More Renovations!

This is Elisabeth's room after a renovation weekend.  We painted the walls and trim, laid the new vinyl planking floor (also a new skill for us!) and put the new bed frame together.  It was almost completed in one day, but a bit of the work was finished up on the second day. Laying the flooring was not as hard as we feared and though there is a learning curve, it came out really well.

In fact, we may want to put this type of flooring in my wife's bedroom and in our living room in the future.  Elisabeth loves the room and the new bed frame (also put together the same day.)  Now we are moving on to the front porch which needs a bit of love after not having much attention for many years.

Saturday NIghts Fireside

Last night after the sun went down we had a fire in our fire pit.  This amazing pit was built by my wife and our two boys last year. It was late in the season though and although Rob used it a number of times with friends, there never seemed to be time for all of us to gather there.  But time is more available these days in the time of Covid.  Living in a state with the 3rd highest rate of infection has meant lots of time doing things as a family unit.

That is an upside to all of this.  I have had times to cook with my Rob.  Chef by vocation, he and i have worked in the kitchen together.  He has helped plan menus for family meals, and has been here for game nights and fire pits. Up till Rob was probably 17 or so, he did virtually everything that I did with the younger kids.  His choice,not a requirement.  He came on every camping trip. He went with us to the park and would play soccer with the youngers and I , there were hikes and bike rides. He came food shopping and sat with me at dance classes.  Not that he did not also have things he did without his siblings and without me.  He was part of youth group, mission trips, homeschool classes , a week away at summer camp, and had a wide circle of friends that led to a variety of experiences.  But as wide as his experiences were, he wanted and needed a close touchstone of family.  I was always more than fine with it.  And as I suspected, when he went to college the ties loosened naturally.  There were friends and experiences engendered through college life.  He began working and had more relationships and experiences through that as well.  He began to be around less and less.

Pre-pandemic I saw him at night when he came home from work--usually around 12:30 a.m.  He was sleeping when I left for work in the morning.  We always talked briefly when he came in and if he was going back out with friends he always let me know.  I am a light enough sleeper that his tread on the stairs always has woken me enough to chat and see how his shift was, what his plans were.

Now we have time for lots more talking.  Last night we were the last two at the fire pit.  There were marshmallows and laughter for several hours and then one by one the others all began to drift away, looking for showers and bed.  He and I sat out with the dogs watching the bats flit across the sky, seeing the stars gleaming, talking but also enjoying periods of pause. 

I'm thinking that this is a great gift. When eventually the world resumes something resembling normalcy, I know I'll see him much less. I know that he hopes to be living somewhere else in a few years.  Though fledging may look differently post-covid I know that there will be a time when he makes his own home somewhere else.  The virus has taken much.  KC's first recital in the lead role at the dance school.  Elisabeth's Girl Scout encampment. My Sunday mornings in community with my church. . . but there have been unexpected gifts as well.  This is a big one.

Em-purpled!

Today we put the color on Elisabeth's walls.  Earlier in the week we primed all the surfaces getting them ready.  As you can tell from the picture her room has very little actual ceiling, the slanted walls nearly make a point over head. There is about 16 inches of level space with a flourescent light and acoustic tiles in between them.  Elisabeth hates the acoustic tiles. She is convinced bugs hide in them.  I am going to cover those with self stick wall paper.  We are replacing the really old, really ugly light fixture with a flat profile LED one that will fit the space the same way as the old flourescent one does. 

All the dingy trim has yet to be painted bright shiny white.  That is this weeks job.  We are also removing the heater in the picure so that her bed can be flush against the wall.  The rug and padding has all been removed and next weekend we will install the flooring if all goes well.  Purple is not my favorite color but the paint job came out well and she is happy with the transformations going on in her space.

Tonight we will have another fire in the fire pit and some adult beverages for those 18+ and marshmallows for all who like that kind of thing.  A nice end to a busy but fulfilling day.

Mothers Day is Reno Day!

The DIY train keeps rolling along here at the 10 Green as my kids used to call our house when they were little.  The bathroom hallway got its coat of paint today now that all the old wallpaper (4 blessed layers of wallpaper!!!) has been removed. The seams have been caulked and the walls mudded and sanded smooth.  The paint is a creamy yellow and will brighten the space greatly.

Elisabeth's room is almost empty and ready for us to prime the walls today.  I had Elisabeth help me rip out the rug and padding and showed her how to remove tack strip.  I have a lot of the staples that used to hold down the padding removed but will need another evening of work to finish that up.  My wife primed the back wall.  This room has only one window so we didn't want to prime all the walls at once because the smell would overwhelm.  While I have no sense of smell a boat load of Kilz is good for a migraine so a slower pace is good for me too.

We stopped work about 12;30 and I picked up our Mothers Day meal from a local restaurant.  It was meat based so I ate sides but I knew my wife would love this meal and she did. The kids had cards and gifts and it was lovely.  I made a pineapple sunshine cake--which is kind of a cheater dessert to me as it uses a cake mix as a base but there was no flour in the store this shopping trip and I only have a 10 pound bag left here at home. (I realize that sounds like a lot of flour but we bake a LOT, especially in pandemic times.) So since there were cake mixes at the store I reverted to this old "recipe" that did not deplete my precious flour stock!

Later that night we went outside and had a fire in our fire pit.  It was chilly out and a perfect night for it.  Lots of chatter and laughter, only Chet would not come because we had no marshmallows.  That made a fire "pointless."  (laughing)  He has promised to come to the next fire when I am able to find marshmallows.  Understanding the realities of pandemic shopping in our area is hard for him.

We also called my mom and wished her happy mothers day.  All in all it was a lovely day and we feel very blessed.

DIY Time!

The slowing of the world and the confinement of the pandemic have an upside in the areas of home improvement.  I have become a major DIY fiend and spend weekends and often week night evenings working on various projects.  This is good as our house has needed attention and I have not had time to devote to it. I am also dragging my beloved into the DIY land!

Today my wife began her part of finishing the ceiling in our workroom. I spent last weekend scraping loose textured swirls off it.  However not all the texture was loose and we decided it would likely damage the horsehair plaster that was underneath to try and get them to part company from the ceiling. So after the loose was all taken off, she went in and caulked around the edge of the ceiling and swirled the ceiling.  Then, it was time to paint it!

I am also taking down wall paper in our upstairs bathroom hallway. When it is down we will mud the walls and paint them a creamy yellow color. By next weekend we should be ready to start work in Elisabeth's room. That is a paint job , new light and a new floor.  We have also built raised beds for veggies and repurposed an old wheelbarrow into a raised bed for herbs.

I am planning out the repairs and renovations that our front porch needs and am going to assign painting our storage shed to our kids once we get a better weather pattern. There may be mulch to spread if the social distancing drags on and no vacation can be taken. 

It is a good use of time. I am learning new skills. And it is honestly, fun!