Patio Furniture

This is the new patio furniture that has been wet since I finished putting it together.

Suna and I celebrated Valentine’s Day early this year. We went to Z-Tejas, a restaurant that has some of the best food and deafening acoustics. Hopefully, the next time we go there, it will be warm enough to sit outside.

The other part of our Valentine’s Day celebration was to go to the Home Depot and buy some new patio furniture for our new patio. While we were deciding which set we wanted, we ran into the guy who built it for us. That was kind of a cool irony.

So I spent a good part of the weekend assembling the furniture. Even Ikea could learn something about packaging from Home Depot’s Hamilton Bay brand. Not only did they package all the tools required (as does Ikea), the shrink wrapped the nuts, bolts, washers, and spacers to cardboard backing that was labeled with the part reference from the assembly instructions. I was astounded.

This week, I am grateful for my special Valentine, Suna. Not to mention that I am also grateful for the new patio furniture and the patio to put it on. I’m looking forward to sitting out on the patio and sipping some cold beverages while getting to know the neighbors better.

Oh, and I almost forgot to mention that we got a healthy rain last night. It wasn’t enough to break the drought, but I appreciate every drop.

---

10 February Update: Added the picture I didn’t get to take when I was putting the furniture together.

It’s Curtains

New curtains hang in the dining room.

Suna and I ordered some new red curtains to complete the update to the dining room and parlor. We were told that they wouldn’t be in until the 28^th, but Penny’s beat expectations by delivering them the Tuesday before Thanksgiving.

I was able to get the ones in the ones in the dining room hung last night and the valance hung in the parlor, but we lost some of the hardware for the parlor curtains. Suna went out this morning and bought a new rod for the curtains, and I hung them this morning.

Now everything will be ready for when the Prince arrives.

Liar

Water is relentless. A little drip can do a lot of damage over time.

Photo source: Pixadaus

Nobody believes me Liar

Why don’t they leave me alone?

—Freddy Mercury

Remember last week when I said I fixed the sink, and there were no leaks. I lied. There is an insidious seep leak. It takes a couple of days to leak enough to ruin paper products,

So I spent much of today on my back in the bathroom. All to no avail. The leak persists at the end of the day. Next Saturday, I’ll have to go to Home Depot for a couple of replacement parts.

“Why didn’t you get them today and be done with it?” you may ask. Well, I was the only one home today, and we were short one front door. (It was in the garage with a fresh coat of marine poly drying to a smooth, wonderous sheen.) So I was stranded home alone.

At least I know what I’ll be doing next week, and we can use the sink in the interim—as long as we keep a drip catcher underneath.

I’m a Plumber

I had to take the goose neck apart to get the sink unclogged.

I am a plumber now. I got the sink unplugged. Yea me!

This task was made unnecessarily difficult by the original plumber, who sealed all of the joints with plumber’s putty. A couple of master plumbers have explained that there is no need to use plumber’s putty on this fitting unless you just don’t know what you’re doing—or you want to make it hard on anyone who needs to clean the drain in the future. No putty went into the reconstructed joints.

And it even stayed dry once I put it the pipes back together.

Oops! Wrong Color

It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown!

Yesterday ended and today started poorly. Suna didn’t sleep last night worrying about the house getting painted the wrong color, in spite of my saying repeatedly that we would get it fixed. The way the world works, we are extremely lucky to be this far into the project before the first miscommunication happened.

And I take ownership of this one. She told me what color she wanted the house, but I got confused when we only picked out two colors. That was because she didn’t realize we were painting the body of the house as well as the fascia, sophets, and trim. Sigh.

The fascia looks good…better when it’s painted.

The contractor was very nice and volunteered to eat part of the cost of repainting since he was involved in the miscommunication—even though I had already told him it wasn’t his fault. He even said it wouldn’t throw us that far off schedule. He will pick up more paint and have it fixed by the time we get home from work tomorrow.

I guess it’s part of getting older. I make more mistakes than I used to. Or maybe I’m just more willing to admit them.

While we were talking about the paint, he also pointed out that one of the vent caps on the house was missing. I guess it blew off in one of the storms. We hadn’t noticed because you can’t see it unless you are standing in the neighbor’s driveway looking at the chimney. At least we know how the squirrels were getting into the attic.

What’s in a Dining Room?

The Pile

Suna was relieved recently when we turned the dining room back into a dining room for a church get-together. Alas, that is no more.

Tonight the boys and I took everything off the walls and stacked the furniture in the center of the room. Why? It’s all part of the remodeling project.

Since I am afraid of heights, I don’t feel comfortable painting the high walls in the entry hall and dining room. They are way up there. I don’t even own a latter tall enough to reach the top.

So we made ready for the contractors. It was fun working with the boys—even if they didn’t think so. Sigh.

Grateful Monday

Suna and I are extatic that the work has begun.

The contractors showed up and started work. Granted there were a few frantic phone calls when their compressor didn’t start. They thought that the power was tripped on the GFI circuits outside. But it turns out that the compressor was already fully charged. So it didn’t turn on because it didn’t need to.

They worked until it was almost fully dark outside putting up trim and hardyboard. The house looks better already, and they only have done one side—and that side isn’t visible from the street.

So today I am grateful that we have finally got everything together and they have started work.