Sunday Salon --- The "Whew" Edition

Hydrangea days. I love these wonderful bushes.

Weather: Warm and sunny after the morning haze burns off. It is also quite humid for the PacNW, which we are not used to here when it's warm.

It all began: Over a year and half ago we had a water leak in an upstairs bathroom. It caused damage to the walls, floors, and ceiling below. Little by little we paid to have everything repaired (remodeling the bathroom in the process) leaving the carpet for last, which needed to be replaced anyway, while our aging cat lived out her days. After she died this spring we stalled a bit longer until Don retired. In June we began the last phase of the project which turned into a really big one.

• After selecting the carpet and getting an installation date we began the process of sorting and boxing up all the items in each of the upstairs rooms, leaving just the furniture to move from room to room as the install progressed. This was easier to say than do.
• We've accumulated a lot of "stuff" in the 26 years we've been in this house so the process required sorting not just simply boxing up items. Hopefully we can cull even more items as we move back in. That process has only just begun.
  
• Don had been using our bonus room as his office during COVID isolation and beyond which required a level of scrutiny beyond just throwing away papers.
• At some point we decided to shift the home office to a small bedroom after the carpet install and remake the bonus room into a playroom for our grandsons. 
• This required dismantling some of our bigger office furniture which wouldn't fit in the smaller room.
• In fact, we had to saw through the top of our huge old oak desk just to get it out of the room. (See photo.) On a happy note, Don expressed joy at taking a circular saw to the darn thing to cut it into enough pieces that we could haul it out ourselves. Ha!
  
   
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  Twenty-six years ago, when we moved into the house, Don and a friend had to remove the door jamb in order to get the big oak desk into the room. This time Don just cut it into three large sections destined for the dump.
  

  
  
• As the last piece of paper from the office was sorted into it's correct receptacle, we raced to the hardware store to buy paint, deciding "why not paint the walls now, since we don't have to worry about a drop cloth?" When the paint sales clerk tried to talk us into going slow in our paint selection, we assured him we would live with whatever color we chose. We spent the next two days priming and painting the room 'butter up' yellow.
• Painting prep also requires extra attention to details that carpet-laying didn't, like cleaning the curtains and washing the blinds, removing pictures from the walls, patching holes, taping baseboards and window frames... you know the drill.
  
• On Monday of this past week the installer arrived and we were ready. In fact, he commented that our prep work was better than most as we had dismantled the beds and truly de-junked each room. For the three days he was here, Don assisted in furniture shifting but I was able to take a bit of a break from physical labor for a few days.
• But after he left Wednesday, the process of moving back in began, shifting furniture around, and "decorating."
• We attacked the bedrooms first: replacing linens onto beds and relocating Jamie's crib to our daughter's old room, making space for the new home office in the room where we had it set up before.
• Next we arranged furniture and hung pictures in the new playroom. We are both delighted with the outcome, but the process required quite a few squabbles between us. We were getting pretty tired by this point. The room is ready for kids but has not been "tested" yet.
   
• "If you give a moose a muffin, you have to give him some blackberry jam to go with it." This old phrase from a children's book was ringing in my ears throughout the project as one thing led to another and that thing led to another, and so on. Here are a few examples of side projects that resulted from our cleanup project:
• Removal of our wall of family photos in the hallway to be replaced by some framed art prints, which are currently being framed at the store.
• Searching for art to hang in the new playroom I realized how much art I've been hiding away for years in closets, under beds, and behind doors. Apparently we are art hoarders.
  
• We removed the photos from the frames on the hall wall, sorted through all our stashed art, and now have a huge pile of frames for Goodwill. Forty plus. You read that right, 40 frames (some with art in them), out of here.
• Our hanging clothes needed to be relocated during the carpeting process. As I replaced them I did the 'Marie Kondo process', touching each one and deciding if it still gave me joy. If not, I thanked it while I slid it into a black garbage bag, also destined for the second-hand shop.
• Next I invited (commanded?) daughter #2 to come over and sort through her old clothes and the few books and trinkets she still had stashed in drawers and cupboards. She also committed quite a few old prom and choir dresses to the giveaway heap. She carried back to her home two rather big boxes of treasures she still wants to save.
• Daughter #1 is next. But she and her husband are building a house right now. As soon as it is finished, it will be her turn to remove her old clothing, including her wedding dress, and relocate them to her home. It is time.
• What do all these things have in common? -- A tube of Neosporin, a half-empty can of Altoids, a barrette, a Vis-a-Vis pen, and a collapsible umbrella among other things? I found them all in a bag I used as my school/work bag before I was retired. Apparently I shoved the bag to the back of my closet and forgot about it. I've been retired five years. Sigh. It is cleaned out now.
   
• In the midst of all our activity with the carpet, our dryer died. Every time we washed a load of clothes we had to find places to hang the wet things. Sigh. "If you give a moose a muffin..." New dryer purchased on Friday for delivery this week.
  
•  We've been working on this project solid for two weeks. We're tired and sore. It's no wonder re-carpeting the house only happens every 26 years. On the bright side, every stick of furniture has been dusted and we have nice, new carpet...even if it's nearly the same color as before!
  

Saying goodbye: In the midst of our painting project, we took a day off to drive south for a memorial for my cousin who died this past winter. His wife and only daughter hosted an event at a lovely location on the Sandy River, just east of Portland. The day and the location couldn't have been more perfect. All my siblings and my mother were there, as were Brad's only brother and his family, and many friends, some he knew since grade school. Brad loved to fish and that spot on the Sandy River was a favorite location.

Saying goodbye again and great fellowship: Today after church we had a fellowship opportunity to say goodbye to Dom Calata, our choir director's husband (and our relative). Dom died in March in the line of duty as a Deputy Sheriff. We worked on a service project together, ate pizza, laughed and cried. It was a chance to welcome his wife back into the fold of our congregation, too. It is so important to celebrate, mourn, and remember TOGETHER.

Memorial bracelets for law enforcement officers to wear in remembrance of Dom's sacrifice. The blue ribbon was part of the display in front of our church on the day of his memorial service.

Books, the past two weeks: 

• Finished:
  
• Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus. Loved it. Haven't completed review yet, watch for it. Audiobook.
• The Complete Maus by Art Spiegelman. The famous graphic memoir about the Holocaust. It made news this year because a school district decided to ban it. Read why here. Print.
• The Heart of American Poetry by Edward Hirsch. It reads a little like a college textbook, but I enjoyed it so much. Here is my review. Print.
  

• Currently reading:
• The Grapes of Wrath. I am going to finish this. I am going to finish this. It has taken me all summer but I am at 80% so I see the light at the end of tunnel. Both print and audiobook.
• Firefly Lane by Kristen Hannah. A book club selection. I generally like this author but I have yet to describe this book as one I "like." But I'm not far into it. Print. 13%.
• Mercy Street by Jennifer Haigh. Another book club selection. This book is depressing me. It's about abortion, from many angles and perspecitvies. Ugh. Audiobook. 55%.
  

A reminder of all the things that are getting done by President Biden and his administration.

 

 

-Anne