Tag Archives: home projects

Quarantine and Purge

17 Sunday Nov 2013

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Well yuck.  What’s that they say about colds…treat one and it goes away in a week – don’t treat it and it takes 7 days?  If that’s true we’re on day 3 here and it sucks.  I feel like a deflated balloon full of phlegm.

My friend T says it’s the stress of the past week that caught up with me.  I guess she’s right!  I’ve been staying strong, sticking with my workouts, finding some private time to cry a little and focusing on my work.  I haven’t been sick ALL YEAR and feel pretty damn good about that!  Normally 2 or 3 colds a year is typical.  I started to feel a little tingly and sneezy late Friday afternoon at work.  But I went to the gym as usual and did my weight training.  I was feeling a little weak but not super weak…I knew Aunt Flo was right around the corner so I chalked it up to that.

On Saturday I woke up feeling like my sinuses and throat were full of sandpaper.  Oh no, here we go…it’s a cold alright.  This weekend was one of those where my team works overnight and I was slated for the 1:30am – 10:00am shift on Sunday.  Yes, that’s AM on Sunday.  Thankfully I was able to get someone to back me up.

And I called my friend P sad and in tears…last night was her Bon Voyage party, as she gets ready for a trip of a lifetime…Belize, Australia and New Zealand!!  It’s a dream come true for her and I’m so excited!!  And so sad I couldn’t come to her party and see her.  But no way was I going to risk spreading cold germs around.

So it’s Quarantine time for fivenineteen.  Sometimes we need alone time to recharge the batteries, but too much of it makes me feel so isolated and lonely.  Thankfully I had enough stuff this past week to keep me connected and happy.

My youngest brother is up here on business quite a bit, and we met up at my house after our gym workouts one night to start putting my bedroom back together.  It was just over a month ago that J helped take my bed apart and get things temporarily set up in my 3rd bedroom so R could finish the popcorn ceiling scraping and finishing in my bedroom, master vanity and the walk-in closet.  Our plan once that was finished was to paint, shampoo the carpets and then put the room back together.  Love it!

How much things changed in a month.  How wrong I was about where our relationship stood. Now I have no idea when I’ll hear from J again.  I texted him last week to let him know I was doing alright.  We talked about getting together on Veterans Day to work on some more stuff here and he texted back sure, how about that afternoon? Sounded great to me.  But he went dark and I never heard boo and haven’t since.  So I can’t count on him right now and that makes me feel like I got punched in the stomach.  Breathe, breathe and give it space.  Lots of his tools are down in my garage, so at some point he’s going to want them back.

So my brother helped put my bed back together.  And I had a good talk and cry about everything with him too.  Ahhh…my beautiful bed, back in its frame and everything!  It won’t be hard to move it when it’s time to paint on that side of the room.  Yep, getting back in my bedroom trumped the carpet shampooing this time around.  Oh well…I can always have a carpet cleaning service do it.

Now I am blessed with a completely empty walk-in closet!  Which needs updating big time – it’s still got just one shelf and dowling for hangers in one row on three sides!  Ha ha 1980!  So where are all my clothes and shoes?  Downstairs in the living room on a railing and piled in huge garbage bags!  Oh, what a glorious mess!!

But as I like to say, there are no accidents.  Sure I’ve cleaned out that closet periodically over the years, but never like this.  Seeing all my clothes in a completely different setting was exactly what I needed to take a good, hard look at everything. So far I’ve filled 8 huge garbage bags and hauled them off to Goodwill!  YES!  Man it feels great to purge.  I found stuff I’d completely forgotten about.  And since I’ve lost weight I’ve been able to fit back into many things I couldn’t before!  It’s like shopping in my own closet!  Other stuff goes into the ‘no’ pile…stuff I’m sick of, stuff that’s out of style and stuff I haven’t worn in years.  They say we wear 10% of our wardrobe 90% of the time.  Do you think that’s true?  I try to NOT do that but I bet I probably do too.

So I’m going to pull the trigger and have the nice people at California Closets design a better solution for me.  Years ago they did a design and quote but I never got around to it…and if I remember correctly I’d planned to use part of my tax refund for it but changed my mind.  Now it’s time.

