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May 25, 2003Never Finished / SuburbiaIf there's one thing I've come to learn about home ownership, it's that as much as you've done to the place, you're never finished. There's always some sort of home improvement project to be done, some other reason that provides for Home Depot and Lowe's very existance. Which means, of course, that any opportunity for a long weekend can never be just left to the partying, relaxing, or doing whatever you want. No! Three long lovely days stretched before you, and you get to thinking about what "needs to be done" around the place. Or rather, Calvin gets to thinking about what needs to be done around the place. I'm much more apt to be lazy, or put projects off, or not want to spend the money. I'm much more of a "do what has to be done" gal, rather than a "wouldn't it be nice to do this" gal. Calvin is much more the aesthetics person, but it's rubbing off on me. I begin to see the potential in a lot of things. Paint! Curtains! Decorating ideas! Light fixtures! It's an illness that can very easily get out of control if I don't watch it. Calvin may be a good influence on me, but he's a bad influence on our checkbook. This weekend has been all about something that has to be done. Thus far, Calvin has re-rocked the hole in the kitchen ceiling, and floated out the ceiling in drywall to even out the lines. Perfectionist that he is, he's put, oh, about twelve coats on, with no sign of stopping yet. A few weeks ago we purchased a new light fixture (I thought I wrote about it, but in looking back through recent entries I can't find mention of it. Very low on the list of tragedies, that.). Upon temporarily wiring the fixture and holding it up to the ceiling, we discovered that it cast a lot of shadows in the kitchen. It's the track type, with spot lighting (which Calvin will, I'm sure, toy with incessantly for the rest of our lives, readjusting the aim of the lights), so there were gaps in the coverage of light thrown, which didn't exist with our old florescent. So! While at Lowe's yesterday we investigated under-the-cupboard lighting options, which were duly purchased and installed under the overhead cabinets on either side of the stove (I'd take a picture, but the kitchen is trashed right now). I've gotta say, I really REALLY like the effect. Little wells of brightness that light up task-oriented areas very nicely. I've also got to reiterate the fact that Calvin can, in fact, do anything. Swear. Haven't come across something that's stumped him yet. From dry walling to painting to wiring hot tubs to wiring light fixtures to installing ceiling fans to installing toilets to fixing leaks to draining hot water heaters to hanging curtains to grilling the most incredible hamburgers in the world to being the household mechanic to performing other fun tasks which won't be mentioned on this PG-13 rated site. And the list can go on and on for quite some time from there. The dude's wicked cool. So! We're hoping to have the kitchen done by the end of the weekend. But! The projects don't stop there. Oh, hell no. I'm not sure if I mentioned it or not, but over Christmas I hung lights along the edge of the ceiling in the living room. Pictures in this entry illustrate it nicely. I liked the effect so much that when the rest of the Christmas decorations came down, the lights stayed. And looked a little unkempt and tacky, with misaligned and sagging lights, and white stick-em-up hooks against the red Red RED! of the walls. So while looking at the light fixtures at Lowe's yesterday, we came across a coil of flexible lighting (I found the closest example of what I'm talking about here) which should do very nicely and clean up the whole effect. But we're not done yet, folks! Oh-ho, not by a long shot. As we were picking out paint for the beleaguered kitchen ceiling, we also picked up a handful of color samples. Next to be painted is our bathroom (in Pale Chamois accented with Apricot) and our bedroom (in Fresh Moss accented with Cotton). AND I spent an hour or so designing (PowerPoint: It's not just for presentations anymore!) a wall of shelves to be built in Michael's former bedroom, which will be converted into a study (Housing my books! Finally!), and will be painted the same blue as Marie's room. Plus, Calvin has plans to demo out a portion of the wall separating that room from the adjacent bathroom (which also needs some finishing touches), to make a third suite in the house. I'm really REALLY looking forward to finally having a quiet place to read and write. Beyond that, there's still the backyard landscaping to be done, and the garage to be re-rocked and organized (more shelves!). When Marie moves away, we're thinking of converting her bedroom into a sitting area, replacing one of her windows with a door, shoring up the patio roof (which her windows overlook) to make it able to be walked on, installing a railing around the edge, and converting it into a balcony. Damn. I just read over that section. I'm parenthetical today, aren't I? We've got projects to take us well into the next decade, for sure. There seems to be no limit to our ideas. Wish I could say the same for the money. Yesterday afternoon, while driving home from a lunch of the best damned pizza I've ever had (Grimaldi's - just opened in Scottsdale - thin crust with roasted red peppers, kalamata olives, and pepperoni), I got to thinking about how thoroughly entrenched in Suburbia we really are, living where we do. Within one mile in any direction of our house we have the following: Restaurants:
Country Mouse is living in the City, for sure.
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©Laura Charon 2000 - 2003.
