Nothing snaps a girl out of an existential funk like a household emergency, in this case, a stealthily leaking water heater. Rather than tackling one of my existing projects, I have spent the morning scraping paint from the utility room floor.

When we bought the house, the floor was painted a poopy brown color. I didn’t like it, but doing something about it was low on the list. While we were gone, someone painted the floor a soft gray, which might have looked better if it hadn’t been slopped onto the baseboards as well.

This gray paint is what we found bubbling up around the room. (You’d use water-based latex paint in a room with a washing machine and a water heater, right? Yeah, me neither.)

So, the bubbling floor jumps ahead in the growing line of unfinished projects, but just for a day or so. While the room is mostly empty, I will remove the floor paint, wash the walls, and prime them. The rest of the room will have to wait its turn. I’ve got cabinets to finish!