The paneling in my current house, for the most part, is actually fairly attractive as paneling goes. The stuff that’s in the living room kind of looks like wormy chestnut. The paneling in my office and the hallway isn’t like that, but it’s a nice, light brown. The paneling that irks me the most is in Pumpkin’s room. It’s dark in color, and it just makes the room look drab. Thankfully, the kitchen and main bedroom have normal (although painfully plain) walls

I’d love to completely redo the walls in the rooms that have paneling. I’ve thought about covering them with wallpaper, because that would probably be the easiest route. But we would have to sand the paneling so the wallpaper would stick, and we’d need to fill in the grooves and pits if we wanted it to look smooth. Or we could replace it with beadboard. I know, that’s paneling too, but I think it’s prettier than regular paneling, and it would go well with the cottage styling of the place.

Of course if I redid the walls, I’d be hankering to do more interior decorating. Like getting new floor coverings and furniture. I love the look of cabin furniture, but I think it would be a bit too much for such a small house. Shabby chic pieces would suit it much better.

But I’m getting way ahead of myself here. We don’t have the money to redo the walls right now, much less do all this other stuff. So, at least for now, I guess I can just dream on.

Right now, the biggest aggravation we’re dealing with is the toilet. A while back, the flusher broke off of it. Hubby got creative with electrical tape and got it to stay on for a long time, but it finally decided that it would have no more of that nonsense. Since then, we’ve had to take the lid off of the back of the toilet and pull the chain up by hand to get it to flush. Not so bad, until the thing decided that it didn’t want to fill back up after being flushed. Well, Hubby tinkered with it until water would come through, although very slowly. And that’s the state of things right now. You’ve got to open the tank, pull the chain, and wait a good 15 or 20 minutes before flushing again, unless you’re willing to pour water in from the tub faucet to help it fill up faster.

Now, most people would take this opportunity to make a case for getting a fancy new Saniflo toilet with all the bells and whistles and fancy design. But not this bird. You see, I absolutely adore my toilet. Why? Because it’s avocado green, that’s why! I know that color has been out of style since about 1974 or something, but I freaking adore it! And I don’t think I would be happy with another toilet that wasn’t in that color. I’m really hoping that we can just fix what’s wrong with it with a kit or something, and I can enjoy my green potty for years to come.

In case you’re wondering, my tub is the same color. The only thing in the bathroom that isn’t green is the sink, and if I could find a reasonably priced green one that would fit in there easily, don’t think I wouldn’t snatch it up in a heartbeat. I’d even like to find all new avocado green kitchen appliances when the day comes when we have the money to buy them, but I suppose I shouldn’t hold my breath.

Go ahead, tell me I’m crazy, and that my style is just totally wack. I don’t care. I always have loved avocado green, and I always will.

We had it all planned out. We were going to put the entertainment center along one wall, the couch along the opposite wall, and experiment with the chairs until we found the right places for them. The only thing holding us back was lack of a suitable electrical outlet where we wanted the entertainment center, and we came up with a couple of temporary fixes for that until we could install one.

But then Hubby’s brother pointed out that if we arranged things that way, there would be cords running across the floor in front of the front door when they played their precious video games. They don’t have wireless controllers for them, and it would cost more money than we could pay right now to get them. So I guess the whole plan is out of the question.

So I guess it’s back to the drawing board. One of these days I’m going to give the living room a complete makeover, with new paint on the walls, hardwood or laminate flooring, and maybe even some faux wood blinds on the windows. But for now, I would just like to find some other way to arrange the furniture so that things wouldn’t seem so cramped.

I’m not sure how the previous owners of my house managed to keep everything copper. If they had as much trouble as we have with the plumbing, they would have had to replace some things at some point. But every bit of the pipes that I’ve seen appear to have been there for eons. Copper pipes are pretty much impossible to find any more, so we’ve had to replace everything that’s had to be replaced so far with pex piping.

Every time we have a little trouble with the copper, we have to spend a lot more on fittings and such than we would with some other type of piping. And pex is flexible and durable, so you’re much less likely to have trouble out of it. Maybe one of these days we’ll be able to afford to get it all redone with it.

Now it’s to the point where you have to turn the cold water on about halfway before it will quit making that awful noise. But if you turn it that far and then turn it back, you can usually turn it down and have a little water without the sound effects. That’s not all, though. I noticed a couple of days ago that it’s leaking around the base.

I haven’t had time to examine the problem yet, but I do know that it’s not leaking all the time. It may be just when the water is on, which isn’t that big of a deal seeing how it’s coming out on top of the sink rather than underneath. But I have a sinking feeling (pardon the pun) that the faucet isn’t going to last much longer.

