Thursday, October 11, 2007

I’m remodeling right now, thanks, and how are you?

I’m just going to have this tattooed on my forehead. And I may put something a little …uh…less enthusiastic on my posterior to show people who decide to ask me how the remodeling is going.

Actually, it is going well as these things go. We are mostly on schedule and almost within budget and really – who could ask for more?

It took two days to strip our room of possessions, furniture and the like. We had a huge mirror in the bathroom, a room-length monster.

Note the word ‘had’. Yes, that’s right, it broke when we were trying to take it down. I almost said something unpleasant to my husband (something in the vein of, “What did I tell you? The guy said we needed a FEW strong guys here when we tried this!”), but then it occurred to me that really this was merely a ‘design opportunity’ and that a pair of smaller mirrors would be damned adorable in there.

It took the better part of another day to mask off everything in the room and so my husband could fire up his shiny new paint sprayer.

Which promptly broke, necessitating a trip to Home Depot to rent one for the afternoon.

It also broke.

And in mid-rant about how it wasn’t working, my husband realized that he was being stupid, that the engine wasn’t cutting out it was just pressurized (or something like that) and went back to work. It worked fine.

He hand-painted the cupboards, taking them from tired looking oak to a beautiful dark brown. The yellowing cultured marble is now a lovely, smooth white. The difference is amazing!

The flooring guy is coming out to measure tomorrow, and with luck and a tailwind we’ll be putting in new flooring throughout the entire upstairs of the house over the next couple weeks, and at long last.

Meanwhile, we are sleeping in the living room amid boxes piled four or five high containing all our stuff.

But I’m not stressed out.

It will look fabulous when it’s all done. It really will. We’re going to love it.

Eventually.

And now, it’s time for me to go to bed.

In the living room.

Which is, on the bright side, much closer to the coffee maker than our bedroom…

11 comments:

PipneyJane said...

I have my fingers crossed that the rest of the remodel goes smoothly. Am looking forward to the photos, too.

Good luck Tama. Hope you manage to get some de-stressing, knitting time in there as well.

- Pam

Yarnhog said...

The coffee maker. Yeah. Gotta take what you can get. Just like childbirth, the pain fades when it's over and you have a lovely new creation to admire.

ellipsisknits said...

Wow. That's really all I can say. You've completely vacated your second story? Wow.

ofc, we're planning to do roughly the same thing here soon. But we don't have children. We don't even have a pet.

I've always guessed you were a stronger person that I. But Wow.

Anonymous said...

Hon, at this point you deserve an industrial-size espresso machine with super-duper attachments right at your bedside. Really. I'd be screaming and banging my head on that shiny white marble by now. You're brave. Crazy, but brave. :-)

Anonymous said...

It's sick, I know, but I'm SO envious.
What I wouldn't give to rip out this pale pale beige carpet that some lunatic thought would look good all over our house (in the DINING room -- where people eat... pasta sauce!), even though the original owners, like us, had two kids and cats and dogs...
There are still some clean places... I'm sure there are...
sigh.
coveting hardwood floors here.

Science PhD Mom said...

Good luck with the living room camping. I'm sure the bee-yoo-tee-full new bathroom already inspires you to carry on with the rest. Hang in there!

Amy Lane said...

The coffeemaker thing makes it all worth it...

Unknown said...

Tama: I saw this comic and thought of you. The only thing it's missing is $DEITY.

http://xkcd.com/327/

Happy remodeling! I'll wave to you from the airport Sunday night.

RM Kahn said...

I'm glad you posted. I was beginning to worry that you had decided to wall up Hubby, Just hang in there, only 20 days till a few days of FUN!

HDW said...

Oh good luck. I have to keep reminding myself when we redo things around this hole that it will al be worth it in the end. But man it is a struggle while in the midst of it!

MadMad said...

Any bright side in a storm, right?