I have decided I am just not normal. While that may not be a revelation to many of you reading this, I have these moments now and then when I realize just how true that is. I spent most of today covered in sawdust, bits of tile and all kinds of things that I prefer not to think about - and I was happy! It was demo day!
Last time I wrote I mentioned the master bedroom shower had become non-functional due to a leaking shower pan. Well, Brad has been out of town and he HATES demolition messes, so I decided it was a good time to get rid of that nasty old shower. What I did not realize is that this particular shower was built to withstand Armageddon, an earthquake and a nuclear blast. Translation: it wasn't easy! Figures - the one thing in the house that I need gone is well built ..... other than, of course, the leaking shower pan part of it. So I have spent the last three days working on getting this thing out of my bathroom. In my head, this was supposed to take me a day and a half, two days tops. I am on day 3 and have about another half days work to go (see Armageddon reference above) and have a mountain of debris outside my door. Honestly, I have seen small houses with less lumber! It reminds me of a dog house my father built for our small dog once --- it took four grown men to lift it!! It's probably still in the backyard of that rental house we lived in! What's the saying - go big or go home!!!!
The good news in this mess is that it feels like progress!! FINALLY I am doing something that will actually lead to an improvement and something better and what I hoped for when I bought this house! Most of my time here has been spent putting my finger in the dike to prevent hemorrhaging but THIS is progress. I finally have something I can begin to get excited about - trust me I have run about 14 different layouts for this bathroom through my head already. Still not sure of the timing of this whole thing as it could be anywhere from next month to this summer, but I will settle for baby steps for now. Gone is good!
But as always, there are discoveries when you delve into "the underbelly" of this house. While these ones are minor, I have discovered that there is a part of me that looks forward to finding these quirky little "gifts" and I wonder what I will do when there are no more to be found. The most recent ones? A Jolly Rancher wrapper and a Monopoly house. Sounds benign enough, but still ....... can anyone explain to me exactly how a wrapper from a lemon Jolly Rancher got behind the cement backerboard of a tiled shower?! Intentional? Accidental? All I know is that it made me smile..... or perhaps more of a smirk. Again, I am not normal - most people probably wouldn't even notice it, but I had to sit and ponder .......
But the Monopoly house definitely made me smile. I was looking around the house to try to find out where to shut off the water supply to the shower so the pipes could be cut and capped. I opened up a small door that leads to a crawlspace and noticed something small and green. Shining my light on it, it turned out to be a plastic house from a Monopoly game. But this house was laying on it's side and for some weird reason, the first thing I thought of was that maybe this was related to the bad karma of the house and now that I found it and could "fix" it, better things were in store. (Again, see note above about "not normal"......) This one really puzzles me as it would not be a place that games would be stored (crawlspace, dirt floors, dirty), so how on earth did this thing get here?! I literally looked up the definition for serendipty and it said "an aptitude for making desirable discoveries by accident". Holy cow! I live in the House of Serendipity!!!! Okay, okay, not all of the discoveries have been desirable but ......
So I plan on doing something with this little green plastic house. (Is it destiny that Brad and I have decide on the exterior color of the house and have chosen green?!) Not sure what.... maybe a necklace.... or some sort of little shrine.... or add it the collection of oddities for the Museum of Fairfield Lane? I am just hoping that now that I have put it in a safe location in an upright position that things are looking up!
Other than the shower, the house seems to be holding it's own for now. I actually don't cry when we get electric bills anymore and they are actually continuing to decrease, even with the colder weather - although that is another story as it's been unseasonably warm. I'll take it. I am making progress, even if it's not as fast as I want. Did some big time repairs to the front entry atrium (repaired a leaking skylight, drywall replacement, huge gaps to the exterior, sanded off about a bazillion suckers from vines from the wood, repainted windows and molding) and in another week or so I should be totally done with it - finally!!!
I'm trying to have a life outside of the house and started a Yoga class and continue to take some classes on fusing glass, which I have found I truly love. Something about colored glass that just does it for me and to be able to create my own things is really fun. I can't wait to go again on Wednesday and see if my house numbers I did in glass turned out!
There have been things other than the house too. I made one more trip to Indianapolis in January for Jeff's final football banquet. Every mother deserves to hear people gush about her son! I am so proud of everything he accomplised in his four and a half years at Butler - both on and off the field. And for the second year in a row, he was given the Bulldog Pride Award, which is given to the player who best exemplifies "The Butler Way". In a nutshell, it just means he's a great guy, a role model, a leader and total team player. What more can a Mom ask for!
Brad and I got to go the KU vs. Baylor game - great game that set records for the loudest game ever I think! It was so fun and so amazing to be able to be a part of it! I spent a few days in Pittsburg with my Mom as she had another surgery for her glaucoma and had to have a shunt put in one of her eyes to reduce the pressure. She is such a trooper and a real inspiration. She never complains. I hope to be able to get there more often now that football traveling is over.
So that is life here at 1501 Fairfield Lane for now. It's 1 a.m. and I probably ought to head to bed. Brad gets home at 5 p.m. tomorrow and I am hoping I have the Demolition Disaster Area pretty well cleaned up by then. I am having a little bit of trouble with Grooveshark, which is the music component to this blog and it won't let me download the song I want - nor can I find it on their site - so I am going to have to go with a song today that I CAN find. For today, I have chosen an Amos Lee song. It's called "Bottom of the Barrel". I guess I chose it for a few reasons - I wanted a song about getting rid of the shower and getting to "the bottom of the barrel" seemed fitting, plus, the whole message of the song just sort of spoke to me ...."I keep on laughing .... it's okay if I'm crying...." Can't tell you how nice it to be able to laugh at some of this stuff again!
Oh yeah, and if you're waiting for my Christmas/Holiday cards, I still haven't sent them out yet! (she says with laughter......) I was shooting for Valentines Day but it may be more like St. Patrick's Day!!!
No comments:
Post a Comment