OK, so most of The Serpico House is looking pretty good these days. We've got the humidity thing in the basement under control. The rooms are, for the most part, painted the way we want them. The kitchen is... the kitchen, and I guess that's not going to change anytime soon, so we're just going to live with it for a while longer. We have the yard sort of figured out with our lawn-cutter guy, and we've actually gotten the gutters cleaned--by the way, it hasn't rained since we had the gutters cleaned about two weeks ago. Figures, right? Eventually, we plan to have the big tree in our yard trimmed back so that it's not hanging over the house, and we do eventually want to handle the ivy on our back wall, but those things will also have to wait a while. All of these things are great, but we haven't really dealt with art or hanging stuff on the walls. It's not like we don't have any art to hang, either. For example, one of our dear friends made us a lovely painting, and we really like it... but we haven't hung it yet. We also have a bunch of neat prints, posters and carved masks, too. Now, in my younger days, I probably would have just bashed a bunch of nails into the wall, popped the masks and paintings onto the nails and called it a day. As for my myriad posters, prints and other items... well, let's just say that I used to be a big fan of scotch tape and staples. I know, I know... tacky, right? So, acting as an adult here, I'm thinking about frames and arranging artwork around the house. Dig on this photo for a minute or two..... Granted, we don't have a white couch (and I'm pretty sure we'll never get one!), and we don't have any funky wallpaper, but that cluster of framed artwork on the wall speaks to me. In fact, Avy and I visited some friends recently, and I really wish I had a picture of one of their walls to show off here--they have a really wonderful amalgamation of neat, framed stuff on their walls, from music-related posters to personal photos and works from local artists. It's visually arresting and compelling. The lady of the house says she snagged most of the frames at thrift stores. I think the key here is that all of the art is framed. Most anything looks more important when it is framed. For example, this poster is just kind of a band poster for a show that has already passed... But I bet if I had it in a nice black frame, it'd be a cool thing to have on the wall. A conversation piece, even. I want to get on this as a project and hang up our art. Soon.