He was singing, "Oh, Lord I'm stuck in Lodi again" - not CCR but pretty darn good.
We were very tempted to join the ducks.
I will always need to live near mountains and Mexican food.
It’s been so long since I’ve logged on that my password recall was a challenge!
Sometime in May I removed wallpaper from what is now our guest room in preparation for a fresh coat of paint. We were excited about the work we could do around the house now that both boys were with their mother. We had so much fun listing future projects but I noticed we weren’t getting any of them done. None. DH had been insulted all out of proportion when I originally suggested we hire someone to do this for us so I no longer suggested but said it was time to bring in additional help. He agreed.
Near the end of June we tried to reach the contractor who had painted the exterior of our home a couple of years ago but the number no longer worked. Unbelievably we got a card from him the next day saying he was contacting former customers and wanted to know if we had any work for him. We sure did. Because of the mortgage mess in this area, he had to let his employees go and was struggling to just keep his business going. We had him completely re-do the inside of our house – removing more wallpaper, texturizng walls, painting, updating the kitchen and kitchen and bathroom cabinets. And because he was working alone it took forever. It was fun to watch everything change but awful to have someone here every day from early morning until evening. By the time he left and dinner was fixed, the thought of even turning on the computer was too much. And weekends were spent doing all the things we couldn't get to during the week. When I did try to get online, there were "connection problems." I spent hours with Earthlink until I figured out it wasn't them - it was us. DH and the contractor were inadvertently disconnecting our DSL connection. Sigh.
He’s now finished and we’re trying to put all the rooms back in order. The walls look too nice to hang anything on so we have pictures propped up everywhere. We’re glad this is over and eager to get back to our routine. I remember a client who had their house remodeled – took about six months and she said it was the closest she and her husband ever came to divorcing. We didn’t go through anything like that but it took much longer than we expected and did test our patience.
Re our contractor: one of our neighbors liked the job he was doing for us and hired him for some work on their home. Another friend came by, saw his work and is also going to use him. The contractor is a young man with a wife and two small children to support, trying to keep his business afloat until the economy turns around. SoCal has been hit hard by this mortgage mess and many of the jobs he had lined up were cancelled. It’s a tough time to be young and self-employed.
Have you ever gone through a remodel, room addition? Are you a DIY person who loves doing home projcts? If you are, I could use your name and address - I'm planning our next project right after I get caught up on your blogs!
