One more thing is off my list of things I really want to accomplish before our baby is born. This is the last big item, unless I discover something else. I was going to take a “sewing reward” break after cleaning the basement before I started on the closets in Hannah’s room, but then I got scared that our baby might come and I wouldn’t have the closets finished, so I took on the closets before the sewing break. (Now, I really am going to take a sewing break! I believe I need one.)
Hannah’s new purple room has 2 closets, and I took out the flimsy wire shelving that was in there, and I wanted to put in real wood shelves and a rod to hang clothes on. I thought I might get it all done in one day, perhaps as long as two. Well, it took two days to get the shelves in there, and then today (the 3rd day) I painted the nail heads and now it is officially done!
One thing that I hadn’t counted on was all the large gaping holes that were left after pulling out all the drywall screws and nails from the hooks that held up the wire contraption. That meant I had the extra step of filling all those holes with joint compound, letting it dry, sanding it down, and then painting over the spots.
After I had done that, and mildly complained to Andrew about that extra step, he reminded me that I wouldn’t have had to do all that. I said, “What! And leave big holes in the walls? Bugs would crawl in there and we’d have no end of problems.”
He said, “Well, I don’t think we should leave holes in the walls. I meant you didn’t have to take down all those hooks.” Then, knowing me pretty well, he said, “Let me rephrase that. You wouldn’t be able to leave the hooks there, but we could have left them there.” (Somehow, my parents’ and my Grand-daddy Gardner’s teachings have gone into my bones, and well, if I’m going to do something, I want to do it right, and get it done. I guess Andrew has figured that out by now.)
Andrew called this my project. However,
at my invitation/request, he graciously
stepped out of his programmer mode
and did the power-tool steps of the project,
such as cutting U-shaped holes for the
closet rods and cutting the boards to the
correct length and width. I was afraid
I’d end up cutting one of my limbs off if
I tried it (I’ve never sawed with a power
saw in my life–only hand saws).
O.k., these are my painting clothes, folks! Overlook
the painful color clashes, please! Also, I was bent
on finishing the closets yesterday and didn’t take
time to fix my hair. (Hey, I’m not superwoman, o.k.,
and I wasn’t trying out for Miss America.)
I decided to do all the painting outside so I wouldn’t
risk getting any on the hardwood floors in the closets
and have to scrub those floors again. Andrew kindly
set up these buckets, the chair, and an insulated cup
of tea and ice for me to ease the burden of painting
outside in the hot shade.
Finding exactly where the studs were and marking them.
Once again, Andrew graciously came
to my inquiring aid and provided significant
help getting the shelves installed. He was
sure I was crazy for doing this at 11:00 p.m.,
hammering, drilling, and all, while the kids
were sleeping. All I had in mind was I wanted
to get this finished, and I knew it was much
easier and faster if they weren’t helping us.
We never heard a noise out of them.
The finished closets (except this was
before I painted the nail heads today).
Andrew says these are boring pictures
unless you are the one who built the
shelves.
Well, it’s done. I think Andrew is more than ready for me to move on to something more benign and insignificant like a sewing project, and along with that, more decent cooking around here.
While it is nice to accomplish something “outside the hamster wheel”, it does take a lot of effort, and well, combining something like this with meeting the needs of two toddlers, it stretched my nerves a lot at times. For instance, I thought I was going to get all the painting done while they were napping. I only got the first coat on. That meant I was doing the entire second coat while I was also meeting needs. And, I had hardly started when Paul accidentally put his hand in the wet paint (the entire palm). I took a deep breath and instructed him to wash it off in the swimming pool. I declare, no less than 60 seconds later, Hannah managed to back into a board coated with wet paint. I had to stop, take off her dress, and go try to scrub it out (it didn’t quite all come out; paint does not come out of clothing, ever, if it dries on there), and then get another dress and put it on her. So, after that, I moved the boundary line that they had to stay behind back even further.
So, there will be other seasons of life when significant projects that involve construction and painting will be less stressful.
Tell Andy that the closet pictures are not boring, at least not to me. I can completely understand why you took them. Maybe I’ll put up some pictures of my room when its finally clean. Sad to say, I’m too embarrassed to put up before pictures! And no, paint does not come out of clothes. The pair of jeans I wore to paint Hannah’s room look the same. On the bright side, whenever I wear them in public, (not that often) I usually get at least one comment:)
Congratulations! It looks great, and I wonder anew at your patience and strong, stretchy nerves!! Not to mention your boundless ambition!!!!!
Gail, there are times when I’m looking for the “off” button, or desperately trying to figure out how to escape for a couple hours when my nerves and feeling like snapping. But, I pray, pick up, and go on until nap time or bed time, which are surely blessings from God!