I Should be a Consultant

Scotland has spent over $250,000 to come up with a new slogan. Can you guess what the saying is?

Turkey, Demo and Paint

Thanksgiving weekend was stretched out an additional day as Carolyn and I took two days and a night off from eating too much, enduring enough and sanding too often to escape to a B&B in Lake Arrowhead where we did a little shopping for necessities and Christmas while enjoying walking in the cooler air, new restaurants and conversations with our ex-Mormon, now Catholic, B&B hosts.

Thanksgiving day found me surrounded by Carolyn, Wanda, Lisa and Katie and all of us overwhelmed with the amount of food available for consumption - turkey, dressing, mashed potatoes, green beans, corn casserole, yam casserole, a cranberry molded salad, biscuits, plus pumpkin and Jack Daniel chocolate, pecan pie (and I'm sure I missed a few dishes)! I ate enough but not so much that I fell asleep watching USC play late in the afternoon.

A few days before, work began on tearing off and replacing the leaking deck above the garden room and with each layer of deck removed, new surprises were unveiled. Like decks built over old roofs and a swarm of live termites in the corner of the deck even though we'd just had our home tented two or three months ago! Terminix will be re-tenting us in the near future although we have yet to discuss the second required bagging of all food and the boarding of our cat or where we might stay. I'd hope that the first time it was on us and this time those costs should be on them. We'll see. So as part of our Thanksgiving entertainment, all but Wanda laid on the floor and identified dogs and fish and other items in the dark spots (mold?) that speckled the garden room's ceiling.

On returning home late Monday afternoon, we found our contractor had removed all the carpet downstairs except the living room, the ceiling drywall in the garden room and the fireplace which will be replaced by a newer version. Our downstairs is now bisected by a firm plastic barrier that only allows the wind to pass through. A new closet will be built in Ashley's old room and stucco is being broken back to allow proper flashing and paper to be installed. Each conversation with our contractor seems to be "we found this new problem", but it will be good to have all the work done correctly.

While work started on the home, Friday began the process of painting our sailboat in earnest. The previous weekends we had taken off almost all of the topside hardware including railings, cleats, pulleys, etc., so Dennis, Steve and I began the process of sanding with finish sanders and by hand all of the deck and then taping off the areas that weren't going to be painted. A primer coat was in place by Friday late afternoon, and the first coat for the smoother surfaces done by Saturday mid-day. Sunday morning (thank goodness for Saturday night church) we were able to put on the second coat before I headed home and to Arrowhead and the Hughes hustled off to the Charger game.

This coming weekend, Carolyn again will be a boat widow as we tape of the non-skid areas and begin painting them. Then, if there is any money in the kitty, we'll have new windows fashioned and we'll begin re-installing all the hardware and railings that we took off. We should be sailing again by January!

Downsizing

Not that we're actually downsizing, but it seemed that way late Saturday after spending the better part of the day moving furniture from the garden room into the living room and emptying the back room of all its assorted paraphenalia. This was all done in preparation for a soon to appear construction crew who will be demolishing our deck and rebuilding it once again so it might become watertight.

As water has intruded into the garden room, the ceiling and some drywall will also have to be replaced, so moving the furniture seemed to be the logical thing to do. Our living room now has an eclectic, crowded look with two main seating areas, two couches, eight chairs (?), two ottomons, two coffee tables, a piano, and a multitude of paintings, vases and other decorative items. Only the dining room, of the three back rooms, has any furniture, and that too will have to be moved, sometime, somewhere, when the contractor is ready to install the stone flooring.

All that heavy lifting, coupled with multiple trips upstairs carrying boxes, and then gardening and washing both cars, had the expected effect of creating one seriously sore old guy. I need to exercise more!

Now all we have to do is to bring order to the semi-chaos of the game room as it acquired a few of the leftovers from downstairs. I also need to extract the Christmas decorations from the attic in case they become inaccessible during the construction. However, we have managed to eliminate or give away a number of items which prompted a trip to the Salvation Army.

I expect that my evenings this week will be full getting the remaining rooms in order while we await the start of remodel number 2!