Camping out in my Own Townhouse

13 Sunday Oct 2013

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AKA…”celebrating” a decade (errr, now almost 11 years, eesh) in the townhouse.  Part trois.

Remember when this first got started?  If not, feel free to peruse here.  Yes, it was February 2012…Super Bowl Sunday actually.  Man oh man, what a journey it’s been.  And I think a “fuck this shitty goddamn mess of a ceiling already” was one of the outbursts along the way.  And then things with the ceiling work went dark. And, thank goodness, it will resume on Tuesday.

This project has been so goddamned delayed it’s turned into a punch line.  Co-workers, friends, even my hairdresser and manicurist ask every time I see them how “that ceiling project” is coming along.  I just have to laugh off all the delays.  It was way more than I could chew and while the Man Help early on meant well, between schedules and the workload/skills involved it was way over our heads.

Now…squee!  This week my plumber, R, will pick up where he left off this week, getting my bedroom, master vanity and the walk-in closet all finished up.  THEN it’s time to paint.  This is exactly the motivator I’ve needed to do lots of things:  get the walls repainted (I love the bright turquoise walls, but the green I chose for the others in the big open space is too minty next to the bright blue and never quite felt right.  I may just cover it all up with a nice, rich taupe.  I have some beautiful giclee prints of outdoor Mediterranean café scenes in gorgeous wood frames that I purchased.  In 2005.  And never hung on the wall due to wanting to repaint the mint green wall prior.  Errgh…am I the only who takes YEARS to get silly projects like this done?

J was amazing getting me motivated and helped out this weekend, and it’s wonderful to tell and show him how appreciated he is.  But first, we had to relax on Saturday!  Ugh, U of W Huskies had a tough loss to Oregon, but we enjoyed watching the game at a local sports bar in walking distance from my house.  Indulging in a pitcher of Mac & Jack’s on a beautiful, sunny fall day…hey, why not?  It’s football season, after all!  We then made yummy chili in the crock pot…ground turkey, grilled chicken breasts, black beans, garlic, spices onions and tomatoes.  Fantastic…and spot on healthy “comfort food.”

Then we saw Gravity in 3D on Saturday night.  If you haven’t already seen it, RUN don’t walk and see it on the big screen.  For this movie it’s an absolute must.  Sandra Bullock and George Clooney are fantastic together.  All thumbs up!

Today we tackled the not-so-fun chore of getting my bedroom cleared out for the ceiling work.  Moving my box spring and mattress and dismantling the wrought iron frame and getting it around tight corners to the spare 3rd bedroom (also on the upper level) was not fun but WE DID IT!  Now I’ll be camped out in that room for I’m guessing at least a week, depending on how long it takes R to finish the ceiling scraping, mudding and texturing and for J’s schedule to help me get everything back in the bedroom.  Which we’ll probably paint prior to that…

I’m so glad I’d already spent a bunch of time clearing out my walk-in closet.  It’s not super big, but it does hold a ton (and could use a major California Closets-like update to replace the single hanger bar around all sides.  There was a lot more cleaning out to do and J and I chuckled at how much stuff I’ve accumulated.  Trust me, I didn’t used to be this way!  I moved a ton of clothes downstairs save for what I’ll need for work and the gym this week.  And I have a MAJOR clean out project now of sorting through all of these clothes…what should I keep?  What’s in a smaller size I might be back in someday soon…and hopefully still in style to keep wearing?  What’s a definite tosser?  More to follow on that.

So over brunch and an ugly game but a win by the Seahawks, it was another glorious day.  I savor the fall sunshine, for soon the rains and chilly winds will kick in.  But I love the sensuality of the changing seasons.

I’m feeling happy, blessed and content.  This home improvement work WILL happen…and the ceilings are just the beginning.

