Now that November is over, and December is upon us, and I am realizing that I have less than 20 days to accomplish an impossible list of things I really wanted done before my family arrives for Christmas, I am starting to experience a very small amount of panic. One of the biggest issues is simply due to the fact that there are too many little things still remaining to finish on the house. We need to glue the transition strips in place on the floor downstairs. We need to swap out the ancient lever-based thermostat downstairs for one that is programmable. We need to finish going through all the bedding and make sure we’ve got complete sets for all guest beds, so we don’t suddenly discover that guests have to make do with sofa cushions for pillows and knit afghans for comforters. We need to tackle the remaining boxes that require unpacking (and either unpack them, or hide them, because I am sick to death of seeing them). And this does not even begin to address all the non-house issues, like figuring out what to get everyone for Christmas, and writing up (and sending) the yearly Holiday Recap letter, along with a massive stack of holiday cards, and purchasing all those gifts once we figure out what they are.

One of the house-related things that we might still be able to take care of in time is getting the bookshelves built for the library room downstairs. However, this requires us to not only pick a stain color, but also to pick a wood. We found a stain we liked, but the wood has continued to present a challenge, and I admit that when faced with decorating choices, no matter how small, a majority of my brain just shuts down because I am continually afraid of making the wrong decision. Things that are easily changed (and not too expensive) are okay because I can just fix it later, but decisions for things like wall colors, or furniture styles, or even something as stupid as the type of wood we want for the bookshelves downstairs just make me panic. I hate feeling this way – I know it’s completely unreasonable to feel like this (although reason never counted much when it comes to any sort of inferiority complex), but I feel like every other woman out there was born with the decorating gene and seems to have no problem figuring out simple stuff like colors and stains, and what goes with what. I may be able to build a database full of complicated stored procedures without blinking an eye, or generate lengthy white papers and reports as if they were nothing more complicated than a shopping list, but ask me to choose a paint color, or put together an outfit, and I become a dithering idiot.

Sunday we went to the local bagel place for breakfast, and then we drove off to Target with a gift card Richard received, and bought twin blankets for the guest beds, and a cute winter-themed doormat for the front porch, and then we went to Home Depot and tried to tackle the ‘wood and stain’ question again. The problem that we’ve been facing is that it’s not as simple as just picking a color – since we want these to be floor-to-ceiling shelves, that will be attached permanently to the walls, there will have to be crown molding at the top (100 year old house = floors and ceilings that are not true) to hide any gapping – and crown molding does not come in the same types of wood. Different wood types pick up stains differently, and if our goal is to have it look as if it’s always been there, having molding that’s obviously a different color kind of defeats the whole idea. We could buy pre-stained molding that would work if we wanted to use oak for the shelving, but I really wasn’t too crazy about the colors it came in, and the only other pre-stained molding I halfway liked was a bit too red.

Anyway. The good news is that we purchased a small board of poplar and a small board of red oak, and two small jars of wood stain, and at some point this evening (after dinner, and watching the last episode of Tin Man) I will apply patches of each stain to each type of wood, and leave them downstairs in what will (eventually) be the library, so we can see which combination we prefer. This still doesn’t address the issue of the crown molding, but at least it’s one step closer to making a decision, and for someone who’s as decorating-challenged as me, that’s saying a lot.

Happy Holidailies!