All in a Day's Work

Wow, a lot has been accomplished since closing! I was astonished by how much progress the painters had made when I got to the house yesterday afternoon. The living room had its first coat of navy and primer on the ceiling; the hallways had a first coat of beige; the master bedroom had a first coat of aqua and the ceiling finished; the kitchen had a couple cabinets coated with navy, just to see how we liked it – the only rooms still untouched were the second bedroom and den, as he was awaiting my final approval on paint colors. For now, the bathrooms are staying as-is – we had to draw the line somewhere.   

So I got to Fairhaven just before 4:00, followed shortly by my dad then by Tootsie. Jord had scheduled both the floor guy and the masonry guy to stop by. Jim, the floor guy, arrived first. I told him the story – on Tuesday we had pulled up the carpet in a couple spots and each had different flooring underneath. He looked for himself and determined that nothing was salvageable. Bummer! He went ahead and measured to give us a quote to install hardwood and said it will be a five day process. We’re still deciding what to do. Paying for the materials and installation will diminish any budget we have left…

Is my eye poked out?

Next came Pat, the masonry guy. He was taking a look at the chimney – right now it has awful stucco covering that we want to tear off or cover up. His view is that covering it with stone would look best and be more cost efficient. He gave me an address of a place to look at his work that also has the same stone he thinks we should use. Driving by that in the next couple days! He’ll also take care of some minor tuck pointing (basically caulking around the base of the house). My dad and I also talked to Pat about an old marble fireplace that has been up in my parents’ garage for a few years. It was actually passed down to my dad from Mamie, who bought it many years ago at an estate sale. They moved a lot and the fireplace always came with, although they never actually used it. Now my dad has said we can use it, so I’m hoping Pat will be able to piece it back together and replace the brick fireplace in the living room – once we get it over to the house he’ll take a look and see what he can do.  

My mom and Luke showed up at this point and we all got to work landscaping. Well, actually, my parents and Tootsie got right to work and I had to change, show a couple visitors around the house, talk to the dozen or so passersby that stopped to find out who the new neighbors are, and do a little landscaping in between. Luke did his best to stay out of the way. We cleared out a lot of the unnecessary greenery in the front yard and did some trimming, raking and sweeping. Although we had quite a few interruptions, I think it made a tremendous difference already!