Viv rearranged the furniture in the pediatrician’s waiting room last week. I wonder where she picked that up! She is mimicking mama and papa and playing pretend more elaborately every day.
This morning, I heard her grunting and struggling in the corner of the bedroom.
“What are you doing honey?” I asked.
“Putting my tights on too!” came the chipper reply.
Here we are having a little rest tonight after working non-stop on the house for three days. Viv likes to play on the slide in the front yard while I check on my flowers and bird feeder. Each marathon weekend like this ends in sore muscles, empty bank accounts and a bit more affection for the house.
Let me explain Paulie’s bathtub-in-the-hallway selfie: We both hate Clawfoot tubs, it’s one of the connections that bonded us deeply in our early romance. They are old, uncomfortable, impossible to keep clean and worst of all, they were originally made to be hog scalds. I can never unlearn that little factoid. Add to that the expense of adding a complicated customized shower on it (nearly equal to just replacing it completely) and that tub is out the window. Or down the stairs as it where.
Thirty minutes after listing it on Craigslist as “you get it out, it’s yours for free” this morning, I had twenty emails! It was gone by noon; carried quickly down the stairs by a pair of burly brothers.
Now, of course, we have created a typical Kenmore problem….the place it vacated is now screaming for a large, luxurious and spectacularly expensive tiled shower enclosure.
It’s a shame the wiring to this this lovely switch may have caused a small fire years ago. I’ve wondered what it was, but it was unidentifiable under seven layers of paint and failed to turn anything on or off. Turns out it was disconnected at some point. Inside the wall Paulie found charred boards and sections of lath and plaster blistered and blackened. The switch polished up nicely (that bottom red button is a nightlight, bulb filament still intact!), but it will have to go on the display shelf instead of back in the wall.
She’s “reading” a book on toddler discipline that she took from Papa’s not-to-be-touched table, while wearing his reading glasses that she loudly proclaims are “mine! mine! mine!”. She also has a “pooooooop in my di-ya-per”.
But never mind all that, look at her!
“I’m doing that yogurt thing.” (Yoga at the community center).
“They need to learn curfiss!” (Discussing a recent change in grade school curriculum).
“Wait, it’s Q, R, S, then T!” ( second attempt at singing the alphabet sing for Viv)
So much for taking it easy this weekend…I woke up wanting to get this corner of the “Wedding Cake” room done. This will be Viv’s bedroom, so some cuteness is in order. The wall decal is the same one I installed in her nursery at Wildwood the week she was born. I was so sad to leave that lovely little nursery that I ordered the exact same one for her Kenmore room when we moved. It only took me a year to get it up!
When the fluffy rug went down, Viv immediately sprawled out on it and said “It nice mama!”
AFTER:
The painting has made a huge difference. The upstairs hall, staircase and “wedding cake” room are now clean and bright. It would have taken us months to just do the trim; it was worth hiring a crew to get it done. The upstairs moldings and window frames are all Natural Cream. Each room’s trim was previously painted in a variety of shades of dreary. Though I would prefer to strip and refinish the wood to natural tones, the amount of work that would require (and chemicals and time) just didn’t seem worth it. Now, it’s done and we can enjoy the clean feeling (and safely sealed lead paint remnants).
After treating ourselves to professional painters, it’s time to do more work ourselves. Paul installed four new light fixtures today. Things are looking brighter!
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