Finishing December

The Monstrosity: Day 24
Wednesday, December 28th

Hhmmm. I didn’t take notes at the end of the day and now I can’t remember what we did—even though it was just yesterday! [Remember that I’ve been “blogging” all along, just haven’t had time and/or Internet access to edit or post anything!] I do remember that Haley had her baby! Joshua. Looks just like her little Sam. Mom and baby are doing well, so praise the Lord!

I also remember putting a couple of coats of Polyurethane on the bathroom cabinets… OH! And scrubbing the tile floor in the bathroom. I mean really, really scrubbing. James had used a leveler of some kind on it and it dried like grainy cement. It had to be scrubbed off the tiles (leaving only the parts that would “level” the grout lines) and it took a long, long, long time and lots and lots of grunting and groaning. I told James he’s not allowed to work on tile anymore. It always seems to create an exorbitant amount of work for me. ;-)

We had a Bible study at church that night on “A New Beginning” and I thoroughly enjoyed all of the scriptures and thoughts that were shared by everyone. Afterwards we went to MacAlister’s with the Washburns for some good food and fellowship. Sam left Brother Washburn speechless with his quick wit and a stranger came and told us we win the best looking family of the year award (no doubt assuming the Washburns were the parents/grandparents of the rest of us), so I guess it was a successful evening.

When we got back to the house the kids and I went to bed and James started laying the new floor in the bathroom. Oh, happy day!!! Yes, we’re STILL working on that silly little bathroom. Will it ever end?! Ha! Of course, we’ve been working on lots of other things, too, but still...


The Monstrosity: Day 25
Thursday, December 29th.

I began the day by oohing and aahing over the new floor (over half done) in the bathroom. I LOVE IT. I absolutely love it. I love it because it’s so rustic looking… I love it because the old nasty tile floor is gone… I love it because it’s fresh and clean—and now (at the end of the day) I love it because it’s finished! :-)

My day’s work started with putting new hardware on the doors and drawers for the bathroom, with some good assistance from Sam. Then I put all of my energies into paint prep. It was a long day full of a thousand different little tasks, but at the end of the day I have two rooms completely ready to paint and two others well on their way. I didn’t get as far along as I would have liked, but you can only do what you can do, you know?

Hhmmm. Other news today… Nope, can’t think of any. Except that James wanted to take us out for a decent dinner (we’re all sooooo tired of fast food and CAN’T WAIT to have a kitchen here!), so we ended up at Cracker Barrel. I got mashed potatoes, corn, dumplin’s and applesauce—just like I did when we were living in a motel in New Mexico and had been without our own home (and kitchen) for two months! Ha! Living in a motel with a four year old, a five year old, a six year old and a super hyper poodle—for a month. We have good memories from that crazy time in our lives. We’ll have more good memories of THIS crazy time in our lives. :-)

Ah, yes, there is one other bit of news. The air mattress didn’t make it through the night last night—we woke up on the floor this morning. We had noticed that it wasn’t as tight as it originally was and we intended to fill it up today anyway. Unfortunately when we did fill it up it started leaking rapidly. Upon further investigation we discovered a small slit where the side of the mattress had begun to separate from the valve. We had become quite fond of that air mattress and even considered it more comfortable than most regular beds, so we were especially sad to see it go. Not to mention the fact that it didn’t belong to us—it was the Powells’! No worries, though—we saw that it was a Coleman mattress and had replaced it with a new one before the day was out. Otherwise we would have had to sleep on the floor again. My back said no way. :-)

I started proofing the Sunday School literature we were sent, but only made it through the Introduction and Lesson One. Then I wrote out all of my thank you cards for Christmas before hitting the hay.


The Monstrosity: Day 26
Friday, December 30th.

We had hopes of painting today. Silly little hopes. They keep meandering their way into our lives, then shattering all over the dusty floor. All I can say is that I’m doing my very, very best. We got home from Cleveland Monday night, we came to the Monstrosity on Tuesday, and I have been working 12-14 hour days since then, along with schooling the kids. There’s just sooooo much to do! This is one of those days when I find myself thinking, “What kind of idiots buy a house so BIG?!” Our kind, apparently. ;-)

It’s 10:30pm right now. I worked as long as I could make myself work, took a quick shower, got my pj’s on, and crawled into bed with my laptop for a few Internetless minutes. I didn’t get as much done today as I wanted to (do I say that EVERY day???), but I still feel some sense of satisfaction in the simple knowledge of how hard I’ve been trying. I worked on the kitchen cabinets today, then the stairwell and foyer, the utility room, and all of the doors on this floor. Unless I spend another week working on them (I don’t have another week to spend on them even if I wanted to!), the doors are just never going to be as pretty as they should be. The last painter who graced this house ~ahem~ was proficient at the drip and run style of painting and they used all thick, high gloss paint to ensure it would last a lifetime. Perhaps several lifetimes. How thoughtful of them.

