Jeri's story about how projects are going at her house reminds me of the two or three years it took to paint one wall in our living room.

Oh, big deal, you say. A lot of people talk about starting a project and don't get around to it right away. This was different - my living room was taken apart for two or maybe even three years while I waited for Mr. Troutbend to get around to painting that wall.

All the furniture was pushed away from the wall with big plastic draped over it, and there was a pretty tall step ladder standing in there the whole time. Buddy the Cat learned how to climb the ladder and he would go up it to get to the top of this giant oak hutch thing that we got at a liquidation auction for one of those bankrupt savings and loans in the 1980s.

A person might ask why I didn't paint it myself. That living room had a very tall vaulted ceiling with a natural wood beam at the highest part that was rough wood, not varnished, so it was really important not to get the light-colored paint on it. I was afraid if I started painting I would never be able to reach to the top of that wall, and if I tried, I'd get paint on that beam. And I also feared that if I started Mr. Tbend would so disagree with my technique he would refuse to pick up where I left off.

But other than maybe he just didn't feel like painting the living room, I really can't remember what his problem was, and we lived for those years with all the furniture pulled away from the wall, and the plastic, and the ladder. We didn't fight about it, or even discuss it, it was some kind of stand-off.

What started it off was I got the kitchen remodeled and we had to pull the living room furniture away from the wall that backed to the kitchen because they moved some outlets around that affected the living room outlet. The remodelers were going to charge us $200 to paint that living room wall and Mr. Tbend said No, he'd paint the wall to save some off the remodeling - it was a $40,000 project. We even had the paint for it that was left over from the kitchen walls. Yes, my living room walls were the same color as the walls in the eating area. I'm not Martha Stewart.

Finally, and I can't remember what eventually motivated him to get it done, he did it. Somehow he managed to not get paint on the rough wood, and everything looked great. The furniture got moved back and we had a living room again. Buddy the Cat has never forgotten how to climb a step ladder so we have to watch him when we have one out because once he climbs up he doesn't know how to use the ladder to get down, and we don't like him jumping that far.

We don't live in that house any more, and I'd forgotten all about it until Jeri's story reminded me. Ah! Memories.