Renovations | A Dalectable Life

It’s only 35 words. Plus, the key word is basically how my thoughts have been running inside my head for the past three weeks. How can I resist? Besides, I’m one who chooses to laugh rather than cry over stuff – especially stuff that’s out of my hands. So, thank you, Sammi, for providing the way!

Fool’s dream

No hiccups, no surprises,

No scary electrical things hiding

behind now-exposed walls

No wonky plumbing

waiting to blow

As if that’s not enough

Let’s have tools running amok

Landing in wrong places

It’s only money

Upstairs bathroom floor

Downstairs bathroom sink

Big Plans

She had a grand plans for the house. She was going to renovate it and make it hers. She’d remodel the kitchen, moving a wall, adding extra cabinets and much needed counter space. Once she was done there, she’d redo the bathroom, change the tiles and replace that God-awful toilet and sink. Following that, she’d strip the floors and restain them a nice dark colour. She had ideas for the landscaping too, including installing a beatiful gate to replace the horrid wood one. Her humble abode was going to become her haven.

Oh the visions she had!

Oh, the funds she had not!

What she needed to do was scale down her ideas into smaller, more manageable jobs. Things like adding a coat of paint…

***

Word count: 125

How did this happen, you ask? Well, let’s see now…

It all started when we asked Claude, our electrician friend, to install ceiling lights in our dining room. You see, this room was originally a small living room which we never used because you could not even fit a decent sized couch; nor could you really put a television. It’s a rectangular room with a fireplace on one narrow wall, French doors on the wall to the left and a doorway, sans door, to the hallway & kitchen, and patio doors on the wall to the right. Either you have to put a TV kitty-corner with the fireplace and the patio door (which the previous owner did) or above the fireplace (which is too high and would look ridiculous). A loveseat is about the only piece of furniture along with a small coffee table and maybe a one-seater.

Soooo…. the year after we moved in, I suggested to hubs that maybe if we put our dining room table in here and the sofa in the kitchen (where the table was) we would use this space more. Besides, as most families do, we always hang out in the kitchen – might as well put a couch so more could sit! He did not think it was a good idea but when I ran away from home for a week-end of solo time, he did the switcheroo! And, funny thing is, EVERYone who saw it, thought it was a brilliant idea! Goes to show, eh?

Dining room in kitchen

Dining moved to living

As a result, we do indeed use the dining room way more often – especially when we entertain. We light a fire and a gazillion candles (slight exaggeration) – otherwise we would not see what we are eating. A couple of corner lamps just didn’t cut it. Yes, it was romantic, but let’s face it, for the average day-to-day, it was a pain in the arse to have to light all those candles…

Enter Claude. Of course, what seemed like such an easy task at the time ended up being a major headache! For every hole in the ceiling, three more needed to be made. This house does not have an interstitial space between the ceiling and the floor of the storey above. These means, passing wires is no longer a simple thing! Make a hole for the fixture, make a hole in the beam, make a hole beside the hole for the fixture, and so on. Our ceiling looked like cottage cheese!!! Of course Claude and his crew decided to come on a Friday that I was entertaining friends for dinner… Thankfully, it was gorgeous outside and we were able to dine al fresco – with candles!

We left this mess for a couple of weeks as the lights we wanted were out of stock… When all was installed, we could then get to work. We had a friend who was to come help with the putty work but he was only available Labour Day week-end and we already had a date to go visit the same friends who came over during our mess! Hubs is more than capable of plugging holes and doing the putty work necessary so. He did.

Meanwhile, the crew came to clean out our interlocking patio (pavé uni) which had become overrun with weeds, was stained and looked like crap! We had the thermo pump guys come to disconnect said item and put it in the garage so the guys could clean up the side of the house. Since it was being disconnected, we had the brilliant idea of moving the thermostat OUT of our bedroom on the second floor and to the hallway wall on the main floor. (Why it was installed there in the first place, we’ll never know! Problem with this stupid set up is that hot air rises so we could set the temperature to whatever and it would be reached upstairs while we froze our buns off on the main…) Another great idea. Another Swiss cheese situation! In order to pass the wires from the thermostat, through the kitchen ceiling, into the garage…. we had to do the same thing as the dining room!

Of course it rained before the pavé uni could be sealed so the thermo pump could not be put back and be reconnected. Did I mention that THIS is when we had a heat wave? Yeah. No air conditioning for three days and the temperature was up, up, up! How quickly we become spoiled by cool air… but now it looks good!

View from my office

During this heat wave I was canning and cooking for clients. (How did I know that when I bought my tomatoes and other salsa ingredients, the A/C would be turned off and we would also have to paint in between batches?)

So now… the dining room is mostly finished (few touch-ups here and there) and we need to find a new chandelier.

Now we have to tackle the kitchen, which has SOOOOOOO much detail work! It took me forever to just tape the area… Plus there was loads of plaster work to do (to be able to install the TV on the wall, we had to pass more wires (yeah, that again!) and now, I hear hubs calling as it’s my job to do the “découpage” for the ceiling (and walls – but not today!)