Along those lines, Mom reminded me today about Nancy. She was the old lady who taught us how to quilt when I was a teenager. She always told us that if something didn’t turn out just right or had some imperfections, DON’T WORRY ABOUT IT. “From a galloping horse,” she would say, “nobody will ever see it.” I never had the heart to tell her that most people don’t look at quilts while riding the range; they’re usually standing still or even sitting. Nevertheless, for my sanity’s sake I am going to have to adopt her philosophy. I could scrape and sand for the rest of my life and never smooth out ALL of the flaws in this house. So after getting all OCD and COMPLETELY scraping one side of one of the six remaining doors, I thought of good ole’ Nancy and her galloping horse. I put down my scraper, grabbed my electric sander, laid aside the course paint stripping sand paper and grabbed a sheet of smoother “leveling” paper, and gave all of the doors a quick once-over. There are still paint drips, but they’re more “level” than they were before, or at least I’m choosing to believe so. I’ll just have to tell anyone who travels this hallway that they’re not allowed to slow their horse below a swift canter. ;-)

We decided tonight to rip out another floor. Oh, why not? God has provided lots of good help for us through this project and the floor was gone in short order. The utility room is now rid of the cushy, water damaged linoleum and level with the floor in the hallway, which will make for a much nicer transition.

We were supposed to go home tonight. We were going to spend tomorrow “recuping.” That means I would work at THAT house instead of this one, but it would be normal work—laundry and stuff like that. But I don’t have time to go home—there’s too much to do before Mom comes! Did I mention Mom is coming? She’ll be here Monday and (if we are far enough along and able to get ready for it!) will help me with paint and wallpaper. Anyway, there is still sooooo much to do to get ready. So tonight I sent James and Katie and Sam—and Charlie—home and Joe and I are staying at the Monstrosity. The Brierfield crowd will take care of Brady and the house, then come back tomorrow bearing extra underwear, fresh towels, and a list of other odds and ends to see us through the coming week. Work, work, work! But it’s a good thing. I keep thinking things are going to start getting exciting around here any day now. I think I’ve been thinking that since we bought this house over two months ago. I’m glad I don’t have sense enough to be realistic. It would be too depressing. I prefer the blindly optimistic approach to life. ;-)


The Monstrosity: Day 27
Saturday, December 31st.

~whew~ That’s all I have to say at the end of this day. It’s been a doosy. A good doosy, for the most part. It was full of paint prep. Lots and lots of paint prep. That is, of course, what I’ve been doing ever since we bought this place, but in ultra high gear this week. We still haven’t unboxed the paint sprayer, but we’re getting so close I can smell it. :-)

After all of our hard work throughout the day we discovered water in the basement again. James had sent some “Emergency Care” chemicals down the drain a few days before and we’d let them sit while using as little water as possible, but my shower yesterday proved that it didn’t fix the problem. So here we are on Saturday night… I’ve been working like crazy and I’m all nasty… I caught a whiff of Joe earlier when he walked by (a very bad sign)… we have church in the morning… and no way to shower. ~sigh~

I called the Ridlespurges and asked if we could come shower at their house. I was embarrassed to do it, but assured them that they—and the entire church in Bessemer—would be glad come morning. Ha! We showed up on their porch a little while later singing a few lines from one of our favorite songs:

Our pipes are corroded, the water won’t drain
Our toilet exploded, we’re flushing in vain!!!

We were so thankful for the use of their plumbing! GOD BLESS THEM! :-)

That was New Year’s Eve. We were exhausted and asleep on our air mattresses at the Monstrosity by 10:30! Ha! Pitiful. We did wake up at midnight when the fireworks were going off all around us. Folks are serious about the fireworks here.

On Sunday we went to church, then a different Mexican joint than usual with the crowd—the Washburns, Parkers—I can’t remember who all. Then we went to visit old Brother Parker who hasn’t been well enough to come to church for a few months now. We sure miss having him there. It was nice to visit with him and have a good prayer with him. And I just love being with Sister Parker. She is the neatest lady—and she cracks me up!

Even after all of that I still had time to get a nice Sunday afternoon nap. Have I mentioned that I am going to LOVE living a mile and a half from the church?! :-) After service that night we undecorated (all the Christmas stuff) in ZOOM fashion with Tammy Washburn leading the way. Ha! She doesn’t waste time, let me tell ya’! Then it was off for another kids-eat-free night at McAlister’s.