Celebrating a Decade in the Townhouse – the Belated Sequel

07 Sunday Apr 2013

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garage2013Way, way back in early February 2012, Super Bowl Sunday to be exact, L (my guy BFF) and I started scraping away at the thickly painted over popcorn ceiling that permeates my entire townhouse save for the bathrooms and kitchen.  Little did we know how overwhelmed we would get with the work, and how our schedules would start drifting further apart, making it hard to lock down times to keep a-scrapin’ away.  That shit comes down like wet, crumbly paper mache, so floor-to-ceiling taping, draping and making sure you wear shoes where you won’t mind stepping in it (because you inevitably will), and consciously remembering to take said shoes off before trotting around outside the work area are all absolute musts. Oh, you can imagine the nightmare of vacuuming up accidentally tracked ceiling goo in my stairway and into my living room and dining room.  Whoops!

Later in the year when our progress had ground to a barely started halt (while my upstairs remained noisy with oddly rearranged clutter everywhere, from books, nighstands, knickknacks and a large, disassembled bookcase) my longtime plumber, R, came to the rescue.  He was here with a guy from his crew replacing my garbage disposal (a hole had rusted through it), and I was making idle chitchat that I had this big, unfinished ceiling scraping project that was driving me nuts.  He lit up and said wow, can I come take a look at the progress?  I learned he’s taken down many popcorn ceilings, and knows exactly how to do the mudding and texture after the scraping is done to get it looking finished, not just scraped.

Fast forward a few months (and the security of job income for the next few months), R and R finished up one of my bedrooms this past week!  Their idea was to just focus on one room at a time to get it completely done.  That way I would be able to move clutter from my other rooms into the finished room, plus other stuff when it came time to empty out another room.  A big, slow-moving shell game.

This week, the small 3rd bedroom at the top of my stairway got completely finished, complete with a great-looking caulking job along the edges of the ceiling.  This will make painting so much easier!  Eventually the room will be a guest room; it’s too small to hold a queen-sized bed comfortably, but a full-sized Murphy style bed would be ideal, so the floor space wouldn’t be constantly gobbled up.

Never in my LIFE have I squealed with delight over a freakin’ CEILING!  Wooohooooo!!  It looks ten bajillion times better, and those old-school 8-foot ceilings look even taller now.  I’ll be writing some big checks over the next few months as we get more rooms cleaned up, but this will pay itself back many times over.  R does great work and I’m blessed to have his help with so many fix-it projects!

And now…Exhibit B:  my garage!  Maybe it’s my extra X chromosome or I don’t know what, but I really never gave two shakes about my garage.  Sure, it’s considered oversized compared to many townhomes these days and easily holds two cars, but I never really focused any attention on it when I moved in…in 2002.  And the clutter started piling up…on the concrete floors.  I knew I needed shelving and some storage solutions, but either got overwhelmed with the choices, or just shifted my focus to the main living areas, choosing new window treatments and painting.  My hockey gear bag would sit on the floor, opened to keep it aired out (thank goodness for the garage as hockey gear reeks), and other clutter like paint cans, painting equipment, planter boxes, cleaning supplies, boxes of old college textbooks and you name it just sat around on the floor in there for years.

Maybe I was too embarrassed to ask for help.  Yes, I think at times I was.  Water started seeping through small cracks in the far concrete wall…and in a warped way I was embarrassed about that!  And maybe a little freaked out at what that would mean – is my foundation getting damaged as a result?  Where are the drainage problems coming from?  Who do I turn to for help?  Why am I having these problems…I don’t have time for this!  Ugh, sometimes I hate home ownership!  Anytime I had a repair guy down in my garage working on the furnace I’d always apologize for how messy the garage looked.  Most of the time they would say something like “Ma’am, you have no idea…yours is immaculate compared to what we see.”  I guess I turned a blind eye to the mess and just got used to how it looked.

Thanks to J’s heroic help, all of this is changing…for the better!!  Over the past few weeks he’s been hauling away crap I don’t need anymore.  What a great feeling!  And last night we went to Home Depot to look for shelving, large plastic storage bins, a new furnace filter and some concrete patching mix.  Home Depot on a Saturday night is a fun experience.  I personally like it because it’s not nearly as crowded as a Saturday afternoon, but sometimes it can be harder to find someone to help.  J knows his way around a Home Depot and isn’t shy about speaking up and asking for help finding something or asking how to do something.  It’s an extremely comforting feeling being with someone who knows the right questions to ask.

