Another Lifetime to go

7th May 2019

House renovation day 9

I settled down to lay the floor in the main bedroom whilst Kelli shot off to paint, paint and more paint. The second bedroom, the bathroom cabinets, and living space skirtings all got done as I was bashing flooring strips into position.

We had the wind taken out of our sails with the news that Painted Farmgirl was closing at the end of the month. There was no explanation, just some dates when things should be removed. This place has formed the backbone to our monthly income, although Facebook Market has take over as our main selling vehicle. There have been a few signs of instability over the past months, but as the place has been in business for ten years this has been shrugged off as general market conditions. However not to be discouraged, Kelli was straight on the phone checking for spaces in other places.

Damian sent me a picture of the Jag with it’s new number plate after being sold. I had a twinge of sadness, but now somebody else will have fun with it.

6th May 2019

House renovation day 8

I knew something felt different. I was having my breakfast in my usual chair, watching the news on my phone, but I had an odd feeling. I decided to ignore it, as the news of the new Royal baby came through, I continued to munch away. Kelli wanted to get the paint for the bedroom early, so as the last of my coffee were slurped down, we got into the truck and set off for the paint store.

There it was again, that strange feeling, it was like I was growing a third buttock. I was getting a little concerned. I moved around in my seat, the lump was there, but there was no feeling.

I mentioned it to Kelli, and of course she was concerned. I continued to try to find the lump, suddenly it dawned on me what it was. I shoved my hand down the back of my jeans and pulled out a pair of yesterday’s underpants. They must have got trapped when I was rushing to get dressed. We both burst into hysterical laughter

Whilst at the store reviewing paint samples an older guy (a bit older than even me) inquired if anyone had some jump leads. Kelli left the paint samples for a while to check if she had any in the truck, she came back triumphantly waving the cables.

We tried desperately to get his vehicle started, but although the engine turned it didn’t fire. We took him to a petrol station to get fuel as an empty tank was the initial problem. Unable to help further we continued on our main task of the day.

The colour chosen for the bedroom is vibrant in the morning sun, and warming in the evening. As I continued laying the floor in the dining area the bedroom was transformed.

We both sat in the garden and let the dogs go wild, it is great to see them running free without the worry of traffic, this house will be perfect for all of us.

5th May 2019

House renovation day 7

It was kitchen floor day, by far the most fiddly of all the spaces.

Kelli had things to collect, so I made as much progress as I could before she returned.

It went better then I could have expected, there was no blood, no mistakes, and Kelli returned just in time to help move the cooker and fridge back into position.

Whilst I finished a challenging flooring issue going into the laundry room, Kelli completed painting the cabinet doors and drawers, and once fitted they looked great.

4th May 2019

House renovation day 6

More wood flooring today, this time it was the hallway, a lot of linear feet.

I have watched a lot of YouTube videos on various subjects. Some are really slick whilst others are bloody awful. I have often thought of doing one myself, and if I did it might go something like this.

“ Hi I’m English Pete, as opposed to Mexican Pete, therefore you will understand everything I say.

Today I want to show you how to lay engineered flooring into a doorway.

First you need to cut the bottom of the architrave to allow the flooring to pass under it. For this I use a Japanese back-cut saw. These are really useful and very sharp, ouch!

(Muffled sound of the backing being peeled off a plaster)

Here is a useful tip for removing blood from engineered flooring, don’t get any on it in the first place.

It’s important to mark the flooring so that when it is cut, and slid under the frame there are no visible gaps.

As you can see I have cut the piece out of the flooring, and it’s ready to slide under the frame.

Sometimes it’s a bit tight,and it will need some gentle persuasion.

I give a sharp tap with a hammer, and, oh shit!

Well that didn’t work as it should.

Kelli could you get me another strip from the pile over there? no not that one, the one over there, next to the picture of Justin Hayward, oh, and can you please turn the music down, you’ve been playing the Moody Blues all day and I’m a bit fed up with it. That’s the reason I messed up that piece in the first place.

Anyway the blood is seeping though the plaster so I better go to hospital to get it looked at, I will finish this video tomorrow.”

Getting back to the plot, Kelli finished painting the wall cupboard and primed and painted the doors and drawers. She also spent a bit of time looking through the skylight taking pictures of the sky, very useful if you are topping up your tan.

I have learnt that when Kelli says “ I have an idea” it usually means more work for me, but if it is followed by “ no, forget it, that won’t work” I have feelings of pure pleasure.

We went for dinner at the Saugatuck Brewing Company, and having to wait for thirty minutes were told that they had sold out of veggie burgers, and, they were dropping them from the menus. I saw the grey mist descend in Kelli’s eyes, the waitress cowed in fear, it was the end of the world, things would never be the same again.

3rd May 2019

House renovation day 5

Finished the flooring in the living space, we are really pleased with the result. I know I will never want to never see another piece of engineered floor ever.

Kelli did a fantastic job with the kitchen cabinets, giving them another lease of life.

