Me and My Projects

I'm not sure. This is just a hunch. But, the husband may be thinking of trading me in.

Two weeks after completing my eight-month-long ordeal with The Damn Chair, I decided to reupholster my two wing-back chairs. Never mind that the fabric on hand was originally bought for slip covers and was not actual, heavy-duty, upholstery fabric. I decided it would work in a pinch. And so, the project commenced. One of the chairs is now about three-quarters of the way finished.

Took some time off from work last week. Was going camp out in the woods a few days, and then was going to finish the Damn Chair - Round 2. Didn't do either. Wound up having a wonderful time mucking around in a friend's computer for days on end, though. The PC work was finished by Friday. And, by golly, I was going to finish the Damn Chair this weekend. But, on Saturday, around 4:00 in the afternoon, as the husband was heading out for his 2-mile run, I was suddenly hit by a strong desire to paint the master bathroom. I quickly changed into my painting clothes and tore apart the shed looking for all our painting gear and the cans of left-over paint (left over from when I didn't finish the master bathroom last year). I hauled it all indoors and piled it in the bedroom.

But, oops. I had forgotten about the incredibly ugly, floral wallpaper border all around the ceiling in the bathroom. Couldn't do a thing until that nasty stuff was gone. Off to find the wallpaper-glue-remover goop and the little roller-poker thing that pokes holes in the wallpaper so the goop can penetrate and eat away the glue. Found the goop. Didn't find the roller-poker-thing. The rummaging-through-the-house phase began. Through all the drawers, cabinets, cubby-holes, then down to the basement for basement-rummaging. Then back upstairs...to look under the beds, in the china hutch, and in the medicine cabinets. Hey - you never know, right? It became apparent that the roller-poker thing had most likely been "put-away" ...by me. Which made the chances of finding it next to nil.

I became despondent. I need shelves, I thought. I have no shelves in this damn house. Everything is beginning to pile up in stacks, I thought, and no one can find anything and it's all because we don't have shelves. Dammit. And I sat down and cried. I CRIED, I tell you. Not for a long time. And not very hard. But, there were tears.

Mind you, all this occured during the short time the husband was out for his run. He came back from his run to find me sitting in the middle of our ransacked bedroom, which now also contained a jumbled pile of painting supplies . I told him I had cried. And that I needed some shelves. And that I couldn't find the damn wallpaper roller-poker thing because we don't have any shelves. I think he may have mumbled something as he went outside to mow the grass. I don't know. Because, before he had made a full pass around the shed with the riding mower, I was out of my painting clothes and into my suitable-for-public clothes, and was pulling out of the driveway heading to our local hardware store.

The helpful, friendly folks at the hardware store knew exactly what I was talking about when I described the roller-poker thing. But, after about half an hour of all of us (somehow the entire sales staff managed to become involved in the desperate search) wandering fruitlessly up and down aisles, it was agreed by one and all that they must have sold their last blasted wallpaper gadget. Probably the one I bought last year. So, I bought a heavy duty wire brush instead. Dammit.

As I pulled into the driveway back at home, I saw the husband leaning caually against the house with a smart-aleck grin on his face - waving the blasted wall-paper roller-poker thing. He found it in the shed. Near the rest of the painting supplies. So, I handed him the wire brush. He said, "wow. cool!" He may have mumbled something else as he left to get back on the mower. I don't know. Because I was already inside and half-way back into my painting togs.

The bathroom was finished by midnight. And plans were made with the husband for what sort of shelves I wanted....in addition to the pantry he's supposed to be building for the kitchen. Bless his heart. A friend of ours summed it up nicely on Sunday. She looked at the husband sympathetically and said, "So basically, the project that SHE began as a diversion from her original project turned into another project which then became a new project for YOU."

The husband made the frames for these "ladder shelves" yesterday. Got the idea here, but we decided to build ladders rather than buy them. We have so much lumber lying around that it's stupid to go buy more stuff when "we" can build what we need from scratch. Went back to the hardware store today for stain (a delicious Golden Cherry), polyurethane, brushes, sandpaper, etc. I spent the rest of the evening sanding the frames and shelves. I figure another two more days of sanding and they will be ready to stain. While at the hardware store perusing the beautiful assortment of stains, however, I was hit by a strong desire to refinish the dining room table and chairs that I refinished and reupholstered last year. The wood is a dark walnut. It really IS too dark for the kitchen, and I really DON'T like the fabric nearly as much as I thought I would. Hmmmmmm.