The was the most productive Memorial Day weekend ever. I will hear no argument to the contrary. Between Saturday morning and this afternoon, this is some of what we’ve done …

• The longer I live in this house, the better I become at carefully taking things apart. On Saturday, we disassembled the upstairs hallway bathroom. This included the removal of a countertop and sink, as well as the doors and drawers therein. The countertop and sink now sitting at the end of the driveway. The doors and drawers will be getting a fresh coat of paint and new pulls. And since we don’t do things half-ass around here, the toilet tank was removed to get to the keystone of wall behind.
• The bathroom was taped off and got a coat of Kils. You know you’re on the right track in renovation when even simple white primer looks ten times better than the dull yellow it covers.
• Sunday morning, we popped the top on a can of Behr Madras Blue. If the white was a minor improvement, the blue is like finding a brand new room. We just did the rolling, so the cutting in and the trim will come later. I’m new in my painting-fu, so detail work is still a bit beyond my scope. At least I’m no longer finding myself covered in pigment at the end of a paint day.
• Sunday evening, we called Zip and convinced him to come over to the house for a little Firefly viewing. He’d never seen the Whedon-written space western before and was terribly sceptical. “It’s not like Buffy,” we promised. Alyssa (the Firefly super-fan who brought us around with her DVDs just last year) was on hand to assist with the indoctrination. After the pilot episode and another called “The Train Job,” I’m not sure if Zip is a total convert, but he seemed to love the dialogue and didn’t run back to Calhoun screaming in terror. Good signs, both of them.
• Later Sunday evening, Nikki gets a phone call. Julie and Cort, good friends of ours that we’ve not seen in months, are in Atlanta. Where? The airport. Why? Put simply, AirTran fears rain. Want to come up for the night? Sure! (At this point, we realize that we just spent the morning repainting a no longer functioning guest bathroom.) It was a late night, but fun all the same.
• Monday morning. On five hours of sleep, we drop our overnight visitors at the MARTA Kiss & Ride, then arrive back at the house just minutes after Nik’s parents. They’re here to sand some more drywall and possibly stipple the ceiling in the new addition. Now, none of us have ever stippled a ceiling before. Ever. And yet, the end result was not bad at all. The ceiling in the laundry room looked great. And me, the de facto stippler? Well, the results were … interesting.

Yummy.

Update: More DIY photos from the stippling are in my gallery, and Nikki has further commentary on the bathroom.