Pumpkin Pancakes at IHOP Watercolor and Ink Pineapple Journal 5.5 x 5.5 Inches

Have you ever notice that a home improvement project will take over and totally eclipse your otherwise sane life?

If you answered no, consider yourself lucky. If you answered yes, you commiseration is greatly appreciated. We are reluctant do-it-yourselfer's. We're too picky about what we want and how we want it done to hire out the job so we always end up doing it ourselves.

Chris and I have decided it was finally time to tackle the long hallway in our house. The hallway that has 7 doors and slightly resembles a hotel hallway. (What was the builder thinking?!)

So there is our first challenge...we decided we would try to "disguise" two of the doors by making them less obvious.

Our second challenge came from the fact that the people who built this house did not prime any of the walls. They used the old, thick wallpaper paste and glued wallpaper up—over drywall. Oh yay. Can you say damage?

The prior owner removed the wallpaper as it was very (VERY) dated. In the process of removing the paper all the walls were left with an "interesting" texture. If it had been a texture we could have worked with, great, but no. Instead, it looked like exactly what it was—damaged. In fairness, I have to say I don't think anybody could have removed the paper and the glue without damaging the walls.

Our third and final (?) challenge is that this hallway is in the center of our home and you don't go anywhere without accessing the hallway. That meant there was no way to shut it off and work on it. If we tried to drywall, even with wet sanding, we'd be cleaning dust long after the cows had come home and the chickens had roosted. (In case you've forgotten, I am NOT nor will I EVER be a good housekeeper—there are too many other things I would RATHER be doing!)

So, we've looked at textured paint products, heavy wallpaper, paneling, drywall textures, and something else I'm not recalling to the point of ad nauseum. Without success. Nothing looked promising as the walls are so messed up. We were quite perplexed.

Enter the power of the internet.

I was surfing the web in search of paint grade v-groove planks that were not 5/8 of an inch thick. Oh yeah, there's another challenge...the hallway's not particularly wide and it's dark. We don't want to make it narrower nor darker.

After getting frustrated with all the big DIY box store web sites, I started thinking we were going to have to "settle" for a product that neither of us were crazy about but would do the job. To blow out a little of the frustration I switched over to looking at pictures on Google.

I stumbled across a very talented woman who had used paint-grade v-groove planks to redo her dining room ceiling! Oh boy! Not only did she show a photo of the product, she also mentioned where she purchased it. A year ago.

To make a long story a little shorter, I skipped over to Lowe's yesterday to find out if they still carried the product as their web site was not answering my questions. Sure enough they had it, but it was on clearance. Yay! Oh, wait, oh no...

Luckily, I had managed to find one of those super nice, super knowledgable, super helpful sales people. He helped me source the additional planks we would need at another store nearby.

After picking up our spiffy new planks, we came home and reevaluated our project—and right before our eyes—it expanded! Poof! Just like that.

Dang.

We were going to need even more boards. So bright and (too) early this morning, we hiked over to IHOP for breakfast which just happens to be conveniently located right across the street from Lowe's.

Since I love just about anything pumpkin, I was delighted to see Pumpkin Pancakes on the menu! As for the wonky sketch of them above...I can only say that I had not yet had any coffee when I started drawing...BUT...it rather captures the mood of the morning with all its wonkiness! And the pancakes were delicious.

After returning to Lowe's, we bumped into Mr. Super Helpful Sales Guy and he once again helped us to locate the additional boards we need. Yay!

All this and we haven't even started the project. And yes, it has taken over our lives. I rather dread the coming month.

Have no doubts...you will be hearing more about the ongoing saga, and maybe, just maybe I'll be able to wrangle some more of those pumpkin pancakes out of the deal!