When we got back to my place we started clearing away more clutter, changed my furnace filter, and assembled the new steel shelving unit that gloriously gets so much of my stuff off the garage floor and organized!  Yahoo!  J even painted the alcove where we put the shelving a bright white (much better than the yellow-ish unfinished sheet rock), and we’re going to get some lighting installed in there too.

By the time we were finished, it was after midnight!  And I’d rediscovered so much crap that had been sitting in bins, boxes or – gasp – loose all over my garage floor.  High school yearbooks.  Gardening equipment.  Cleaning supplies and unused scrub brushes.  Plastic deck chairs that needed hosing down.  And…my Grandmother’s wedding china (from 1940)!  It’s been all boxed up and tucked away down there for years.  And it’s a beautiful pink floral pattern…while it might be fun to get it displayed in my living room somehow, it’s just not my style.  Honestly, I will probably sell it.

J was most thrilled by discovering that I actually DO have a barbecue…a small, portable Weber that had been buried under God Knows What.  We were all up for doing a spontaneous midnight barbecue on my back deck, but the deck is uncovered and it was raining.  Oh well, we’ll do that next time.  Instead, we toasted our progress with a couple of beers and went to bed.  J made us a great egg scramble for breakfast with bacon, scallions, mushrooms and garlic. I rarely have let others take the lead in my kitchen to be honest, but J knows his way around and cooks like I do, making minimal mess.

This rainy weekend was quite a contrast from the gorgeous sunny weather last week, but it sure was just as happy and fulfilling!

Fighting to be Happy

14 Sunday Oct 2012

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…while suppressing that inner volcano of mine.  Despite being a relatively overall positive and happy person, I have a bad temper.  I just rarely show it.  Sometimes I get so goddamn mad I can’t see straight.  I rage within.  Perhaps this is the Taurus in me…perhaps it’s just DNA.  Sometimes it scares me.

It started on Friday.  I got some news that deeply upset me, that popped out the last hole in my patience punch card.  I’m done.  I’ve had a home improvement project underway here in the townhouse since early February.   It was supposed to be done in June.  It was supposed to be done mostly with the help of a good friend of mine who put the whole plan together.  Money changed hands as part of this deal…which is still barely a third of the way complete and that’s being generous.  Hard to put a fraction label on it.  All I know is I’ve been living amongst various forms of shifting clutter and it’s extra noise in my life I don’t need.

The bad news was time, or lack thereof rather.  Yet another schedule hiccup which means no work on the home project this weekend.  [We’d planned to do the work just a few days prior.]  I sat at my desk at work that Friday morning when the bad news text popped up.  And I about dropped my phone.  Unbelievable.  My response?  Silence.  I was so furious I was afraid what I might say in response if I picked up the phone or texted a reply. 

This is why I sometimes hate texting.  I can’t tell if there’s any inkling of apology, compassion or accountability behind the words that we couldn’t work on the project this weekend.  And I feel like my generous spirit, kindness and understanding have been partially ripped out of my body, stomped on and made a mockery of.  Taken advantage of. THAT’S what triggered my rage.

I seethed and fumed the rest of the day, both pissed off and feeling ashamed of myself too.  This is a First World problem for sure.  Nobody’s dying and nobody’s house burned to the ground.  When I get this way I don’t always know how to handle it.  Do I let my anger eat up my insides?  Do I send a nastygram text back to him? Do I make everyone else’s day miserable and lash out?  Do I go punch something?  Cry?  Let myself get dragged down in an ugly spiral, remembering all the other times the men in my life have let me down?  Oh boy, we’re teetering on a slippery slope with that last sentence I know.  I’ll try to reel it back a little in here.

