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The Remodel Continues

You know when you are tired and overwhelmed and frustrated and flustered from the flurry of activity that is going on around you with and without you and then someone states the obvious and calls you a dumbass for not recognizing that which is obvious and you about fly off the handle? I was temporarily offended at being called a dumbass only because it is true. Hearing both the truth and the obvious in one succinct sentence in my currently overwhelmed state about made me hastily type a bunch of shit I didn�t mean. Luckily, I got stuck trying to figure out a more eloquent way of saying �we are too cheap to hire movers� and in my hesitation, I realized that I was being unreasonable and was over-reacting.

We have a few reasons as to why we are dumbasses, and sadly, they seem well-reasoned to me. The primary reason we aren�t hiring movers is that our dumbass-ness extends not only to our choice of a do-it-yourself move, but to our order of events for the Spring 2005 Remodel-Fest. We drug our feet in getting quite a few tasks done, but then had to stick to a schedule in getting the hardwood floors refinished. Now we are tiptoeing about the house trying to protect the precious new floors from racist sheetrockers and other manual labor types who could care less if they marred the brand new finish on our beautifully restored floors. On top of that, rooms have to be finished prior to moving furniture into them. Also, Ryan�s project deadline shifted dramatically due to a bunch of shit I could tell you about, but then I�d have to kill you. Oh, and did I mention that we are cheap?

The good news is that most of the stuff at his house is already organized and ready to move. We will be able to clear out a good chunk of it this weekend, and the rest can be moved in as the rooms are completed. The racist sheetrockers will be back in my house spreading words of hatred and supremacy first thing tomorrow morning, the carpeting folk show up next Wednesday and all is well in the world of non-HGTV sponsored home improvement drama.

My general distaste for all things negative extends not only to unsigned guestbook entries, but also to bitching and moaning during the actual labor portion of Spring 2005 Remodel-Fest. Using my company-sponsored brain-washing, I�ve found that saying or listening to negative talk about the pure hell that is scraping off 100 year old paint from heavily detailed baseboards makes the task even that much more fiery and eternal. Ryan was re-enacting my bitchfest from a couple of weeks ago when I was doing the very same task in another part of the house, and I could feel the energy drain from me as I tried to concentrate on painting the closet. I had bumped my fat ass up against the closet three times already permanently imprinting �Alabaster� colored butt-cheeks on the closet wall, and my elbow was crusty with paint. Despite that, I knew the task he was doing was much worse, but I really didn�t want to have to battle his every negative statement about the scrapping that had to be done. Thankfully, he piped down and after awhile we switched tasks because everyone should experience the joy of stripping away lead paint. I did my best to keep my mouth shut about my tired arms and aching back, and low and behold, we completed all the tasks on the list for yesterday. Well, technically, we rearranged a couple of things, but we accomplished enough to keep us on schedule in the hopes that by Sunday, May 15th the house will look like a house.

Because I�m feeling generous today, I actually took the time to upload a couple of before pictures of the floors. This first picture is of the hallway on the second floor. I wish I had a before-before picture of this hallway here to share with you. We have removed some really cool oak posts that by the stairway headed down and removed the door from the stairway headed up. We also shortened the back end of the hallway to add space for a small master bathroom. The floor is uber-nasty thanks to the racist sheetrockers. They aren�t much for cleanliness, but they do good/inexpensive work. Other improvements in this space include the revamp of the hall closet (the only door in the hallway.) I am pleased to say that the smaller closet is actually more functional than it it�s larger predecessor. We reduce the size of that closet to maximize the closet in the master bedroom. We also added a modern feature called �lights� to the hallway. Previously, there had been only a really hideous wall sconce on the wall leading down stairs and a non-functioning light fixture probably invented by Thomas Edison, but not in the cool �oh look, an antique!� kind of way, but more in the �it emits light!� kind of way. Now we have two lights centered in the hall on a dimmer switch and a third light anchored towards the back wall to provide an adjustable spot light on something pretty we�ll hang there someday.

12:51 p.m. - May 04, 2005

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