Monthly Archives: June 2010

After the Storm

17 Thursday Jun 2010

Posted by in In the Garden, Life at Home, The Great Outdoors

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Long after Monday’s flood waters have receded, I’m still droopy.

Maybe it’s because my home-sweet-home is saturated with musty smells coming from a drying basement.  Maybe it’s because I’ve worked with a few contractors who don’t seem to realize that my service calls are NOT everyday usual.  Or maybe my droopiness is just part of who I am, the sort of person that goes a little crazy when encountering waste and ineffectiveness.

After we unexpectedly hosted 4 to 5 inches of sewer water Monday morning, we engaged a remediation company to come dry and sterilize our basement.  Had my husband and I not been in attendance, the company technician would have left before the job was done.   As it was, the young man was forced to snake his hose down the basement stairwell three times — once of his own accord, another when my husband told him to try again, and a third when I sent him back down to the bowels of the house.  Our ‘worker’ reminded me of a young child doing something he didn’t wish to do; and though I can’t say that I blame him, we needed someone who took pride in his work,  someone who cared about the finished result rather than one simply going through the motions of fulfilling a checklist.

Ironically, our heating and air contractor told my husband that he was not too impressed with our remediation technician, that he would have expected a more thorough result.  As it was, Mr. Heat and Air opened up the blower, removed the saturated filter, slapped in a new one and turned on the system.  This time it was me telling my husband that I expected more — I imagined Mr. Heat and Air would have contacted the manufacturer to assess impact of sewage waters on the system — or advise us on unit sterilization.  But instead,  he left us with a new filter and a horrible musty smell coming out of our duct work.

I confess to expecting too much from others; I expect my contractors to care for my home as I do.  And while I’m in the confessional, I admit that I expect too much from myself as well.

I wish I could be more like my rock ‘n roll husband, who is steady as a rock in a crisis and rolls with the punches of everyday life.  Or I wish I could be more like my garden that bounced back quick from Monday’s destructive rainstorm.  But instead I am who I am — more than a little wilted after the storm.

RAIN

14 Monday Jun 2010

Posted by in Life at Home, The Great Outdoors

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Billed as the ultimate Beatles tribute band, RAIN is in the midst of a road tour that will end on Broadway in mid-October; last week’s stop was Oklahoma City and my husband and I were lucky enough to catch last night’s final OKC performance.

I hate to gush too much, but RAIN was one of those experiences I won’t soon forget.  When the end arrived, I wasn’t ready for it.  I wanted these “Fab Four” impersonators to keep on playing all those songs I grew up with, with music that effortlessly transported me back to the sixties.

Sitting in that audience — and sometimes standing on my feet dancing to these old familiar tunes — I marveled at my luck at being alive when the Beatles were actually writing and singing their songs themselves.  Did anyone realize how gifted this band from Liverpool really was in real-time?  Or were most like me, realizing the miracle of their music long after the Beatles were no longer together?

For me, the Beatles were simply part of everyday life.  I followed their lives in my Tiger Beat and 16 magazines; I collected their music, and like most teens, I faithfully watched the Beatles cartoon show every Saturday morning.

I went to bed thinking of RAIN and woke this morning to the real deal.  Rain.  Driving.  Torrential.  Flash-flooding.  The street outside our Mesta Park home was a river.

Unfortunately, my son parked his girlfriend Amy’s car in the street.  By the time we realized the street was flooded, the car already was. And though he tried to get it started, it would not.

Sometimes we can’t take in what’s happening in real-time.  We need perspective.  Time.  Distance.  And sometimes, like this morning outside my window, we still can’t take in the reality of this thing called rain.

A Whale of a Good Time

06 Sunday Jun 2010

Posted by in Home Restoration, Life at Home

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While Sis was off watching whales in Alaska, I kept watch over her home renovation project.

If you were to ask, I’d say I had the better deal… for rarely does my vacation reality measure up to my vacation dreams.  Couple this with the downsides of the vacation experience — like how exhausting travel can be, how expensive vacations are, how vacations never seem quite long enough — and maybe it explains why I believe the best part of any trip is coming home.

So while watching whales and soaking up gorgeous landscapes had to be amazing, I was perfectly content to park myself at my family’s long-held homestead.  In fact, in coming to terms with life without Daddy, there is no place I’d rather be than at my sister’s house, which in a previous life, served as my parent’s home.  Spending time there allows me to remember past times with gladness.  And as we give this old place a new lease on life, it helps me say goodbye to what is gone as it prepares my heart and mind for the new life to come.

Sometimes I wonder if restoring unloved homes and gardens isn’t my true calling.  Because while I’m “on the clock”, time slips away into nothing.  With paintbrush in hand, while concentrating on painting clean, crisp lines, I too have been on vacation from everyday life.

As “our” carpenter said the other day, we are now experiencing the satisfying part of the renovation.   No longer are we tearing down; instead, we are creating and refinishing.  Bit by bit, this “house that Jack built” is losing its former identity and taking on a fresh, new identity.

Along the way, we’ve addressed function as well as beauty.  We’ve run new electrical wiring to address old problems and add a little glamor here and there.  For example, now centered on the antique claw foot tub — which awaits its turn in the beauty chair —  is a sweet little chandelier in my sister’s main bathroom.  Another chandelier has been installed over what will be a kitchen island.  And on the functional side of the equation, we’ve added electrical outlets in both areas — can you imagine a bathroom without an operating electrical outlet?  — and made the house cable-ready for 21st century electronics.

Though we’ve much to do before we can rest on our laurels, it’s good to share that the kitchen is mostly finished —  three days of solid painting remains.  Significant work has already transformed both bathrooms — both feature new sinks and counter tops.

Wonder of wonders, for the first time ever, the new shower in the master bathroom is plumb to the walls.  While making this miracle happen, the  carpenter wondered how the  previous shower door had ever shut.  No use wondering I told him:  The door hadn’t shut in years.  Not to be outdone in the wondering department, the plumber asked if we knew that the old shower was draining to the crawl space under my sister’s house, rather than safely exiting the house through the intended drain.  Well… no, I told him.

To learn of the few inches of standing water sitting underneath my sister’s house, along with news from “down under” of dripping HVAC ducts in need of insulation were surprises of the worst sort.  But in a renovation project, the only true surprise would be one that held no surprises.

The scariest part of the entire project is not dealing with the surprises.  Somehow, these will be made right in the end.  No, what disturbs me is that the end (at least on the interior) is almost here.  With less than two weeks before the floor refinishers arrive — and a good three weeks of hard work remaining — it’s my turn to wonder at what needs to give.  It’s time to set priorities and not get sidetracked, as I am so apt to do.

I know that somehow, everything will come together.  It always does.  And in the meantime, can I say how amazing it all looks?  I hope Sis will be pleased with all the changes the week has brought.

In my book, pleasing Sis is better than watching whales in a gorgeous setting.  And though I never once “wished she was here”, I am so very glad she’s back home.