I got home feeling like a deflated balloon.  Yeah, I cried a little through my dinner.  I even tried watching Rock of Ages as it had just come out in movies on demand on TV.  And I couldn’t get into it, despite a kickass soundtrack that hits right smack in my generation…those of us who literally came of age in the 1980s.  Side note:  know what bothered me about this movie?  It’s a MUSICAL!  And – surprise – as much as I love all kinds of music and singing, I just can’t get into musicals.  The way that people spontaneously burst into song and choreography just bugs me.  Chalk that up to a personality quirk I guess.  Same reason I can’t stand karaoke and don’t watch American Idol or X-Factor.

I woke up angry on Saturday morning.  I tried thumbing through a couple of cookbooks to get inspired to try a new recipe.  I even made a lime vinaigrette on a random whim to get my creative juices warmed up; it’s a part of a crab and avocado salad recipe.  Nothing. I looked outside at the wonderment of early fall.  The season dial clicked HARD these past few days, and any ounce of late summer is long gone.  I went to two grocery stores and aimlessly wandered the aisles, trying to mentally savor everything and find something to inspire me.  I came home with a small bag of organic rainbow quinoa, some olives, a tomato, shallots, a couple heads of garlic and some goat cheese.

Even dinner last night was a bust.  I tried making chicken breasts with a garlic and goat cheese sauce.  Perhaps the actual highlight of my weekend was roasting two heads of garlic in my oven for a couple of hours.  LOVE that aroma!  But the recipe was bland and unfulfilling, even with the roasted garlic.  Even sprinkling on a few capers for some color and kick didn’t work.  Bland and unfulfilling…I think that’s how I’ve been feeling this entire weekend actually.  A little wounded, shut down and not open to savoring things around me. 

So I know myself well enough that this dip in my mood is temporary.  I know the balance between negating it and wallowing in it.  There IS a happy medium.  This time it’s a full weekend. I have a plan on how to deal with this perpetual postponing of my home project and I just need to put it in motion. 

I’m a little scared.  Someone went out on a limb to offer to help me and in turn I’d help him.  After some negotiation I agreed and did my part.  Perhaps I was naive thinking that someone would actually finish what they start, or if they couldn’t they would call that out and suggest another way to help – not just leave me hanging.  Perhaps I should have negotiated more strongly, like a business transaction.  Perhaps I was stupid to think oh, he’s a friend, he’ll make good on it in the timeframe he proposed.  Which has extended out months…which I’ve been gracious and understanding about.

No more.

The Good Earthquake…continued

13 Sunday May 2012

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Last week was a happy whirlwind.  I’m astonished at how much of a catapult/slingshot/echo… not sure what I’m going to call it – has boing’d into my life the last two weeks. 

And I remember part of that was blogging last Saturday rather than Sunday.  L and I had planned on doing more of the home renovation projects in here that day, but later in the day he said that would not work out and we’d have to reschedule.  OK, no biggy.  I thought of the blank slate of Sunday ahead of me and wondered what I would do.  So many options.

Sunday morning I was dozing on and off.  It was 9:30am, 10:00am and I kept drifting back off to sleep.  The sunshine was streaming through the blinds and I knew I’d just be wasting the day if I didn’t get up soon.

Then I heard a knock at the front door downstairs.  I sat upright and wondered who it was.  I figured it was my neighbor, as I still owe him the latter half of what I paid him and his brother to power wash and re-stain my back deck.  Ummm, OK I sleep nude most of the time except in the coldest of winter (TMI, sorry) so I quickly grabbed a t-shirt and sweats and went downstairs still in a semi-fog.  Before I could get to the peephole I asked “who is it?”  It was L!!

I opened the door slightly and smiled.  I’m sure I looked a sleepy mess and whatnot.  My mind was spinning…did we agree to do the home project work today after all and I dreamt that we canceled?  His friend M’s dog was poking her nose through the doorway.  I think I mumbled and smiled…”…how are you?” 

And then the question from him that made me giggle.  “…are you alone?”  BAHAHAHA that cracked me up.  Gotta hand it to the guy giving me credit that there might be a possibility that I wouldn’t be.  That’s fodder for another post I suppose.  No, I am not dating anyone right now, Le Sigh.

