Channeling Lucille Ball

We're back in the thick of a remodel project.  This one isn't so bad.  There are no saw horses in the living room, we aren't eating Stouffer's microwavable meals every day (although I could eat their macaroni and cheese every day), or worse yet, Lean Cuisine.  Nothing about that food should be called "cuisine". 

This is the last big project in the house - the upstairs bathroom.  When we first moved into the house we had some grandiose plans to redo the bathroom.  It involved expansion which would involve taking up some closets which would involve adding a closet to the second bedroom under a set of stairs - that do not exist.  The stairs would lead to a completed attic space which would have involved raising the roof and changing the roof line a bit which would have allowed for an awesome new front porch - and a master suite and another bedroom and another bathroom and maybe even another bedroom or an office or play space.

But then we thought, do we really want to spend at least $80,000 on a third story?  We already wound up spending a boat load of money down stairs - I don't think it was quite 80K but it was up there.  We anticipate recouping that money one of these days.  And if we don't, at least we've made the house livable for us. 

We aren't tearing up the whole house for the bathroom remodel - just the whole bathroom.

The plaster walls are gone - lathe is still in place but now covered in drywall which has been painted, more on the paint in a minute.

The tub is going to be refinished, the tile is being replaced with the same white hexagonal tile, the white vanity with a white vanity, white wainscoting on the walls and white subway tile in the tub/shower.  The walls above the wainscoting and subway tile are a deep, dark blue.  We'll be able to pull it off because everything around it is going to be white. 

And about everything being white...

Yesterday Ryan took the boys to the gym after work so I could get some painting done.  Our goal is to get as much painting done as possible before the tiling begins so we don't have to do any prep work to keep the tile from being accidentally painted.

I spent the first hour outside painting the wainscoting and the rail to top the wainscoting.  That went relatively smoothly; I only got a few drops of white paint on the cement patio.   I moved the paint party inside so I could paint the ceiling.  I was going to use a brush for the edges and put on a nice thick layer before using a roller to get the middle.  If there was enough time I was going to put on another coat of blue on the walls.  It was going to be Ryan's job to paint the blue next to the ceiling since it is impossible for me to stay within the boundaries.  If the job were left to me there would be dark blue paint on the ceiling and that's all there is to it.  It is a plain and simple fact.

So... I grab the gallon of white paint that I was using outside - the last gallon that we had left over from 5  years ago when we first bought the house.  I set said paint bucket on top of the small ladder.  I climbed the small ladder with paint brush in hand.  As I leaned forward to put my hand on the wall so I could get into a comfortable position, as comfortable as one can be while standing on a ladder painting a ceiling, I felt the ladder lurch forward. 

Then in slow motion I saw the bucket of paint topple forward.  While trying to get off the unsteady ladder I was staring at the paint flowing out of the bucket thinking, I can get to it; I can save it.  While I was foolishly thinking I could mediate the paint loss my brain was also trying to register what was happening because it looked like the paint was disappearing down a hole. 

A hole in the floor?  No, it wasn't the hole where the toilet sits, it was in the corner - there was a hole in the subfloor.  Not a big hole.  Nothing that would swallow up a kid but it was nonetheless a hole in the floor.

Then I said two words.

Two words not fit to print.

Then I laughed.

Then I got a roll of paper towels from the kitchen and started soaking up as much paint as I could.  It was not nearly enough. So I got a fresh roll of paper towels from the hall closet and continued wiping paint off the floor and away from the hole.

Then I checked the bottom of my feet, ditched my flip flops and ran downstairs to see what disaster awaited me. 

There was one lone drop of paint in the room below - thankfully the laundry room with a cement floor - the inside of the wall is coated a thick white and one drop made its way where the drywall meets the unfinished exterior wall.  At least it was one lone drop right then. 

Several hours later the paint made its way all the way down the inside of the wall and to the floor drain; that took several paper towels to clean up.   There's no cleaning up the paint smell down here - that will just have to dissipate with time as it dries. 

While I was outside hosing off our contractors now white ladder and scrubbing my uber white hands I was thinking of all the ways I could tell this story to Ryan.  One his favorite games to play is Good News/Bad News.

He didn't seem to think any of the good news was in fact good news.  I thought it was pretty good that I didn't do it on a carpeted area.  He was a touch grumpy about it until I was getting ready for bed and said, "C'mon.  It's funny."  He laughed and agreed it was funny.

Tonight he said he was just upset that we lost a day of painting.  Now he thinks it is really, very, very, hilarious.  My painting horror stories just get worse with each painting project.

Maybe that's good news for me. 

Hippo Parking

I just discovered the best time to go to the zoo today.  Well, today I discovered the best time to go to the zoo - not just the best time for today.  Right now would be a really bad time since it has been closed for three hours.

I used to think the best time to go to the zoo was in the fall, winter and spring.  Anytime the sun wasn't shining, really.  The darker the skies the better.  If it was raining then you hit the jackpot.  Well, maybe not so much now that Gavin likes to walk around.   If you don't mind a little precipitation the zoo is absolutely deserted on drab days.  Ghost town. 

The worst time to visit the zoo?  Each scenario will be worse than the previous.

A dry spring day.

A sunny spring day.

A dry and sunny spring day.

A dry, sunny and warm spring day.

A dry, sunny, warm, weekend day in the spring.

A dry, sunny, warm day during Spring break.

A dry, sunny, warm weekend day during Spring break.

Then summer hits. 

All days are bad.  Warm, sunny days are just horrific in the summer.

Only go on the weekend in the summer on a nice day if you are nuts.  Certifiably so.

I found out today - which was gorgeous - warm, not hot, and sunny - that if you go an hour before closing the zoo is deserted.  Off street parking is plentiful and there are no lines.  You can see all exhibits and you can stay for an hour after closing.  That gives you one hour to see indoor exhibits (which we never do because I don't feel like unpacking the stroller and leaving it unattended) and an hour see everything else.

Of course, if you only go to the zoo once or twice a year two hours may not be enough for you.  If you live 20 minutes from the zoo and you go at least once a month then two hours is plenty of time. 

Today Gavin was very helpful at pointing out parking spots.  Not when we were looking for parking spots but while we were walking around the zoo.  At first I wasn't sure I heard him right so I asked him to repeat himself.  "Parking fot," he said while pointing to said spot. 

Here are the two spots he pointed out. The first is in front of the hippos watering hole, the second is where they display the birds of prey.

 
 

 

He cracks me up.  Maybe it's his daddy in him - you know, transportation engineer... parking spots are related to things transportation related.

It's a stretch, I know.