Side Affects May Include........

I learned something about myself yesterday. A few things actually. #1. I can't sit still; B. I've started more projects in the nine months since I started blogging than in the entire 16 years I've been a homeowner; 3. I watch entirely too much HGTV; E. lastly and perhaps most importantly, never leave me alone in the house with a saw.

Case in point.

The railing that separates my kitchen and family room.

When our house was built, we decided to have a railing instead of a half-wall in this space. Now, 10 years later, the more I look at it the more I'm reminded of how difficult it is to keep clean. I began this year with a new perspective on life - low maintenance. I've followed through in many ways. Like in the Spring I didn't plant as many flowers as usual. That was helpful, but by the Fall, on a complete whim, I ripped out all of the shrubs surrounding my patio. Ah, no more pulling weeds!

So as I began to shift my focus to the inevitable - holiday decorating - I thought about scaling back there too. Every year for 10 years I have taken much pride in how I dress up my railings. But even that was getting old and tiresome. I decided that I couldn't NOT decorate them, so the next best thing was to rip the darn things out!

To you this may seem a little extreme.

But in my world (a sometimes frightening place) it made perfect sense.

Having never taken a saw to a piece of wood before, I had no idea how long this would take or what I was in for. But a half a pound of sawdust later I had accomplished this.


Which led to me taking out this.


By now, I was having a ball! There was no stopping me. My poor children were slightly worried when they saw Mommy take a sledge hammer to a permanent structure in their safe, secure home. But I was not to be deterred. With each swing I felt relief. I could envision myself sweeping the floor and not having to get down on my hands and knees and reach in between those skinny spindles.

I almost finished too.


Except for this.


I wanted to surprise my man and have it all completed before he came through the door to what was supposed to be a nice relaxing evening with the fam. And he was suprised. Very surprised. I would say shocked even. Maybe a little scared too. What with the mounting pile of sawdust and his wife weilding a sledgehammer while his DNA were crouched in fetal position in the corner. What man doesn't want to come home to that?

I tried to rationalize that it made the rooms look bigger, ya know, the "open floor plan" thang. And I was quick to point out that I had just saved HIM the trouble of having to do all that work himself. Cause I'm nice like that. Oh, but those two huge things sticking straight up out of the floor just waiting to impale some innocent person making the transition from room to room? Yeah, he was gonna have to take those out. Um, and the holes in the place where the spindles used to be? He would need to fix that too. The big gauge in the wall? Just slap some spackle on there - I'm just sayin'!

At the end of the day, it's just a big gap in the floor.

Also at the end of the day I was prepping for bed when I grabbed my handy-dandy-helps-me-get-to-sleep-prescription medication and suddenly it dawned on me. Actually it hit me like a ton of bricks.....................side affects may include compulsive behavior.