It seems like yesterday that a crew showed up at our home ready to powerwash and stain our entire house and deck. It was May 5th, so I greeted the Hispanic crew with "¡Feliz Cinco de Mayo!" It was like a scene out of a Bugs Bunny cartoon when there was nothing but silence and crickets. With that, the crew dispersed, pulled equipment out of their truck and started to powerwash our cedar home. In the meantime, I grabbed a cup of coffee and walked upstairs to my home office. It never occurred to me that water may get under the single-pane windows in our older country home, until...I found water all over my desk, company paperwork and my unluckily opened organizer. A little warning would have been nice! Perhaps they were a little disgruntled by my Mexican-heritage-celebration-greeting since I learned later from their boss that they were, in fact, from El Salvador not Mexico, and El Salvadorians do not get along with Mexicans. My bad, amigos. But thank you for the close-up sight outside of my office window when you painted the window frames the next day.
It seems like yesterday that it was June when my fiancé and I wanted to have some part in our kitchen renovation, so we started tackling the walls right away. And, what conveyed when we bought this country home two years ago? Wallpaper, of course! Unlike the other wallpapered rooms, the kitchen was extra special since it had THREE layers of wallpaper. The "copper pot" border and the plaid wallpaper were both easily removed with a warm water/fabric softener cocktail. But, the surprise sight of "strawberry" wallpaper underneath the other two layers was not so easy. It's as if the house was built around this layer of wallpaper! The glue must have been applied during The Last Supper because it wasn't going anywhere - unless it took the drywall with it, and, in fact, it did. We patched and sanded all of these areas prior to painting, but it was nothing like the area we had to patch when we removed the ceiling light. Who cuts a large, rectangular hole into a kitchen ceiling to install a workshop light? Obviously, the previous owners.
It seems like yesterday that the new countertop, ceramic tile floor and stainless steel appliances were finally installed in July. I found myself with the contractors quite a bit to ensure quality work, so this was an opportune time for me to take some photos of the guys. Of course, I had to get a shot of the plumber low-crawling under the dishwasher. Unfortunately, he pulled up his shorts right before I took the shot, so the infamous "plumber crack" is not visible. I apologize. And, what's up with the knee pads? Did he have a volleyball match after work?
And finally, it seems like yesterday that our home renovations for the summer of 2011 came to an end as we packed up for a much-needed vacation at the beach in August. We rented a home for a week on the 4x4 only Carova Beach in North Carolina (a.k.as “North Cackalacky”). However on the third day, Hurricane Irene forced evacuations along the East coast. We tried to wait it out and push the envelope as long as could, but we finally gave into the mandatory evacuation by day four when: (1) we noticed that the beach was empty; (2) the only vehicles traveling on the beach were trucks carrying plywood for boarding up homes; (3) the Sheriff pulled his truck right up to us as we were walking along the surf and told us to evacuate immediately; and, (4) county officials came to our beach house to make sure that we were packing and leaving the area away right. Geez. Oh, and the fun wasn’t over! We came home to find ourselves without power due to the hurricane. In the dark for almost a week…not a pretty sight at all.
Well, those were my very own “sights of summer”. Now, if you excuse me, I would like to close my eyes and recall my favorite sight of the summer...Hold on! It's fall now, so I would like to switch out my beer for an Appletini.
