...over 2 years ago when I got fed-up with trying to make the cheap fiberglass/plastic shutters work in my breakfast nook, I stopped "channeling Mom" [aka making do with cheapest or doing without...] and spent $$$ at Smith and Nobel on custom basswood shutters for said nook...it took 6 weeks for them to be built [custom,after all...] and when they arrived, sometime in early 2006, [exact dates are hazy...] , the 4 boxes sat in the living room,behind the front door...waiting... waiting for the other dozen or so boxes of furniture, etc... to be constructed [thank you to Miz Minka and Mr Greenthumb...], for the nook to be "cleaned out" and "organized" [thanks again to Miz Minka, whose patience was tried by my packrat-ness [ "no, you can't have More of those, NOOOOO ! "...]and the general debris field of Mom's stuff in the dining room to move to the garage, [thank you, Joe...now if I could only find my lawn mower...] but there was also this other problem...after spending $$$ on these "high-end" shutters, I needed a "finish carpenter "or cabinet maker to properly install them... they were wood and would need to be individually "sized" to the parallelograms pretending to be rectangular windows in my nook...so a skilled craftsman, with proper tools was a must... several "false" starts left me discouraged [sorry Billy Joe Bob, I don't have a band saw you can borrow...]...then one day while I was at the chiropractors, I saw a business card on the bulletin board for a cabinet maker [turns out he built the counter in my Drs office...]...so I called him and after a lot of work, a craftsmans skill and much appreciated help from friends...I have shutters in my nook ! no longer will anyone passing by see in as I do things in the kitchen after dark...no longer do I have to remember to be "fully clothed" to go to the kitchen for a drink of water in the middle of the night...no longer will the hot summer sun make that room an oven...and the shutters look amazing !...worth every cent for construction and installation !!
we also took out the wall AC unit [now I have central AC/heat] and the carpenter will frame a stained glass piece to fit where the AC was [it was a double-hung window years ago, but only the top part is left open now...]...and besides that, we are making progress on washing woodwork [Murphys Oil Soap,Multisurface spray is WONDERFUL !], sanding, spackeling, filling cracks, mending holes in the plaster[ thermostats were moved,test holes made..etc.].... all the" fun", paint-prep stuff... tomorrow, the "hall" will get primed with oil-based primer to seal in the old lead based oil paint on it now [80 year old houses are such fun !]...then there's cleaning the wood floors [currently "shielded by a thick, protective coat of grime...] and finally the actual painting...my target date is "by Christmas" ....2008 might be more realistic...more than 4 years ago, I began this journey... Mom's illnesses and her death last January seemed to constantly interrupt my progress and sap my energy... and then there was all the stuff I couldn't throw away[Lord knows, we tossed TONS]...but it all seems to fade now, with the hope that comes from having those shutters up and looking so "right",and, that someday, [soon!], this will be done, so I can move on to my office... and bedroom... and, ARGH, THE GARAGE ! NOOOOOOOOOO!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
3 comments:
There's nothing quite so satisfying as even a little progress on a huge project. :) Keep on trucking!
...that sound you just heard was the other shoe dropping...the plumber "fixed" the wobbly toilet 'for now', but the subfloor is rotten[leaks] and will need to be replaced...along with the tile floor and the pipe connections for the toilet flange[which,long-term,needs to attatch to the floor(a real,not rotten one), sigh....he said the 'short -term' would last a year or so...more $$$, joy ,rapture,bliss....
Oh, no... How horrible!!! (Especially as you only have one bathroom in the house...) Have the leaks been found and fixed at least???
Post a Comment