Tuesday, January 22, 2008

Home Improvement


click on photo for a detailed view of the stalactites

I don't know if you can tell by this photograph, but this is the last part of what I was scraping off of our bathroom ceiling. It's that stalactite sort of paint that you spackle on & it's supposed to cover up all the imperfections in the sheetrock that have been scarred & cracked over the last 40 years.
Ever since the rather large FIOS guy was wandering around our attic installing our fiber optics last Fall, I noticed some of this beautiful paint starting to pull away from our ceiling. In fact, right where the paint was pulling away, there was a sort of impression that looked like the same size & shape as a rather large shoe that nobody wears in this house- if you know what I mean, wink-wink. So, since then, I've been thinking about how easy it would be to just continue to peel off all of the paint & then I could re-spackle & sand & finish off the ceiling with a nice clean white paint... Yeah, right.
That's just how it always works around here when it comes to redoing anything in this old house-easy peasy.
Actually it did start off quite easy enough. I did feel some huge satisfaction when I began to peel away sizable pieces of paint without much effort. Only that was very short lived after several hours of knuckle scraping when I started wondering why I graduated college with a huge debt to pay off- for what, so I could be doing this? Why did I even go to college to begin with, I thought as I was well into the seventh hour of scraping & only about a quarter of the way into completing the entire ceiling. What did I even learn while I was there -except for maybe delusions of grandeur -that I would again be so bold as to think any project started in this house would be like a cake walk?
OK, whatever-It's over now, I did finish scraping & if you decide to stick around & check in now & again I will share with you the complete mini-renovation of our darling little bathroom.
Oh, & did I mention that as quaint & charming as our bath is, almost every child that uses it feels compelled to pull the shower curtain open upon entering so as to check & see what's lurking behind it? I laugh every time I am upstairs as I witness the sound of the metal curtain rings rapidly sliding across the metal bar as he or she anxiously waits to see if all is clear.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Cute post. I can hardly wait to see the end result.

Anonymous said...

The shower curtain story is soooooo funny!
You know I know about scraped knuckles and old houses.
You wouldn't be you without your education. Love you,
Prisicilla's G'ma

dianasfaria.com said...

You are right, I wouldn't give back my college education-I loved it.
xo

nowriter said...

I wonder if this renovation will include a hot water heater (remember David telling you about it?). Though unromantic, it would be the greatest improvement you could make to that charming bathroom (in my humble opinion). The trash can was also a most excellent improvement!
--HVAC wife

dianasfaria.com said...

Sorry-no water heater yet-that's out of our budget for now. Unfortunately, this renovation will just be including what we can do ourselves!