Ah another "holiday" weekend. Labor Day weekend is when people pack up and go camping, boating and sailing for the last time... the grand finale of a fun-filled summer. At least that's what I hear!
I've spent mine priming siding, painting siding, painting trim, painting spiders, scraping paint off of windows... and my new talent: patching concrete. One of the three different guys that said they would cut my old iron railings off of my front steps finally showed up around noon today. I seriously would have baked a cake and bought party hats to celebrate their removal if I knew he was actually going to show up to do it today! Even though my front steps are white with primer and dotted with concrete patch... not having those tired, older-than-me black iron railings attached to my newly spruced up house makes an amazing difference.
The sun against the white primer and paint was blinding, and the heat combined with the inability to remain hydrated led to my falling off the ladder twice. Deciding it was time for a break, before I had a bone break... I stopped at the garage sale my neighbor was having. They had two great Adirondack style lawn chairs for $4 a piece! And... they match my trim color almost exactly!!! Yessssssss! Score! The guy manning the cash box said, "Oh you're that girl that has been doing all of that work to your house all by yourself with no man around." "Yeah. In hindsight, I should have gotten married for the summer." I replied in jest.
Not afraid of hard work, I'm actually rather proud that I have done 95% of it completely on my own. This is my first time doing exterior painting, and aside from trying to gently coax a bazillion spiders out of my eaves, I have enjoyed it. Doing it yourself, especially as a female, lends a sense of incredible pride. My goal is to finish by the end of the holiday weekend... if I don't fall off the ladder again, that is.
Tomorrow, I'll be off to the hardware stores. My shopping list includes a 32 inch door to replace the one on the back of my garage. The existing one is beyond salvation, and after painting all that surrounds it, it has become, perhaps, the ugliest door I have ever seen! I'll also be picking up three pairs of shutters for the upper level windows; although I have no clue how the hell I'll get up there to hang them. Then I'll be picking up two little necessities: a mat for the garage right outside the door, so I can quit tracking in dirt and debris, and a new thistle feeder to replace the one that was broken when the feeder hook tipped over this morning.
Up until a second ago, I was being tormented by a very loud cricket chirping in the kitchen. It seemed that this noisy bugger was behind my stove, but he hopped out into my vision and I have since scooped him into a cup and escorted him outside. My hope for a good night's sleep has been restored.
Shamefully, I can't recall a single Labor Day Weekend since turning 15, that I haven't worked. I made a very poor attempt at scheduling one day at the beach to break up my remodelling marathon... but considering the nearing change of weather, and my mildly obsessive need to "finish what you start," completing as much as I can around my house has to be the right thing to do. Right?
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2 comments:
There's nothing mildly obsessive about your obsessiveness.
I thought you were going to med school. Now you're a frickin' shrink?!
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