Don’t let the post title fool you. This blog entry is not going to be prolific, inspiring, emotional, cathartic, heart wrenching… I could go on and on. It’s just not. Trust me. Void where prohibited.
Instead of blogging for the past week, I have been washing the walls of my living room with trisodium phosphate (TSP). I cannot express to you the joy —
lies. All lies. If anyone tells you that washing walls with TSP is fun they are absolutely, positively, certifiably psychotic. Or Martha Stewart.
This week a painter is coming in to fix, treat, and paint the living room ceiling which is horribly stained and discolored. The more I look at where the stain is – above our mantle – the more I am convinced that the previous owners were pyromaniacs. When my husband and I cleaned out the fireplace, we found burnt advertisements, photos, bills, and the list goes on. So, logically, maybe it’s just that they couldn’t afford a shredder. Or maybe I’m right and they were pyromaniacs. Either way, the appointment with the painter has given me new found motivation to finish the living room, though, which is a good thing.
Because of how hard I have to scrub the walls and how many times I have to get on and off the ladder, though, I tend to only work on it for about an hour each week night. Which means not a lot of progress. Until tonight.
Let’s backtrack: My mom gave me – or regifted me – an iTunes gift card that I had gotten her but she had never used. So Sunday night my husband got to make fun of me and suffered through, “Wait what is that song that kinda sounds like JLo’s that is Latin in the beginning?” and “What about that one where I think he’s singing about Galileo?”** followed by his laughter, and immediately pulling up the YouTube video, with me squealing in delight, “OH MY GOD! How did you find it?! What’s the name of it?” I then proceeded to make fun of half of my music collection from college.
The point of this is, music actually made washing the walls bearable. Somehow shaking my ass while scrubbing my walls made the time fly. So if you have an unbearable task at hand that may or may not involve chemicals that may or may not make your hands shrivel up and look like prunes (even wearing gloves), I recommend music. And here is my wall washing mix.***
* In an attempt to have a melodramatic post title, I chose one of the artists featured on the playlist. Thank you for music that makes me shake my ass and laugh at the same time.
** Please see Taio Cruz’s “Dynamite”. I also at one point thought that Rihanna fell in love at a homeless place.
*** This mix does not reflect the entirety of my taste in music. And feel free to make fun of the random, bad, nostalgic songs in there. Yes, there is Backstreet Boys on there. And yes, FCC, I bought or owned all the songs/CDs 😛
Restoring Life 
lol. Why is it that husbands so energetically mock our music, and yet KNOW it all? Hmmm…
When we first moved into our current house, we washed walls that had been exposed to 9 years of serious cigarette smokers. We’d spray and wash. rinsing and emptying buckets of water after every three rinses because it was as if coffee was pouring down our walls. SO gross! (Don’t want to even imagine what their lungs looked like).
Enjoy your fresh, beautiful walls when they come!
Somehow my husband manages to put up with it anyway!
Good to know someone else feels my pain. The previous owners were also smokers so I’ve been fighting that battle all over the house. But it’s getting cleaned, and stain blocking paint is truly magical!