We had someone picking up a cabinet that we took out of the kitchen. He ran a tattoo business, but also a bit of a trader. He was looking at the three rolls of carpet we had in the garage, but as they were reserved for another customer he was out of luck. We did manage to give him the doors we took off the top kitchen units. Sometimes these people just want to talk, we get to hear their life stories in great detail, often we smile, and just wish they would stop, so we can get on with our work.

The people for the carpets didn’t even look at them, just loaded them on to their truck, gave us the money and off they went, snapping a branch from our tree on the way out.

We have a lot of music playing, often at high volume (if it’s something that Kelli likes) every so often she changes it to play non stop Moody Blues, I am starting to know every note, every nuance, I hear it in my sleep, it haunts my working day. If ever there is a break in the music, it will be Kelli changing the selection.

2nd May 2019

House renovation day 4

I made the executive decision to start the flooring. I felt that would give us a moral boost in the same way the painting in the living space had done.

I had learnt a lot from laying the floor in the cottage, so with laser and tape I set about setting some starting lines.

I was careful to get all the starting points correct, and as the first two runs had floor vents I was taking special care not to mess things up. At one point Kelli was concerned that I had frozen in time as my progress was painfully slow. I kept telling her how important getting the first row straight and true, but she just saw the snail pace, and thought it would take forever.

Greer even phoned from work to see if I had broken the second row.

I ignored the comments and just soldiered on.

Kelli managed to scrape off the wallpaper in the kitchen, an achievement in itself as she had to climb a ladder, something that she is not comfortable doing.

As I was now making real progress, I invited Kelli to help in the floor laying marathon. It took a while but she soon got the hang of it.

We worked on until we nearly got half of the living space done, then crawled back to soothe our weary bones, and some liquid strength.

1st May 2019

House renovation day 3

Today was light fitting day. Kelli had sourced lamps for the entry and hall way from marketplace, and was excited to see them in place. I had my step ladder at the ready, and carefully removed the old fittings. The new hall lamps were a matching pair, and from the illustration on the box resembled a pair of large breasts. This did effect me as I was trying to fit them to the ceiling, and look away at the same time.

I fitted a wooden “Hello” sign to the freshly painted front door, that meant drilling new holes, crazy, as I spent the day before filling in loads of them.

We got to the end of the day, and tried to assess what we had achieved. I couldn’t think of anything substantial so we agreed that it was my lazy ass day.

To finish off we drove to Menards for paint to finish the kitchen units and the bedroom. We both were starving and needed no excuse to eat out.

30th April 2019

House renovation day 3

The schedule called for some serious painting, so I lugged the five gallon drum into the living space. Carefully, I tipped the container until the first gulp hit the paint tray. Then she was off. Kelli’s little arms were a blur, depositing paint in sweeping strokes first it was one wall then the next. I had the job of cutting in to the ceiling. What was a pleasure was the sharp corners, giving me a great line to paint against.

It took us most of the day to paint the living, dining, and hall space, with just the kitchen to do. This has to have some wall paper stripped off. This was originally Greer’s job, but that slowed, then stopped, so she was busy trying to find an app on her phone to do it for her.

We are a formidable team making great progress, we stood back and looked at the transformed space with a feeling of excitement.

29th April 2019

House renovation day 2

I removed the skirting in the living area ready for hole filling and priming. Kelli primed the two windows and door frames.

I removed the old laminate flooring which covered most of the house. We stacked it carefully in the garage. Kelli then advertised it on Marketplace, and had a bite straight away.

A car turned up, it was loaded, and off they went leaving us with $40. They took every single piece, even the small bits that had broken off. I have learnt not to judge people because they know the value of the things most of us want to throw away.

just to add more cheek, she listed the carpets we took out yesterday. Within a short time she had someone on that, coming to collect later in the week.

I believe Kelli could sell the drippings from my nose, many times over, she is brilliant.

The pot of red paint was opened, and the covering of the front door started.

I’m sure that once the garage door is painted in the same colour the house will be know as Dracula’s blood bank.

28th April 2019

House renovation Day 1

The family finally handed us the keys around noon. The old curtains and blinds were down by 12.30pm. The sunlight burst through the windows like a heavenly chorus of singing angels. We were on a roll, the carpets and underlay quickly followed, by 6.30pm we stopped for dinner. In a short time we had removed every bracket, nail and staple.

I started to open up the packs of wood flooring. There were many different sizes in each pack, so I made piles according to size. It seemed to take me ages to open, stack and fold the carton flat, but when we did a tally of my efforts it only accounted for seven boxes, so only fifty three to go.

Just before we called it a day, Kelli wanted to see what was behind a wood panel on the front door. Whatever it was, was not intended to be removed easily. After removing screws, and beading, the panel would not move. There were more screws hidden beneath filler that had to be dug out. Eventually the wooden panel was removed to expose a hundred holes. The door, when new, had small decorative panels attached the steel skin. At some time these were removed and the holes were covered with a plywood panel, so by removing, I had the task of filling the holes with Bondo.

In future I will have to curtail Kelli’s curiosity until after we have finished the main work, although that would be really hard to do.