The Plaster Queen

That's what I call myself now. We had several, smallish repairs to make on the walls of our condo and I headed this project.

I learned how to patch drywall and plaster! Here are a couple of handy videos and such for you:

Drywall patching: How to patch a hole in your wall.
Plaster repair: How To Plaster A Hole In The Wall.
An article on the differences between plaster and drywall from How Stuff Works: What is the difference between drywall and plaster?
Another article to help with drywall patches: Hole in the Wall Help.

And here is some of my excellent work! Or decent work.

Drywall patching:

Before

After! But before sanding and painting.

Plaster patching:

This corner was particularly nasty to fix. Luckily the trim will cover most of it.

More plastering:

A mostly finished patch. It needed one more layer.

After that was finished, we primed the walls and repainted:

The lighting makes it tough to see, but the new, light green is on the right and the old, olive-y green is on the left. Looks brown here...

After that was underway, Isaac and I went to Ikea and bought curtains and panels. Our balcony door has not been covered for months! It's nice to have the privacy back.

I know it is difficult to see, but the walls are light green and the hangings are grey and white. The curtains are brown.

Recently, we went and got a brand new bed, too! That was very exciting! Got a nice bed frame, a new mattress (which we desperately needed) and a box spring. Thanks Ikea!

So there are some of the most recent home repairs! Our living room is really coming together. Just a little more painting to do, the trim, and to hem the curtain! Then we get to move on to the dining area and kitchen! So exciting! And thanks to my love, Isaac, who did almost all of the tiling and he put the hangings and curtains up! Though I did hem them. Badly, because Ikea's curtains are not straight and even. Oh well.

Big Life Changes

Most of the people close to me know this already.

A couple of days ago, Isaac broke up with me.

I'm feeling very lost right now. Sometimes it doesn't quite feel real and sometimes I can't even imagine my life moving on.

So I cry a lot and sleep and eat very little.

Remember that condo we were buying? I have to move again. I can't just lose the love of my life, but my home, too. This has been very hard for me. And I didn't want to move for at least 5-10 more years. Now I will be back in the apartment renting cycle, which makes me feel like I am taking about 20 steps backwards. And doing this alone without Isaac's support sure doesn't help anything. I always felt like I do nearly anything as long as I had Isaac with me. But now the person who was my main support (emotionally, mentally, and occasionally financially) is gone and so is all sense of stability that I had in having our own home. And I, apparently, can't call this place "home" anymore. So I just tell people that I'm "going back." Which eats at me a bit because I feel like its still supposed to be home and like we're still supposed to be together.

I feel really stupid, generally. I always tried to be so independent and I think I broke several of my rules during the course of this relationship. But I never, not once, thought to question this. And I guess I should have.

Of course, about two weeks ago we had started planning our wedding. Just to rub some more salt in that wound. So yes, I was caught completely off-guard. We knew what the location was going to be, looked at venues and pricing. We made a rough guest list, picked colors and some decor ideas. I'm not sure what happened to the man who wanted to marry me and spend our lives together. But he was replaced with a man who loves me, but not enough to be with me. Which makes me feel like there must be some pretty serious things wrong with me. I always said that I wasn't meant to be in a relationship. I thought Isaac had proved me wrong. I guess I was right after all.

And I can't imagine ever finding someone else that I can love this much. Even after all of this, I love him more than I thought I could ever love someone. It breaks my heart time and time again. But I never really wanted a relationship, so maybe this is how my life is supposed to be. I always imagined living life by myself before Isaac came along. I also can't imagine finding someone who could love me that much with all the stupid crap that I do and say. I always found it so amazing that Isaac could love me and be attracted to me. I'd never felt that before.