So he and the dog came bouncing in and I asked if he wanted coffee.  Oh no, he said, he’d already had about 5 shots of espresso and was doing just fine…he sure was wide awake alright. He just thought it would be fun to go for a walk and just hang out and watch hockey playoffs later.  OK! 

I got showered an dressed and we headed down the street to Juanita Beach Park.  This park was purchased by the city of Kirkland from the County and was all torn up in renovations for a good year or so.  Now it’s reopened and better than ever.  I love the semi-circle boardwalk that goes far out onto the lake and back.  I drank in the sunshine, the smells, the voices of everyone around me, the beautiful green trees and the rippling blue water of Lake Washington.  THIS is the great Pacific Northwest at its finest. 

Later we cooked up a pizza and watched a little hockey.  This whole Sunday recap may not seem like a super big deal to many, but for me it sure was.  It’s extremely rare for people to show up on my doorstep spontaneously on a Sunday morning, just wanting to hang out!  Usually it’s planned a day prior or so!  I cherish my weekend sleep more than anything.  L knows this and I’m glad he showed up when he did and not much earlier!

Then another hectic workweek and lots of busy (and fun!) icing on top almost every evening:

Actually, no, wait.  Monday was a bye/breather for me.  I had a Silpada jewelry team meeting that night and just needed to decompress and chill instead.  I love the team and the jewelry we represent – I was just feeling dragged down and sluggish and needed to just have some alone time and chill.

Tuesday:  one of my brothers turned 40!  How did a YOUNGER brother of mine get to be 40??  We met up at our folks’ house for a spectacular meal of (raw) oysters for appetizers and later some glorious barbecued salmon.  Yes, everyone, I adore raw oysters.  Don’t even need cocktail sauce here.  Just a small fork and bottoms up!  YUM.

Wednesday:  And now for something completely different – for the first time in my nearly 45 (gulp) years on earth…I went to the movies by myself!  Come with me on this journey, for it’s likely going to ring odd with a lot of you who do this all the time or are movie buffs.  First of all, going to the movies (in a theatre) is wayyyyy down on my list of things I like to do.  I’m sure I miss out on a lot of great films; when I learn of the Golden Globe and Oscar nominations every year I MIGHT have seen one or two of the films, heh.  It’s just not my thing.  I’m VERY much an eat/drink/conversation type of person when I go out (or stay in!).  Sitting in a dark theatre for two hours makes me restless.  And on a first date?  Well, if the guy suggests going to the movies…ummm…well, that’s not my first choice.  I’d rather go out and socialize with him before sitting next to someone I barely know in a theatre.  Just seems odd to me.   The last time I was in a movie theatre was 2008.  I know, try not to laugh.  I saw Slumdog Millionaire and also Sex and the City.  That’s the first SATC, by the way; I saw the 2nd one on HBO the other day and it was truly an insult to fans of the series everywhere.  Glad I saved my money.

Anyway, fast forward to 2012 and I had my pick:  The Hunger Games!  I’d purchased a ticket online ahead of time and set my sights on Lincoln Square Cinemas in downtown Bellevue. I figured I could do a little shopping or grab a drink and munchies prior.

I got into Bellevue and walked around Lincoln Square.  I was absolutely SHOCKED how empty the buildings were.  True, it was around dinner hour, but still.  This is a densely packed urban-suburban city and Lincoln Square is right in its heart!  Weird.  Usually when I’m here it’s a Friday night or a weekend and it’s a packed scene.  So strange seeing it so empty. 

About a half hour prior to the movie start, I rode the escalators up to the theatre and got a small bag of $6 popcorn. Ooops…make that $6.02 with sales tax.  And silly me, I’d brought a very small black clutch so I wouldn’t have to lug my large purse from work with me into the theatre.  And I left my debit card in the big purse which was down in my car in the parking garage.  All I had was $6 cash.  I smiled at the popcorn girl sheepishly…can you float me two cents?  Sure, no problem.  I felt so silly but grateful.

I purposely got to the theatre a little earlier.  Years ago I remember going with my ex to this theatre and arriving literally 5 minutes before the movie started (punctuality was not a strong point).  And he’d get so pissed that there were no decent seats left.  Well DUH already!

