Day Fifty-Seven: Enjoying the Hickory and Yearning to See the Soap Dish
The world changes quickly enough.
This morning when I went to bed (at about 1:30), Nancy woke up and told me that she wanted to love the kitchen floor. She asked me if we should love the floor, and I said yes. Then I went to sleep.
After we woke up today, Nancy decided that she'd come home in the morning and tell the people how she would like the boards arranged on the floor. That way, she figured, the floor people would be able to replicate her dream for the floor and maybe things would be okay.
Nancy ended up coming back home three or four times today, so she spoke to the guys putting up the siding, to Dave and John, and to the floor installers: Pat and his wife Beverly. Nancy seems to be getting along well with Beverly, and Beverly has been a great partner with Nancy on solving the flooring problem. Both Nancy and Beverly urged Pat to call Dan (the floor guy) and see if they could open the boxes and try to see if there was enough variety in the colors of the boards to lay them out so that there weren't large swaths of the same color or harsh contrasts between very light and very dark boards. Beverly (whom I've never met) is a rarity in these parts, a woman working on our house. The only woman, actually (save for Nance).
The New Hickory Floor, Cropped so as to Appear Complete
(Click on Image to Enlarge)
When I arrived home, Nancy had just left to pick up Tim at school, so I was alone. I walked over to the kitchen, looked at the floor, and whooped. It was the most beautiful floor I'd ever seen. It's not finished yet. There's a little more than a foot of space left to be filled on Monday. Pat is getting a couple more boxes of hickory to make sure he has enough variety to finish off this small bit of space. I've cropped that unfinished bit out of the picture, tho, so that it will be clear
The Back of the House, Completely Sided (Well, except for the Enclosed Porch)
After being overjoyed at the sight of the floor (which I've continued to return to all evening), I went outside and saw the siding on the back. What a great job this is. They even re-covered the old covering over the window framing. Nancy now thinks we should re-side the front of the house, too, but I've told her she's crazy. And it makes no difference to me that the front of the house is different from the back. It's impossible to see both of them at the same time.
Detail of the Siding
This little detail of the siding, which focuses on the kitchen's back window, shows me that even the unattractive parts of this job are attractive. The ridiculously fat wire following the outline of the house actually still looks pretty good--much better than the old wire looked.
The Finished Roof Over the Back Door
I didn't realize this would happen, but the guys also sided the roof over the back door, soffitting the roof into something a bit more substantial than it had been.
The Grouted Tile of the Bathroom
Beverly told Nancy that we chose the perfect grout for the floor. I thought this was pretty funny, since I didn't even realize that grout came in colors. But Beverly says that the grout matches the little line of brownish tile in the bathtub, bringing out its color. The floor looks pretty good in this photograph, but all of these things look better in person.
A Bit of the Bathtub, A Bit of the Tile
We like the clean look of the white tile around the bathtub, and the contrast with the pinkish-brown floor, and tomorrow we'll see how we like it with the green paint (something called Lettuce Alone) that we've chosen for the wall. What's driving us crazy about the bathroom is that we can't see the soap dish in the bathtub. All that will change tomorrow, however, when we can walk on the bathroom floor. Our plan is to paint the bathroom first, then move to the kitchen. I'm not sure how we'll get all this work done this weekend, but we'll manage.
Two Doors Waiting to Be
Yesterday, I wondered when we'd be getting the door for the bathroom, and today it has arrived. But there are two of them. I didn't expect this, since the plan was to reuse the old door opening to the downstairs as the new door opening to the downstairs.
The Basement Door We Apparently are not Using
And here's that door. As you can tell, we are not upstet that we won't get to reuse this door.
Molding Sitting in the Basement Waiting to be Stained and Poly'd
Somehow, Nancy and I have to paint the kitchen and the bathroom (in different shades of green) and stain and poly all of this molding. We succeeded in buying the ceiling paint today, along with the greens for the kitchen and the bathroom, but we couldn't find the polyurethane or stain that the guys recommended--so we'll search for those tomorrow.
The Remaining Hickory Boards, along with a Little Oak
There is almost no hickory left, and some of the boards that are left have been totally rejected because they have deep knots that will hold water, thus destroying the flooring.
A Wide View of the Living Room
To keep you from thinking that our living space is neat and beautiful, here's a wide shot of the living room.
Something Like Our Dining Room
But I think the dining room is much worse.
Another View of our Spacious Dining Room
It is possible that this view of the dining room is evening worse, dominated as it is by the bit tile saw. (Nancy knows the right name of this piece of equipment.)
Our Pull-Out Garbage Cans Half in Use
For months, we've been storing our kitchen garbage can atop a chair in the dining room, since otherwise the stupid dogs would knock over the garbage to get at the goodies. Tonight, I realized that we could open the pull-out cabinet with the garbage cans and begin, once again, to store our garbage out of sight.
honi soit qui mal y pense
This morning when I went to bed (at about 1:30), Nancy woke up and told me that she wanted to love the kitchen floor. She asked me if we should love the floor, and I said yes. Then I went to sleep.
