Weathered: Before and After

Our house seemed like Grand Central Station this morning. The electricians were here at 8:00am and worked primarily in the lowest level and the garage as they installed 220 power for Joe’s workshop area. Megan came at 9:00am to finish painting the bathroom and to help with cleaning. Charlotte and Caleb came along and kept themselves busy playing. The irrigation man stopped by to spray paint areas he will work on while he is here next Wednesday and to talk with Joe about modifications to the irrigation plan now that we have decided where the garden will be located.

During the flurry of activity around us, Charlotte helped me make the beds in two of the guestrooms. I visited with the kids while I made potato salad for our dinner this evening. I spent a little over an hour chatting virtually with my cousin, Eleanor. We would have gone a bit longer; however, the electricians toggled a switch that read “basement” to finish installing an electrical line. It seems that switch also controls the sunroom. I called Eleanor on my cellphone so we could finish our conversation.

I also know that I wiped down the counters in our bathroom this morning, assembled our new electric toothbrushes, placed three online orders, balanced the household budget, answered a series of questions from Caleb about my favorite animal, boiled a hot dog for Charlotte she did not eat because she was full of dill pickles she had eaten an hour earlier, sliced up a mango for Caleb, washed dishes, reviewed the final invoice from the electrician, discussed with the electrician that the final bill was $600 more than quote. The nice electrician figured out the error with his office – they had forgotten to give us the discount promised. He gave me the amount due, and I explained we had paid a deposit. He made another call to his office, and they tried to track down the check – their computer records showed a copy of the check we had written; however, they could not locate the physical check and it had not been deposited yet. I wrote a check for the difference and let them know that if they cannot find the check in someone’s possession, I’ll send a replacement check next week less the amount to put a stop payment on the “missing” check.

By 3:30 pm everyone but Joe, Megan, and me were gone. Jeremy stopped by after work and picked Charlotte and Caleb up. Megan has 99% of the bathroom back together. Joe ran up to ACE Hardware to get a part to reinstall the tank to the toilet.

The house feels so quiet!

This day reminds me of one of our family’s favorite children’s books by Ann McGovern, Too Much Noise. We read this book to Lauren and Megan when they were young. It is a wonderful story about how experiences change our perspective. Peter thinks his house is noisy so visits the village wise man. He does exactly what the wise man tells him to do even though it seems counterproductive. The wise man at each visit has him add animals to his house. One day when Peter thinks he cannot take the noise any longer, the wise man advises him to remove all of the animals from the house. He does. His house becomes much quieter. By the way, this book was published in 1957 and is only a year younger than me!

We appreciate Megan’s hard work over this past week in stripping wallpaper, prepping, and painting the main level bathroom. She also managed cleaning chores that required going up and down the stairs carrying stuff. Joe and I are good about keeping the house tidy, but I wanted to be sure all of the bathrooms were wiped down and ready for guests. We surprisingly ended up using all of the bathrooms in the house over the last two months. At least all of the toilets and sinks. The family room bathroom gets used more than I would have thought as it can be accessed through the garage. This is handy for the tradesmen to access while they are on our property.

Megan took a before and after of the bathroom she painted. We still have artwork and a shelf to get up in the bathroom - that will probably happen next week. The morning sun color brightened up the small half-bathroom.