry, so when we tried securing it with washers, it would just crumble. Two, this was a DIY job and we suck at plastering. The walls just needed some basic crack repair. Floors were professionally sanded and coated with matte poly.

I just want to take a moment to brag about my bargains in this room. The deco bed was $125 at Water Street Market in New Paltz. The “electric chair” was purchased years ago for $50 from an antique dealer friend. It was reupholstered twice before we realized we had to keep it away from our cats. The curtains were Target or Sears or something like that…maybe $14 each? Rug=Home Depot. Pretty cheap, like under $60. Sorry, I don’t remember exact prices. Ceiling fan, $99 from Route 9 Lamp and Light. The base is a simple matte black and the cherry blades are tasteful enough. We switched the glass shades. That wooden box you see in the corner is an (reproduction?) antique potty. Hopefully the guests don’t really use it. Although, I’ll be honest with you….I have. Comes in handy at times. $20 at Stormville Antiques Show.