David and I are so used to "construction mode" that it is hard not to start projects and "tear up" the house in between visits. This week I was back into painting mode and I painted the master bath room and we put on new hardware and got new light fixtures. This really spruced it up.
While I like to publish pictures of our projects and progress, this picture is what "normal" around here looks like....lamp parts strewn everywhere, the vacuum ready to catch the construction dust, and me in my Jackson Pollack decorated paint shirt.
In between coats of paint in the bathroom, I painted 144 feet of base molding. That has kept David busy the last two days!! And just when I think I've finished painting, we find one more place that needs a touch up! The molding really helped finish off the floors.
Last week I came home from running errands and David, was no where to be found. Soon he, came in very excited. "You'll never guess what I just got on Craig's List -- a broken generator!!" Well, he was right,...I would never have guessed that! Here's how my husband's mind works: (and we are all glad for it!) He figured now that the hurricanes had passed, folks would be selling their generators, so he started shopping Craig's List. Sure enough, he found a good name-brand one really cheap. When he went to see it, it wouldn't start. Assessing the situation, he figured it was probably a minor repair, and he had been noticing a small engine repair shop that we pass in Mill Spring (next to Deb's Mini Mart), so he took a chance. $50 in repairs later, we now have a working generator worth 3 times what he paid for it! Of course now he's talking about building a special shed for it, though it fit in the one we have, but of course it needs it's own space and ventilation. And he's spent several hours testing various appliances for their voltage to see what all we can run on it and for how long. He's in the midst of designing an additional electrical panel for it and "certain" appliances will be transferred to that circuit. So the popular parlor game for us this week has been "When the power goes out, would you rather have a coffee maker or a microwave?" (Later to be substituted by 2 other choices. The best one was, "Hey, I know, we can cut off the fridge for a half hour and switch on the hot tub....just need to make sure to switch them back." - Now that's a man who has his priorities straight!!) While this has been a humorous exercise, I'm sure we'll be grateful to Dave's advance planning and logical thinking when the lights go out. Just ask Pat Kelly. Her toothbrush froze during the last power outage.
Dave has been busy executing a few other small projects such as hanging our old storm door on the basement door (now he can leave the steel door open when he is down there and the storm door lets in light, but hopefully NOT Bartholomew, the bear!). And I've been busy -with what else, shopping. I thought I had bought the best chair for the front window, until Dave told me all of the things he decided to fix on it. But he did, and it works perfectly -- now! Yesterday I drove to Asheville to retrieve Dave's sunglasses he had left in a shop over the weekend, and I decided since I was already there I would shop at a few of my favorite galleries. My persistence yielded a great piece that depicts the recent eclipse. Since that was the center of one of our first parties in the house, I thought it would be a great first art piece. Luckily Dave likes it too.
And finally, I must introduce you to our full time resident guardian of Park's Peak. We have 5 acres here and no neighbors within sight lines. (This is why I have no pictures of Dave in the middle of projects - he is never photogenically attired!) One of the results has been we have not put anything on the windows. In fact, we took down the removable grids and screens so that we could enjoy the view. HOWEVER, there was one window, in Dave's new bathroom , that had some modesty issues from the back deck. We didn't want our guests feeling uncomfortable taking a shower, especially if folks were on the deck. But our delimma was we didn't want to hide the window, for it has one of the best views in the house. Enter Kilroy!! We both remember him as one of our favorite doodles in high school. Finding a good graphic we could transfer to window frosting was easy and 2 paint pens later, we were ready to install him. Now this might not make our guests completely comfortable, but at least they will have a laugh! And we think he makes for great "Guard Art"!
