I’m back on the Mahalo Lounge wagon, trying to finish. It’s slow going, I’ll tell you, because it’s all about the itty bitty details — and there are A LOT of them. Mostly, at this point, I’m focused on: the ceiling. The biggest news: I made a decision on where to install the second of two vintage Orchids of Hawaii lights, which came out of my local Luau Hale, a longtime vintage extant tiki bar and restaurant. I put the light, swag style, dead center on the third of the five beamed sections that comprise my 30′ long living room-dining room.Heck yeah there is more →

All five portions of the ceilings in the Mahalo Lounge are now done! My wallpaperer Sally came over last week, and over the course of three days — she counted 14.5 hours of work for her — so that’s 29 hours working together — we finished the last two sections. The ceilings look fantastic — my husband — an awesome critic — adores them! Heck yeah there is more →

My wallpaperer came up for air. So we are working together to finish wallpapering (grassclothing) the ceiling of the Mahalo Lounge. Oh, and there are a bunch of men with heavy machinery here today taking down all the trees in the back forty. And, I made a four-hour round-trip Monday to buy a 1986 Kitchenaid dishwasher. Which is still in the back of my Escape.Heck yeah there is more →

I realize that this is an extremely lame blog post. But it is meant to demonstrate that I am extremely lame about finishing what I started. Perhaps you share the same m.o.: All excited, get a super fun project started, but then… your interest fades, you move on to the next before you finish the first. And then it’s December and you see you have… 20 unfinished projects. If you weren’t afraid to count. This little series is meant to keep me focused on finishing that darn Mahalo Lounge, one stinkin’ day at a time. Perhaps it is inspiring you to finish stuff, too?

Oh. I went 10 months without a door knob on the door from the hallway into the living room.Heck yeah there is more →