Day 5
Today is day five of the flooring.
Can I just say? That 84-year-old grandma who installed this in a room with the help of her 10-year-old grandson? And posted about it? SHOULD BE ASHAMED OF LYING AT HER AGE!!!
Ok, I've been wanting to write that for five days now.
To give a little background...I met my DH at college, where he was an English major. He wrote beautiful poetry, could devastatingly dissect Austin and Bronte, and helped me get an A in my first essay class at UT. This is not a man who used his hands then, or now (where his career consists of long hours sitting at a computer). Yet, he lovingly and without rancor put down a floor for me, his bride. He would have been perfectly happy living with everything that was in this house the day we bought it. I have made him replace faucets (wet, yucky, and oh yes, a pipe or two broke), light fixtures (the ceiling fan in Rowdy's room took days due to faulty wiring), decks (that was just plain ol' heatstroke-hot) and more. I really keep waiting for him to put his foot down and say "NO" when I have a brilliant idea. Perhaps after the last few tortuous days he will.
The floor is in. It is gorgeous. I am VERY happy.
DH is limping, cut, bruised and battered. His knees may never be the same. Ditto for his back and neck. We thought this would take maybe eight hours. Maybe two short-ish days, and then we would do something fun for vacation. We giddily talked about doing the whole house in this flooring. After all, it was all going to be so easy.
Day 1: They (he and Rowdy Son) started in the laundry room. He cheerily said, "Hey honey, do you want me to go ahead and paint while the appliances are out?". So much time, so much energy! I was all for that. The plan was, since it was my "gift", that I would take Sweet Girl and go to lunch, shop, have fun. We would come home to a new floor in the laundry room. She and I kissed the boys and off we went. We returned seven hours later....seven hours. They had laid two planks.
I started to say something, but the look I got shut me up (not fast enough, DH would interject). Yes, this would be an easy floor...if the house was square. The house is 30 years old. There is nothing square in this house (except us old-fogie homeowners). It had taken DH and Rowdy a few hours to paint and clean the room. Who knew what lurked behind old baseboards and under appliances? Then the squaring began. And there they sat, still measuring, still discussing planks and bits of planks. The two planks they had laid had a bit of a "gap" between the seams. I thought I would be helpful and mention that. Um, well, the project almost stopped dead in its tracks just then.
Day 2...this was going to be "the day". The catch-phrase for this whole project was this, "We've done the hard part, the rest will be easy". I heard that Saturday morning. I heard that Saturday evening. Saturday at midnight, they finished the laundry room and...yes, "We've done the hard part, the rest will be easy". They planned to knock out the kitchen by early afternoon on Sunday. We really didn't figure on moving the fridge and stove and cleaning and painting...(how could I resist? When was I ever going to be able to paint behind the stove again?). The boys really didn't figure on having to square up yet another room. Sunday night, we went to bed with the kitchen about 1/3 done.
Monday morning, at about 10 a.m., DH said..you guessed it..."We've done the hard part, the rest is easy". He figured on being done in two hours. At six, when I left to take Sweet Girl to soccer practice, they were laying the last plank!!! At 8:30 when I came home from soccer practice, they were laying the last plank. Huh? I wanted to ask, but memories of Day One came back to me and this time I really did shut up.
I think that by 10 p.m. last night we were really finished with the floor. I started the first of many loads of laundry (no washer and dryer for five days), and well, the dryer vent needed to be reattached. I almost could NOT BEAR to ask them to do one more thing, but, people do need their undies.
At midnight he said his usual vacation mantra.."I need a vacation from my vacation". He happily went to work today--to order, quiet, peace and a professionally installed floor.
I do love him.
Can I just say? That 84-year-old grandma who installed this in a room with the help of her 10-year-old grandson? And posted about it? SHOULD BE ASHAMED OF LYING AT HER AGE!!!
Ok, I've been wanting to write that for five days now.
To give a little background...I met my DH at college, where he was an English major. He wrote beautiful poetry, could devastatingly dissect Austin and Bronte, and helped me get an A in my first essay class at UT. This is not a man who used his hands then, or now (where his career consists of long hours sitting at a computer). Yet, he lovingly and without rancor put down a floor for me, his bride. He would have been perfectly happy living with everything that was in this house the day we bought it. I have made him replace faucets (wet, yucky, and oh yes, a pipe or two broke), light fixtures (the ceiling fan in Rowdy's room took days due to faulty wiring), decks (that was just plain ol' heatstroke-hot) and more. I really keep waiting for him to put his foot down and say "NO" when I have a brilliant idea. Perhaps after the last few tortuous days he will.
The floor is in. It is gorgeous. I am VERY happy.
DH is limping, cut, bruised and battered. His knees may never be the same. Ditto for his back and neck. We thought this would take maybe eight hours. Maybe two short-ish days, and then we would do something fun for vacation. We giddily talked about doing the whole house in this flooring. After all, it was all going to be so easy.
Day 1: They (he and Rowdy Son) started in the laundry room. He cheerily said, "Hey honey, do you want me to go ahead and paint while the appliances are out?". So much time, so much energy! I was all for that. The plan was, since it was my "gift", that I would take Sweet Girl and go to lunch, shop, have fun. We would come home to a new floor in the laundry room. She and I kissed the boys and off we went. We returned seven hours later....seven hours. They had laid two planks.
I started to say something, but the look I got shut me up (not fast enough, DH would interject). Yes, this would be an easy floor...if the house was square. The house is 30 years old. There is nothing square in this house (except us old-fogie homeowners). It had taken DH and Rowdy a few hours to paint and clean the room. Who knew what lurked behind old baseboards and under appliances? Then the squaring began. And there they sat, still measuring, still discussing planks and bits of planks. The two planks they had laid had a bit of a "gap" between the seams. I thought I would be helpful and mention that. Um, well, the project almost stopped dead in its tracks just then.
Day 2...this was going to be "the day". The catch-phrase for this whole project was this, "We've done the hard part, the rest will be easy". I heard that Saturday morning. I heard that Saturday evening. Saturday at midnight, they finished the laundry room and...yes, "We've done the hard part, the rest will be easy". They planned to knock out the kitchen by early afternoon on Sunday. We really didn't figure on moving the fridge and stove and cleaning and painting...(how could I resist? When was I ever going to be able to paint behind the stove again?). The boys really didn't figure on having to square up yet another room. Sunday night, we went to bed with the kitchen about 1/3 done.
Monday morning, at about 10 a.m., DH said..you guessed it..."We've done the hard part, the rest is easy". He figured on being done in two hours. At six, when I left to take Sweet Girl to soccer practice, they were laying the last plank!!! At 8:30 when I came home from soccer practice, they were laying the last plank. Huh? I wanted to ask, but memories of Day One came back to me and this time I really did shut up.
I think that by 10 p.m. last night we were really finished with the floor. I started the first of many loads of laundry (no washer and dryer for five days), and well, the dryer vent needed to be reattached. I almost could NOT BEAR to ask them to do one more thing, but, people do need their undies.
At midnight he said his usual vacation mantra.."I need a vacation from my vacation". He happily went to work today--to order, quiet, peace and a professionally installed floor.
I do love him.
posted by herewegoagain at
9:52 AM
1 Comments:
what an ordeal...well i'm excited to see the new floor!
By
Sho, at 7:26 PM
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