It’s always something.
As I'm going through this remodel, I keep thinking, “It’s always something.” I told Doug the other day, “You keep asking me things I’ve never even thought of” — and sometimes never heard of. When they put the tiles in the bathroom, Doug asked if I’d purchased the metal edge pieces. Never heard of it. You need something on the end to finish it off. He bought it for me. Another time, “Did you buy a drain for the shower?” Now that one Roxanne did think of and showed me some fancy ones. But I forgot about it. Doug bought one for me.
The latest is texture for the walls. I had never noticed (but Randy had) that our walls have lots of different textures. The bedroom where Zach & Ashlee slept looks almost like stucco. My library/office has some smooth walls, some textured. I had noticed we have quite a few blemishes — holes and cracks — that the painter has been filling in and smoothing. Yesterday, though, Doug suggested we texturize all the walls and make them consistent. It’s always something. He had a guy come and make a few samples but I wasn’t really thrilled with them. They seemed too bumpy and rough to me. The guy came back today with a compressor to make an “orange peel” texture. That turned out to be all right. (Smoothing them all would be super expensive.) So now they’ll put that on the walls before they paint.
The “almost stucco” finish in one room.
Samples I didn’t like.
“Orange Peel” texture. That’ll do.
Things keep progressing. The other day they installed our countertops. I picked out this marble that I think is beautiful. It’s dark gray with streaks of white and some blue and a kind of orange/rust color. Striking.
I hadn’t known how choosing countertops went, either. Rox and I went to a tile store called Bedrosians Tile & Stone and walked through their warehouse with huge pieces of marble, granite, and so on. I don’t particularly love granite for counters. It looks so much like a plain old ordinary piece of stone. (Maybe because it is!) I thought marble was something hoity-toity people got, as a kind of status symbol, so you could say, “We have mah-ble countertops.” But, according to the people at the store, Roxanne, and the interwebs, marble is actually a practical choice for the purposes of keeping it clean, not scratched, and so on. Once I decided on the marble I liked, I got to actually pick the specific 2 slabs I wanted. Then they cut it to fit.
Coming off the truck.
Some of the pieces for the backsplash or edge or whatever it’s called.
Installed!
Doesn’t it look nice?
You can see some of the colors in this and the next photo.
And they put it on the windowsills. I love it!
The microwave (combo microwave & convection oven — I’m hoping it’ll replace both our microwave and our toaster oven) came in and they put that on its shelf. They also installed the dishwasher, one of the ovens, the kitchen faucet, and the vanity, sink, and toilet in the hall bathroom. So now we can turn the water off in the trailer and use the house.
There was a water leak under the bathroom sink in the trailer that Randy thinks is because the pressure of the water coming from the house is too strong and causes it to leak by a joint. Earlier — when it was raining like crazy! — we discovered a leak around the front window, above the bed. I went to make the bed and discovered sheets and blankets that were leaning against the wall were all wet. We washed and dried them and poor Randy climbed around with caulking to try to stop the leak. Caulking when it’s raining doesn’t work so well. It was also nighttime — so he was working in the dark. I felt so sorry for him. He put a tarp over it. Still not really confident it is fixed, but it hasn’t rained for a while now so we’ve been okay.
Microwave on its shelf.
One of the ovens.
Dishwasher in.
Nice sprayer that you pull off the faucet and then it magnetically hooks back on when you’re done.
Snazzy faucet!
A working bathroom. (You can also see the metal end piece on the tile. I really love that white tile. Thanks to Roxanne.)
Yesterday and the day before they worked on preparing the master bathroom. They had a truck with bubbling, steaming stuff like you see when people are roofing. I always thought it was tar but they worker here yesterday called it asphalt. That didn’t seem right but he said they use it for roads as well as roofing. Anyway, it looked and smelled like hot tar. They waterproof the bottom of the shower with it.
The hot cauldron on the truck.
Spreading it in the shower.
And finally, my “trailer library,” a tote with a bunch of books I’m reading and planning to read. Now that I only work part-time, I have more time to read than ever. Several of these are texts for the Pierre Favre class I’m in — a course to learn how to give the Ignatian Spiritual Exercises. I finished (re-read) the Russo novel and Universal Christ. The novels by Richard Russo are great. You may have seen the movie “Nobody’s Fool” with Paul Newman based on the book of the same name — and if you haven’t, I highly recommend it! “Empire Falls” is a miniseries based on another of his novels. They all take place in a town named Empire Falls that used to have a leather glove factory. The factory’s defunct and the town is kind of barely hanging on. The characters are truly “characters” — like “What a character he is” — and the stories are funny and real.
Universal Christ by Richard Rohr is mind-blowing. I need to write a whole blog entry about that one. Prayers in the Night by Tish Harrison Warren is beautiful, and of course I needed to get Anne Lamott’s most recent, Dusk, Night, Dawn. Some poetry from Padraig O’Tuoma is always good. And since this photo, I received the latest “Maisie Dobbs” novel by Jacqueline Winspear. That’s a great series about a British woman who served in WWI, became a sort of detective, and in this latest novel, she is doing some work for the British intelligence in WWII, while solving a mystery on the side.
And that catches us up. Lately, I’ve been sitting in our trailer alone. Most days Randy’s going to work again. It’s very busy and he can work more efficiently there. Kind of a bummer because I like it when we’re snug in our little nest together.
