Friday

 

As a concession to age and sanity, we stopped painting before we finished Friday. We painted most of the difficult parts: high up with monkey climbing. We bagged the roller and put it in the fridge for tomorrow. I cleaned up the tray and brush while it was still light outside. I consider this quite a success because I hate to stop painting before I'm through.

I overdid it yesterday. I went to bed hurting everywhere and woke up with a headache. The whole day felt like 30 minutes I was in such a zone. We met with the designer and owner this morning. After they left, we walked, had lunch, and took a nap. I woke up feeling much better. So we got a late start painting mid-afternoon.

Laundry room: The gray parts are the final coat. The white parts are where the cabinets are going to go.

We might begin tomorrow with a trip to Ace for more paint (and the grocery store).

John cut in while I rolled today. That made things go much faster. He is a hilarious painter, full of distractions and odd commentary: "I've invented several new ways to hold the toothbrush." He meant paint brush, but old age doesn't always allow the correct word to come out when needed. It's like living in a Samuel Beckett absurdist play.

Toby supervised us both, but was rather bored with us standing around.

We are excited to see what the designer comes up with for the bathroom. The owner said it would be no big deal, even cutting into the concrete foundation to relocate the tub drain, which he said never lines up with a new tub.

The vanity drawer no longer opens and closes properly. The designer says that a sit-down vanity like this is no longer desirable. People would rather have cabinet storage. The designer pointed out how impractical our vanity is: the top drawers hang over the bottom cabinets, making it very difficult to reach into the cabinet. They are also ugly and the doors are hanging askew. They are made of the same cheap particle board as the kitchen cabinets (except these are flesh colored) with the same yellowed plastic handles that the kitchen had. Ugh.

We've never used this ridiculous tub, except to drain dishes as our temporary kitchen. The designer said a free-standing tub is pretty to look at even if you seldom use it. "Sort of like a pool?" I asked. She said, "Exactly!" She might remove the linen closet to create more space for the tub and shower. She might angle it. The shower will not be framed and it will be taller. They had lots of ideas we hadn't considered, like having no lip or just a slight lip at the shower door. We want to make it as ADA compliant as possible: grab bars, wider doorways, roll in access, etc. 

They can reuse the current toilet, which is chair height. She might put a linen closet here where the coffee maker is and remove this odd ledge. The owner of the construction company said that many bathrooms of this era would have a fern shelf like this in the bathroom.

She thought the closet works without a door, but they will remove the door molding and make it more flush. The owner said it would be easy to add a door back if a future owner wanted one. The newer doors don't have a bottom rail. Our rail is embedded in the tile, but since we're replacing the tile, it won't be a problem to remove it. She suggested a full length mirror for the end of the closet. We talked about porcelain tile because it is durable and comes in many patterns. We all agreed on white with faint lines of gray, like marble, maybe large 24 inch square tiles. We could start with re-tiling the bath and bedroom and get rid of the hideous carpet and odd tiled path to the living room. Then see about the rest of the house. They will make a few adjustments in the kitchen floor before installing the kitchen cabinets to make it easier to install new flooring in there when we are ready.

She loved our rolled shirts.

Up next: finish the wall painting in the kitchen and begin painting the trim.