I suppose I should go ahead and find some eFaucets coupons and have them ready for when replacement is no longer optional. Might as well make sure I get the best deal possible when that day comes. It’s not like a kitchen faucet is something that it’s easy to live without.

But there is a lot more I want to do to this place. Hubby and I both agree that the ceilings in the living room and my office need to be redone. I want to either cover or replace the paneling on the walls in the same rooms, and the floors could use some work too. But I’d also love to spruce the place up beyond the basic needs. It’s amazing how small details can make such a difference in a home.

Trouble is, I’m pretty clueless when it comes to things like that. I considered going into interior design when I was in my teens, but when we studied it in home ec, I just couldn’t get into it and figured it wasn’t for me. Hubby, on the other hand, has no interest whatsoever in such things. Such subtleties are completely lost on him.

Lucky for me, there’s Inviting Home It’s a website that sells all sorts of interior design products. From details such as cabinet knobs and molding to lighting and benches, they’ve got the things you need to turn your home from drab to fab without a great deal of effort.

Now, some companies would just put all their offerings on a web page and assume that their customers would know what they’re doing. But not Inviting Home. They have lots of resources to show us how to use their products and help us come up with ideas for our own homes. That’s a big comfort to someone like me, who wouldn’t know what to do with corbels if someone gave me a truckload of them. Here are some of the resources you’ll find on their website:

• Plenty of decorating ideas. Whether you’re a bachelor trying to give your home a stylish yet masculine look or you’ve got an awesome fireplace that you want to accentuate, they’ll tell you what you need for the job.
• A home improvement blog with articles categorized by topic. There’s lots of great stuff here about how to choose the right accents for your home.
• An inspiration gallery with photos of their products installed in various decorating schemes. This is a great place to start if you have no idea in what direction you want to go.

I spent a lot of time browsing the site, and I’ve come up with a few ideas. Some new molding to replace the cheap-looking, drab stuff that’s up now, some ornate knobs for the kitchen cabinets, a low-profile chandelier for the kitchen… I could go on and on. I’ve got it bookmarked for when the time comes that we can seriously think about sprucing up this old house.

We tore the closet that held the furnace and some shelves out so we could put the stove there. We didn’t think lighting would be a problem, because there was a light in the closet. But as it turns out, the socket doesn’t work. Nice.

There’s a shelf sitting a short distance from the stove, and I thought maybe we could put a table lamp there for some light. But there’s not an outlet close by, so we’d probably have to run an extension cord across the floor to plug it in. Then everybody would trip over it.

As soon as we get the money, I want to get an electrician in here to put some more outlets in, fix the light socket, and check everything out. But until then, I guess we’ll be using a flashlight if we need to see much of anything over there.

We knew we would have to redo the roof, and that was first on our list of priorities. But Hubby decided that he must put shingles on it instead of tin, and that has ended up costing us a pretty penny. Not nearly as much as if we had paid professional roofers to do it, but plenty.

We also need to work on the plumbing, which is next on the list as far as I’m concerned. We need to find out why water pours out in the floor rather than going to the shower head when you turn it on, and we need to look at kitchen faucets. But Hubby is in a big hurry to extend the bathroom and do a bunch of other stuff. I hate the tiny bathroom, but I think we could live with it a while longer if we just got the necessities fixed. Try telling him that, though.

Painting the outside is another source of contention. I say it can wait, but he says he can get most of the materials for free and doesn’t want to wait. Sometimes I think he doesn’t comprehend the costs (money and time) of things, and sometimes I think he’s just trying to be argumentative.

There’s plenty more that needs to be done. I just hope I can make it through all of this with my sanity intact.

There is a concrete table and two benches out there as well. They are usable, but they’re not in the best shape in the world. Sometime after we get done with the roof and get it all cleaned up out there, I’m thinking about chucking them and getting some nice new patio furniture. I don’t know how soon we’ll have the money though, so I guess I’ll just hang on to the concrete stuff for now. At least it’s somewhere to sit and enjoy the sunshine.

But now, I don’t have to worry about it. When he got started working on the roof, he asked his dad if he could borrow a circular saw. He said he had several of them, and to come get one. But when he got there, he found that every single one of them was missing the same piece. Probably a result of his brother’s incompetent tinkering, but whatever the reason, he was sawless.

He was all to pieces over it. Then the Light Bulb of Knowledge came on over my head. Knowing that he wouldn’t break down and spend his money to buy one, I offered to get him one as an early Father’s Day present. He instantly agreed, I went to town and got it, and all was well.

So now I don’t have to worry about Father’s Day. I probably will anyway, but it won’t be a necessity.