Basically, I'm having a really, really hard time. I kind of wish time would just pass already so I won't feel like this anymore. I'm ready for the pain to stop and it's only been two days. I'm ready to be OK again. But I'm still stuck at that part where nothing is OK without Isaac in my life.Which sounds so co-dependent and annoying, but I can't help feeling and thinking that way. For me it felt so right that we were together and I was so happy. Damn life is cruel. Life gave me somebody that I could love so strongly that the thought of leaving never crossed my mind. Then Life let him stay with me long enough to feel so sure. And then Life made it so that he could not love me enough. That's just so unfair.

This is what I am attempting to deal with. While half-heartedly looking for a new place to live. Right now I am in our second bedroom. And while that feels less home-like, I still kind of like being here despite the close proximity. I keep thinking that if we both could get to a better place and heal quickly, this arrangement might work for a while. At least until I grow into the idea of finding a new place to live. Which I think I will want eventually anyway, just not right now.

And I know this was all one huge emotional rambling session. I apologize. Blogging may end up on the back-burner for a while, but I hope you'll all stick with me.

During this time, the only song I have wanted to listen to is this one: John Rzeznik "I'm Still Here." I'm not sure why, really. It's just what I want to hear all the time. Don't get in my car anytime soon, this just plays on loop. And as a result, I also watch Treasure Planet a lot. Someone explain this?

To add another facet to the problem, I am going to miss his family. I am actually quite attached to them and I always felt like we were family and Isaac and I would stay together, so of course they were my family. Luckily, I think some of them will keep in touch. His cousin, who is one of my favorite people, told me that I can't get rid of them that easily. That makes me feel a little better.

Despite feeling so sad and lost and crying all the time, I still don't have it in my heart to be angry. Sometimes I start to feel a little angry or bitter, but I still love him too much to hold it against him. It breaks my heart that he was unhappy and that I couldn't fix it. I wish I could have a second chance, but life doesn't always work that way. I can't make him love me more. I wish to heaven and hell that I could. But that's very selfish. I can't help thinking it though. I was so happy.

I am lucky enough to have lots of family and friends who are trying to help me out. I'm grateful. I think I will need all of the help I can get.

Picking Out Curtains

That's the sign of commitment right? Picking out curtains. Not that Isaac and I weren't committed before, but we were trying to find curtains for our bedroom.

When we moved into our condo, the paint in the bedroom was atrocious. We started painting there.

The walls went from brown (what I called "vomit brown" due to an ugly brown being painted over vibrant green with no primer) to two walls that are purple (we were aiming for mauve but that's ok) and two walls parchment white.

The walls before. The picture doesn't do justice to how ugly it really was.

Purple!

We still need moulding at the bottom of the walls (which will be grey). We replaced all of the outlets, light switches, and covers and they are all grey. Maybe a grey line running around the room close to the ceiling? And hopefully black and white art and grey bed set.

Isaac hard at work!

Finished product!

Anyway the bedroom window is against a parchment colored wall so we wanted some color there. We didn't want white sheer curtains because that much white may make the wall look yellow. Also, the window is a funny size so finding curtains that we liked and that would actually cover the window nicely was difficult. In addition the window is very wide and deep set so we had to find something to cover it completely so no one could see in around the edges.

Isaac bought and mounted double rods (one for a sheer curtain and one for a thick curtain). We still didn't find the right curtains.

So we made a trip to Joann. Here are the fabrics we bought.

I will be making our curtains! This is a bit new to me but I will do some research and it will be great! I imagine I will need some weight at the bottom of both so they hang properly. We decided to pick out some sort of decorative fringe for the heavy curtain later.

To make matters better, we got a good price. Both fabrics were on sale. The grey especially. We didn't like the "decor" fabrics and prints (plus you have to special order them all) so we found this in fabric you use to make nice suits. It was originally 15 per yard and was on sale for 8 or 9. And we had a coupon. The sheer was originally 8 per yard and on sale for 5 per yard. We got two yards of each. I am very excited.

That's all that's new in the home-owning department. We should be replacing our hot water heater soon and hopefully we will make some improvements on the master bathroom soon. We will keep you posted!