Never ending remodeling

The gray-haired gentleman stopped me after church Sunday. “When are you going to write a column that the remodeling project is done? You know, the dust is wiped up, the furniture is in place and the job is done. When are you going to write that column?”
I laughed, “oohhh, about next Christmas. We are past the remodeling of the big room, but my husband still has trim to install and bookshelf to build. I would be sooner, but we keep having other things to do along the way. Just yesterday, three huge bookshelves took over all the workspace in the garage. They have to be stained and moved into the church library before anything else can be done at the house.
The gentleman grinned and said he would be waiting on the final column about remodeling.
It’s coming. Between bits and pieces of daily living the job is getting done. If my husband didn’t have to go to work to pay for the remodeling, it would be done sooner. As it is, he squeezes in a few hours of work every night and on the weekends, except when he has a business trip.
If we would just make up our minds about what to do, we’d be done. It took three trips to find the perfect lintel to bridge the tile and parquet floors. Although I thought the trim could be touched up, after my nail bender pounded it in place and began touching it up, he decided it would be simpler to buy new wood, stain and varnish it and then cut and nail it in place.
We’d be done if we stayed home, but we don’t. We went to the grandbaby’s first birthday party. She pulled off her party hat, got messy and tried to burn herself on her candle. It was fun but no one was home painting walls or pounding nails.
We’d be done if we never had company, but at least that provides the impetus of a deadline. Before my sister came in February the goal was to make it possible for her to enter through the front door. Before the kids came home for Easter, the trim magically reappeared and we cleaned out the hidden corners of dust through the house.
A couple weeks later, my daughter asked to have a 3 a.m. after the prom breakfast. She scrubbed and bleached the tile floor, tossed clutter into the laundry room and prepared a ton of food. As she left for the evening she reminded me that I had promised to put up a few pictures and make the place look better before 3 a.m.
After she left alone, I pulled the pictures, antique plates and pillows we had stored before we store up the living room. She flew in at 11 to change for the next part of her night-of-all nights, looked around the room, nodded her approval, deemed it homey and dashed away for another couple hours.
It does look home again, but we still have a lot to do.
The way I figure it, with making a living having a life and entertaining it will be Christmas before we are done. Just in time to tear up another part of the house and start in again.


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