Pancakes and Wallpaper

Yesterday was an interesting day. My friend and neighbour is a teacher and asked me to come speak to her 7th grade class about Canada. They're doing a project where they virtually travel to another country. And if you're a Canadian and a Maritimer you can't speak about Canada without mentioning maple syrup. And can you think of anything more lovely than that?? Sweet, sticky,  golden yumminess! And since I practically grew up in the Sugar Woods I have lots of experience to draw from. In fact, I never miss home more than I do during maple season.

Here we are at Neil Ripley's camp back in 2007. It was summer but we always make a point of visiting whether it's maple season or not.

Emilie and I were putting labels on maple syrup jugs. 

 Neil filling up some jugs for us to take home.

 

  

The day continued with our Hallway Project!! My upstairs hallway was a dark dungeon that I've wanted to redo since....well, pretty much since we did it the first time. I hated it right away. I've begged poor Sindre over the years and, well, now it's finally happening! It's just the beginning of our rather big reno plans that include the foyer, staircase, downstairs bathroom, kitchen and a whole lot of flooring. I'm not sure Sindre knows exactly how big my plans are but if I just push a little at a time, hopefully I'll get my way. Lol!   I tried to find a before picture of the hallway but I have nothing. But suffice it to say that "dark dungeon" pretty much sums it up.

I'm quite proud to say that I have done the vast majority of this project myself. That includes removing all the floor, ceiling and door trims, removing painted fiberglass wallpaper (which was an ITCHY, difficult job), sanding the walls, crackfilling and sanding again, a coat of primer, and painting 2 coats of white panel paint on every last trim and there are LOTS. And I painted all the door jams white as well. But I needed help with the wallpapering because I had never done it before. So my dear husband stepped in and we got half of it done last night. And can I just say, it is sooooooo pretty. Seriously gorgeous.

It took us 2 hours just to figure out how to get the wallpaper up and where to cut it so we could match the pattern but not lose too much wallpaper in the cutting. The whole thing was very confusing but since we ended up doing it the way I had originally thought, I guess I'm not as confused as I thought. Or....? Anyway, 2 more hours and we'd got half the hallway done. Somewhere in that time, I managed to throw a couple of frozen pizzas in the oven (Grandiosa, a staple of the Norwegian diet!), drive Emilie to choir, fetch various drinks and snacks for the girls and help them with homework. Phew!

Here are "halfway done" pictures.

You'll have to wait a little longer for the final outcome!