Orange Molding, Sage Green Wall
Most of my 1,300 sq. ft. of flooring is down! I have a 3 foot hallway still left to go after I remove the carpet in that location. I’m sad to report that I will have to pull up a few feet of flooring around the bottom of the stairs. I’m guessing one of my many “grandchildren” dropped something extremely heavy on it and left a nice divot. I’m pretty sure which one it was since I can’t quite get him to grasp that an 11 year old should know better than to traipse through the house with tools waiving through the air. It’s hard for him to understand in his excitement to tell me something about his lawnmower repair efforts. After all, who else would let him tinker with their lawnmower. The trip to the parts house to purchase a new spark plug was the highlight of his morning. I let him be the customer and request the part from the friendly parts employee. I thought he would supernova he was glowing so brightly. Even if he trashed the old lawnmower, it will have been worth it! I’m happy to say it is running! The choke cable, not so much, but it works! I can’t get too mad about the floor since I have extra boards and haven’t finished off the kitchen yet so it is possible to pull it up and replace it without too much fuss.
The bigger problem is finding a stain to match the flooring for the baseboards. I have tried five different types so far and they all are fails. The paint expert at my ACE Hardware store is going to tackle custom matching the stain to the board I left for him. All the other stains have gone very orange on the wood molding. I even tried to add a dark blue to the stain to mute the orange.
Sigh, I don’t like going to hardware stores at all. Most of the time it is a traumatic experience for me and I get treated like I’m stupid when I ask a question. Home Depot is sure to piss me off a good 50% of the time while Lowe’s is better at about 30%. The last time I was in Lowe’s, I wanted to scream at the checkout person that if she asked me the same question again without listening to my answer I would smack her. It would not have been received well and I would have been taken off to jail. Sigh! ACE is more of a mom and pop store and they seem to think my questions are perfectly reasonable. After all, I was raised by an ironworker who saw the value in educating his daughters in basic tool usage and auto survival mechanics. My mother was a farm girl who didn’t know that you weren’t supposed to just get out there and get it done, somehow. My beloved was a genius engineer who could design, fix (or break) anything. Can’t do is just not in my vocab! Being a widow is not a handicap or a limitation. It just means it will take me longer and I will have to plan around getting an education on the best way to do something. I miss my beloved and get angry from time to time because he did not take care of his health. Then I think about how blessed I have been to have been married to him for 17 years and how much he thought about my future. I would not take back one day but would have liked to say goodbye.
My list of repairs to our “new” house goes on and on. I need to finish flooring this month. The patio demobilization project is a must before the rains come. It was improperly constructed and is forcing water intrusion into my west wall. I’ve lost the alarm system, phone and one outlet on that wall that will need repairs. Besides, I have reached my tolerance limit for clutter and want things put back where they look decent again!!!
Trees have been trimmed back, branches are already cut up, and the new 4″ underground drain is installed to stop the backyard flooding. Still left to do this summer season is the patio overhead tear down, gutter clean-out, front yard elevation lowered and rear yard elevation raised. The window replacement projects on the second floor for this year are almost complete: the garage loft window install and the trim for the bedroom window almost complete. I will get it done and be ready to bring on the RAIN!
{I have captive “grandchildren” this weekend, the parental units are spending time alone with each other. The kids would work for free but I like to be fair and pay them for their work and it is so much fun to see their smiles and get lots of hugs! Maybe a trip to the ice cream store is also in order 🙂 }
Tessa Bertoldi 