I Can Breathe
Yesterday was a very long day. I spent the day mostly at the house in case I was needed but I also popped out periodically for sanity breaks. I was under the impression that the painting crew was going to be bigger than last week for the exterior painting. I thought there could be 10 people inside the house. Instead Frank had less than last week. He was actually one person down from what he planned because someone could not make it. With the amount of work to be done, it was a lot to ask for a crew of five or six.
They had to paint all of the ceilings, they had to patch the dozens of holes that I left from stripping the walls naked of any hardware. Then, and only then could they start painting the walls. Oh and don’t forget the garage that was painted as well. It was a tremendous amount of work. As the day drug on I could tell they were trying to press to get it done that day. As daylight faded it makes it very tough to accurately judge how the paint is applied. I turned on every light I had available.
As the crew was feverishly trying to complete the master bedroom and bathroom I started trying to help clean up the main living area. Despite drop cloths being used there was a lot of debris on the tile as well as a lot of small white paint splatters from painting the ceiling. They were easy enough to clean up with a rag and alcohol but there was a bunch of spots. The work finally wrapped up somewhere close to 7. I paid Frank with the understanding that there was a good chance that when daylight hits I could see some spots that need attention. He said that was no problem and if I saw anything he will take care of it.
The transformation of the house was pretty dramatic. Having a lighter color on the walls changes the feel of the space, opening it up more. I think it is a change that I like and a change that potential buyers will like as well. After the crew left I had absolutely zero interest in starting the massive project of moving all of the shit I pulled out of the space, back in. Nope, I already decided I was going to go to a bar to watch the Eagles playoff game against the Giants since I did not have a functioning TV in the house currently. However before doing that I had one stop to make.
Pulling some of the heavy pieces of the furniture out of the main living space revealed that when the color of the grout was changed from grey to black years ago it was not done in those spots under the furniture. Well that would look like shit to a buyer so I knew it had to be addressed. I also knew that I wanted to move everything back in Sunday so I really needed to fix this sooner rather than later. There was black grout still left in the utility room but when I opened the container I found the grout had transformed into cement. So I took a picture of the label and headed out to Home Depot to find some. Luckily Home Depot still carries that brand and I was able to get the exact color that was used before.
With grout in hand I felt able to finally do something non-house related and headed to Brooks Burgers. I got there a little after 8:30 and was shocked how empty the place was. I figured a Saturday night with NFL playoffs going on would bring in a crowd, nope. When I sat down at the bar it was me and three other people at the bar. Well I wasn’t there to socialize, I was there to eat, drink and watch the game.
I did something for the first time ever, ordered an appetizer AFTER I ate my coconut shrimp meal. I was still a bit hungry, was still watching the game, and it fell in line with my “bulking” strategy I have been doing the last few weeks. Basically I have been trying to eat much more than I normally would to try to bring up the number on the scale that has sunk to right around my all time lows as an adult. The scale has been moving up slowly so I keep eating, a lot. The Eagles dominated the game, crushing the Giants in every way imaginable. The final score of 38-7 tells you all you need to know. I can only hope this momentum carries through to next week.
So even though I did not get home until well after 11, I had committed mentally to getting the spots that needed to be grouted done. It was the only thing that made sense, to me. There were five total spots that needed to be addressed. It was a slow and messy process that left me with two black stained hands. It took longer than expected, I did not get into the shower until after 1AM, yes, 1AM. I was exhausted.
Despite the stupid late grouting session I had my alarm set for 6:30. I wanted the house back in some sort of order and I wanted it sooner rather than later. I started working on the important things first, like getting the furniture in the main living space back in place and then getting the TV rewired and connected. I was very fortunate that Kerri offered to help me move things back into the house. Her help made what would have been another miserable chapter in the book of house painting, much, much better. In a couple hours most of the big items were back in place which was fantastic. I was extremely grateful for the help.
The rest of the day I tended to getting smaller things back in order, pulling back some but not all of the things that I moved to the small shed and old coop. A LOT of the stuff is still out there and at this point I am thinking I may just leave it that way unless something that comes up where I would have to move some things back into the house. Right now my mindset is if it’s in a box, leave it there if at all possible. The end result of this is the house being backfilled with far less stuff than it had a couple weeks ago which is a good thing. Even though the items I was dealing with were small, they were numerous. I found myself feeling pretty wiped by 5PM. Of course getting 5 hours of sleep could be partially responsible as well. Despite being tired I truly felt like I was finally over the hump, and it felt, great…
I went and grabbed an evening coffee on my way to Home Depot where I bought a TON of new wall plates. Most of the plates in the house look shitty with wear and marks from previous painting when the plates were not pulled off the wall. In total I came home with something around 40 replacements. Like the true genius I am, I did this without counting my actual need, instead estimating how many of each type I will need. It will be interesting to see how close I am when I install them all tomorrow.
I still need to do some of my normal weekend tasks like paying my bills. As of this morning my computer was not even set up so that, and several other things have gotten pushed off their normal time slot and you know what, it’s fine. Tomorrow I will do something else that got pushed, grocery shopping, as well as going back up to pick up Elsa. I think she will be happier to come to both the house and her dad being a little more stable.
As I said earlier, it feels like I just crested a mountain of this 2-3 week time period where so much focus was put on just how I was going to make this all work. I truly feel like the worst is over, at least in the short term, and it feels damn good. I now am sitting in a house that has transformed dramatically thanks to dollars and effort. My hope is the end result is setting me up for the next chapter of my life, where ever that may be.