I walked into the theatre (each seats around 200), peeked my head around the corner and there it was. 

Empty, and dark with just a little light classical music playing in the background.  I was the first one there!  I giggled and was a little shocked too.  So I walked in, sat down and had a moment.  Here I was in a large theatre right smack in the middle of downtown Bellevue…alone!  How surreal.  I absent-mindedly munched on my popcorn in the dark and relaxed into my seat.  Had not had that much solitude in weeks.

Turns out there were only about 10 of us in the theatre total – guess the movie has been out a little while and it was midweek. I LOVED the Hunger Games.  (No spoilers in here, don’t worry).  I will say that I’m VERY glad I read the book first, for it has so much more detail that you could not possibly incorporate into a movie.  The casting was amazing and the plot is – thankfully – spot on with the book.  And I also learned (actually CONFIRMED) that, while I’m glad I went out on a limb and tried something different, nope, I don’t like going to the movies by myself.  Aha.

Thursday:  I met my dear friend T for an early birthday dinner celebration at the Flat Iron Grill in Issaquah.  Now THIS is a superb evening out in Gilman Village.  Very warm, great service and fantastic food….with a wonderful friend!  We enjoyed a couple of cocktails…T picked out a beautiful steak and I went with the Paella, complete with clams and some sausage too.  Delicious!  And of course some gourmet French vanilla ice cream and a small creme brulee for dessert. 

Friday:   L came over in the evening so we could get started on the home renovation work again the next morning.  I made shrimp with roasted jalapenos and pancetta over linguine…oops, actually the deli had sliced up prosciutto instead of pancetta and I did not take a moment to double-check.  But it still tasted great.  And it’s a very light and healthy dish – no cream sauces.

By 10pm I was exhausted.  L crashed on the couch and I drifted upstairs to sleep.

Saturday: I woke up around 6:30am hearing the gentle thud of my front door closing.  True confession:  I had a split second “oh no” go through my body as awhile back L had left in the morning instead of doing the work in the townhouse here.  [Long story but it’s all good now].  I got up, walked downstairs and smiled.  His laptop and stuff were all still here.  I smiled more and started making coffee.  He’d just popped out for a bit to grab a coffee and fresh fruit is all.  I later made us scrambled eggs with Tabasco and toasted some bagels and we talked more about our plan of attack for the day.  How was I up so early in the morning, and so refreshed-feeling?  On a Saturday??  I was ready for us to get started but L thought we should wait until at least 9:00am given I share a common wall with my neighbor.  Oh my goodness…it was already (only!) 8:00am!!  So THIS is what it’s like when you get your ass out of bed early!!

We finished scraping and sanding down the master bedroom ceiling and vanity so it’s ready for a few coats of primer and later some paint.  For those of you just tuning in, my townhouse has that horrific popcorn ceiling nearly everywhere save for the bathrooms and kitchen.  L and I had found a tool online that has a scraper attached and you can attach an extension pole onto it like you would for a paint roll.  But UGH, no such luck.  The tool blade is too flimsy and too dull, as my ceiling is unfortunately covered with a thick coat of white paint.  So we resorted back to the 6″ joint knife (looks like a putty knife), which is harder on the back as you can’t attach an extension pole to it. 

So we’ve finished the largest room upstairs.  Next weekend (maybe Sunday) is the attack on one of the guest bedrooms.  While it’s messy, ugly work, I am hopeful the rest of the upstairs will go faster as we’ve learned a lot about what works and what doesn’t with the drop cloth taping/draping and how much/how little to do at a time.  Plus the remaining rooms and hallway are a lot smaller.

Later in the day I went to his house and he made dinner – a wonderful stir fry with green beans, onions and peppers and a spinach salad – delicious!  And watched hockey, of course.  New York Rangers are onto the East Division Finals…starting tomorrow!

I truly appreciate L’s help – it’s not the most fun way to spend a sunny weekend day but the results are going to be great.  My ceiling already seems taller and it’s yet to get primed and painted!!  Yay for Man Help!!

And yay for another Routine Shaken week!!