After we woke up today, Nancy decided that she'd come home in the morning and tell the people how she would like the boards arranged on the floor. That way, she figured, the floor people would be able to replicate her dream for the floor and maybe things would be okay.
Nancy ended up coming back home three or four times today, so she spoke to the guys putting up the siding, to Dave and John, and to the floor installers: Pat and his wife Beverly. Nancy seems to be getting along well with Beverly, and Beverly has been a great partner with Nancy on solving the flooring problem. Both Nancy and Beverly urged Pat to call Dan (the floor guy) and see if they could open the boxes and try to see if there was enough variety in the colors of the boards to lay them out so that there weren't large swaths of the same color or harsh contrasts between very light and very dark boards. Beverly (whom I've never met) is a rarity in these parts, a woman working on our house. The only woman, actually (save for Nance).
The New Hickory Floor, Cropped so as to Appear Complete
(Click on Image to Enlarge)
When I arrived home, Nancy had just left to pick up Tim at school, so I was alone. I walked over to the kitchen, looked at the floor, and whooped. It was the most beautiful floor I'd ever seen. It's not finished yet. There's a little more than a foot of space left to be filled on Monday. Pat is getting a couple more boxes of hickory to make sure he has enough variety to finish off this small bit of space. I've cropped that unfinished bit out of the picture, tho, so that it will be clear
The Back of the House, Completely Sided (Well, except for the Enclosed Porch)
After being overjoyed at the sight of the floor (which I've continued to return to all evening), I went outside and saw the siding on the back. What a great job this is. They even re-covered the old covering over the window framing. Nancy now thinks we should re-side the front of the house, too, but I've told her she's crazy. And it makes no difference to me that the front of the house is different from the back. It's impossible to see both of them at the same time.
Detail of the Siding
This little detail of the siding, which focuses on the kitchen's back window, shows me that even the unattractive parts of this job are attractive. The ridiculously fat wire following the outline of the house actually still looks pretty good--much better than the old wire looked.
The Finished Roof Over the Back Door
I didn't realize this would happen, but the guys also sided the roof over the back door, soffitting the roof into something a bit more substantial than it had been.
The Grouted Tile of the Bathroom
Beverly told Nancy that we chose the perfect grout for the floor. I thought this was pretty funny, since I didn't even realize that grout came in colors. But Beverly says that the grout matches the little line of brownish tile in the bathtub, bringing out its color. The floor looks pretty good in this photograph, but all of these things look better in person.
A Bit of the Bathtub, A Bit of the Tile
We like the clean look of the white tile around the bathtub, and the contrast with the pinkish-brown floor, and tomorrow we'll see how we like it with the green paint (something called Lettuce Alone) that we've chosen for the wall. What's driving us crazy about the bathroom is that we can't see the soap dish in the bathtub. All that will change tomorrow, however, when we can walk on the bathroom floor. Our plan is to paint the bathroom first, then move to the kitchen. I'm not sure how we'll get all this work done this weekend, but we'll manage.
Two Doors Waiting to Be
Yesterday, I wondered when we'd be getting the door for the bathroom, and today it has arrived. But there are two of them. I didn't expect this, since the plan was to reuse the old door opening to the downstairs as the new door opening to the downstairs.
The Basement Door We Apparently are not Using
And here's that door. As you can tell, we are not upstet that we won't get to reuse this door.
Molding Sitting in the Basement Waiting to be Stained and Poly'd
Somehow, Nancy and I have to paint the kitchen and the bathroom (in different shades of green) and stain and poly all of this molding. We succeeded in buying the ceiling paint today, along with the greens for the kitchen and the bathroom, but we couldn't find the polyurethane or stain that the guys recommended--so we'll search for those tomorrow.
The Remaining Hickory Boards, along with a Little Oak
There is almost no hickory left, and some of the boards that are left have been totally rejected because they have deep knots that will hold water, thus destroying the flooring.
A Wide View of the Living Room
To keep you from thinking that our living space is neat and beautiful, here's a wide shot of the living room.
Something Like Our Dining Room
But I think the dining room is much worse.
Another View of our Spacious Dining Room
It is possible that this view of the dining room is evening worse, dominated as it is by the bit tile saw. (Nancy knows the right name of this piece of equipment.)
Our Pull-Out Garbage Cans Half in Use
For months, we've been storing our kitchen garbage can atop a chair in the dining room, since otherwise the stupid dogs would knock over the garbage to get at the goodies. Tonight, I realized that we could open the pull-out cabinet with the garbage cans and begin, once again, to store our garbage out of sight.
honi soit qui mal y pense
posted by Geofhuth at 10:06 PM
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