And Still More

Popcorn comes down
Originally uploaded by suzipaw

As I type, M and Bob, our handyman neighbor helping us with our home improvements, are crawling around under the house, escorted by Rex, trying to level the floor in preparation for putting down the bamboo. Suddenly, the four hours I spent on my hands and knees yesterday pulling carpeting staples doesn't seem so bad. (On a side note, it's amazing the amount of fine dust that had accumulated in the foam padding. Ugh. I don't think I'll ever be able to look at carpets the same way again, knowing what they're covering.)

I took the day off yesterday to finish the painting, and I'm happy to report that the color we chose for the bedroom is lovely. I've always been drawn to gray as a room color, but been afraid to try it lest if feel depressing in winter. This color has some pale blue to it as well as pale gray, so it feels very tranquil to me, a good bedroom color. I was nervous putting it on at first (it's the swatch in the picture directly below the tip of the dangling popcorn sheet)--it looked white going up but dried to color. I'm really happy (and relieved) with how the paint colors are turning out. I've had past experiences with choosing colors I imagined I'd like, but didn't spend the time to live with them before putting them on.

As the rolls of old flooring and empty boxes of new flooring are piling up on the patio, I'm realizing that I really didn't consider how much crap we were going to deal with once all of the improvements are done. And I'm also realizing that we'll have to clean everything all over again before bringing the furnishings back inside. I think I purposely didn't imagine all of the dust that would come up from redoing the floors. I know now that it's part of the process, but the idea of having to clean surfaces I just cleaned to paint is annoying.

As I'm finishing this post, Murray is out shopping for underlayment and Bob is trimming the bottoms of the metal door moldings so the new flooring can fit with a saw--sparks are flying and there's a terrible smell, eek!

The one unfortunate thing about the timing of our improvement tasks--I'm not able to get away this weekend either to meet Myla or to go to my 30th (gulp) high school reunion. It's a big reunion, covering 1977-1990 (it's a small school). There are a few people coming whom I'd like to see again. But Mom's going, so I hope I'll get a good update from her, with lots of pics.

On another wistful note, via Facebook, I saw photos of a former best friend's wedding that took place recently. And she was truly a BFF--for years we spoke on the phone almost every day, she stayed over almost every weekend, spent holidays with my family, not a social occasion went by that we didn't plan together. But it turned out we weren't the final F after all--the dynamics of our relationship changed, most poignantly after I got divorced since my ex- was (and still is) a dear friend of hers, and we fell out of touch entirely. I understand why we're not friends, but I miss her, and as I think I've whined about in the past, mourn the lack of a BFF in my life. I was glad to see her looking so lovely, and glad she was getting hitched to someone she's been with for a long time. I wonder if she misses me. Whenever I visit New York, she's one of the things I look for when I wander the streets…

This is my 499th post!