Adventures of a first-time homeowner, pt. 6

It's been a while since I've done another one of in this series of posts, but that's definitely not to say we haven't been busy. Other than repairing divots in the backyard as I perfect my 7 iron, interior design has been the theme of the past month. The fetching Mrs. Wookie along with a friend who in the area who does interior design (just screams trouble, doesn't it?) have been shopping. Results: new sofa and love seat for the living room, new curtains and curtain rods for the family room and living room, and new lamps for the lving room. The living room did need the most work, because it was pretty much an empty room. Apartment to house move translates into half the necessary furniture and most of the furniture you do bring ends up being inadequate, so you buy new stuff to replace the old stuff too. My parents shipped out the piano that I grew up playing on, so that got moved in to the living room a week ago as well. New sofa and love seat were delivered around the same time as the piano. Fortunately I didn't have to do anything electric with the lighting, other than plug them in. That leaves taking down existing, ugly, box-like, valence-type thingies and putting up new rods and curtains. The family room had the most windows, but went fairly quickly. Old, boxy, valence-type thingies came down easily enough and the new rods were hung with little trouble. My main concern with these was making everything level. My laser level will suction to the wall, but our walls are textured, so that would friggin' work. So the levelling was a combination of laser and eye, and turned out pretty well if I do say so myself. The living room was another matter. Did I mention the living room has cathedral ceilings? And a 12 foot high front window? So there I am standing on the top rung of the 6 foot ladder I borrowed from next door (good thing I'm 6'5") trying to drill holes in the front wall to hang these damn rods. Straight wasn't an issue because the windown is inset in to the wall, encased in a nice frame which gave me my measuring reference. The problem was drilling the holes. Inch long drywall expanders for the screws, and all I could drill in was a half an inch. So 10 half inch holes in the wall later, and 8 broken, smashed and bent drywall expanders later I finally find a spot to drill where I'm not drilling directly into metal framing connectors. Nearly three hours to hang two damn curtain rods over a 12 foot window. And now I've got to go back up and patch all those damn holes...