We had a slight setback Friday night in the decorating process when we attempted to push-pull-shove-curse the almost immovable bookshelf in the exercise room away from the wall. This heavy piece was in place when we moved here and we're told it was formally used in the chemistry lab at the old high school.

I was pulling (i.e, straining my back but not making an inch of difference) and Blair was pushing. To give himself a little more leverage, he braced himself against what he thought was the window frame but which, unfortunately, turned out to be the window itself. "One-two-three!" we said and there was an ear-deafening shattering-tinkling noise.

The window is history. Luckily, no one was hurt. We picked huge impaling shards of glass from the window frame and vacuumed the little pieces out of the carpet. Not an auspicious start.

But things picked up when our neighbor Joey stopped by and we begged him to pretty-please go pick out some wall color for us. A neighbor (actually, the woman who went to Kiawah with us) had paid Joey to decorate her home while we were gone. He went all out and when she got back her front room and dining room had been transformed into these stunning rooms of rich gold and deep chocolate.  He has wonderful taste and we don't. "Please help us," we begged.

He ran out to Wal-Mart and brought back paint chips. On my own, I never in a million years would have even looked at the colors he brought back but we trusted him, went with it, and I am loving the room.

The fireplace wall is what I'm calling a sky blue but being honest, it's pretty darn close to a true baby blue. The other three walls are kind of a tawny tangerine. I know, I know... I hate peach. But it's nowhere near a flat peach. It's much more...mellow... melon... cheerful.

The room has been transformed from a dark duck pit to a playful, energizing space. We did two coats of wall paint yesterday and I'll hit the trim today. That's what takes the longest. We'll easily go through a gallon of white paint to do two coats on the trim. We've got three panelled doors (front and back), 6-inch floor trim, ceiling trim, and multi-paned windows. The trim will probably take two days. But then it will be done!

The cats are itching to get into the room. Lucy stands outside the closed door and sniffs at the crack, most likely getting high on paint fumes. (That would explain a lot in her behavior.)

As for me, I'm blowing off any form of paying work today in order to devote myself to the trim. Just me, a paintbrush, some tunes, and a yowling cat outside the door. It's shaping up to be a pretty good day.