Several weeks ago, when our entire property was covered in several feet of snow, and everywhere I looked I could only see an endless sea of white, and my kids had yet another snow day, I made a spontaneous decision that would alter the course of our home and leave me wondering, once again, about my psychological stability.

The day started out like any other day. It was Tuesday morning and I was getting ready to go to work when the phone rang. It was my coworker saying that the office was closing for the day because so many of our patients had canceled due to the snow storm. So I was given an unexpected day off. And better yet, my husband had the same day off! That almost never happens!

Maybe some people would consider a day like that perfect for catching up on scrapbooking or baking cookies or watching movies. But I was suddenly energized and without thinking too hard, I made this announcement: Today we are stripping wallpaper!

I saw my husband’s face fall and he looked at me and started to ask me if I was serious. But one look at my face answered his question. I was on a mission, and that nasty wallpaper was coming down that day. Or else.

We set out to get the job done. Even the girls got in on the action. I thought we could get it done in one day. And then we could paint the next day. By the end of the week, we would have a new home office, just like on HGTV.

It’s now a month later. The snow has all melted, the grass is greening up, the kids are back to school. Here’s my home office as of Saturday:

Believe it or not, that’s progress. Here’s how it looked at the half-way point:

Which is of course better than it looked the week before that:

The girls were a huge help:

Our buddy Caleb came for a day. I like Caleb. I fed him supper.

The people that owned the house before us painted over wallpaper, then put another layer of paper up. Getting all of that off was a nightmare. NIGHTMARE! But we persevered and got the job done.

Then it was onto the painting phase. Don’t worry, that pink stuff is only the primer. The final color is a really deep red. It took a gazillion coats. But I’m really happy with it, even if my husband isn’t so happy with me:

I hate painting. I mean I really hate it. As awful as it was to get that wallpaper down, I’d rather do that than paint. Which is, of course, why my husband gets a little tense when I tell him I want to paint. Because he knows that when I say “I” I actually mean “him”.

And this is the part where I should have a whole bunch of pictures of the finished room for you to see. But, well, the room isn’t finished yet. But we’re getting close. The painting should be finished today which means the curtains can be hung and the room can be put back together. I hope so. This mess is driving me crazy. Or maybe I already am crazy. It’s debatable, it really is.