Another Home Improvement Weekend!

Before Photo of Tuba Boy's Room
Originally uploaded by sunasak.

Here we see Tuba Boy's room in mid-renovation. We've already taken the pictures off the wall (going to re-use the nice Irish train photos), picked up the clutter off the floor and made there be visible surface on the dresser. Lee is taking apart the old squeaky bunk bed. After that we took away the incredibly old and gross other bed and mattress. I will re-use my grandmother's quilt, of course.

I guess the balloon lamp that's been in his room since before he was born can finally be retired as well. At the moment we plan to re-use the curtains, which I made myself, since there is a red stripe in the new bed coverings for the former guest room bed. which we got at IKEA. Of course, that is subject to change.

Note the large black trash bag, waiting to hold everything under the beds. And there was lots. I guess Rhonda and Vicki will like this tidbit: under the single bed, where Beccano used to sleep, I found evidence of a good thing, but wish I hadn't had to clean it up. Apparently the child WAS flossing his teeth fairly regularly...but WHY did he have to stick the used floss under the bed? I had to pick every little piece up, too, because I was worried it would mess up the vaccuum cleaner! Yuck!

Even though we had a party to go to, church, and knitting store work, we still managed to get a lot done. On the Flickr page, there's a picture of the room all ready to paint and mostly empty. We got the primer on the accent wall (it will be denim blue) and one coat of color on the other walls, which are a color called Light Almond, or something like that. It is very close to the color of my skin. We will try to avoid telling Tuba Boy his wall color is "flesh," however. It's a nice, neutral color that looks mature and masculine, befitting a young adult. We should have the paint done tonight or tomorrow night, then put in the major furniture.

Once that's done, we will figure out where to put additional shelving, since he requested some like the ones we put in Beccano's room. He has a lot of books now, so it would be good. We also found a cable TV outlet that I didn't realize was there. He will be VERY happy to hear about that! The goal is to put in a desk for homework and his laptop, and perhaps a small TV could go on that, too.

It's helping me deal with missing him to work on his room!

Lee and I had a nice dinner at Mesa Rosa, with our favorite chatty young waitress (she had kidney stones!) and spent a lovely evening together, with Beccano off visiting a friend. Life is good.

Yes, I said that.

Lawn Furniture Fun

So, what are we doing this weekend other than refrigerating? I may have mentioned last week that Lee got some older wooden lawn furniture at an estate sale last week (we found out that the sale was of things belonging to a family who all died in a plane crash--how sad--I hope we can do them an honor by fixing it up and giving it new life).

So, here's a picture of what the patio looked like yesterday, with grumpy morning Lee and a tangle of dogs in it. There's wooden furniture and black wrought-iron furniture we've had since the house in Illinois. Lee got the idea of repainting the wooden stuff AND the wrought-iron stuff and making a festive patio. We got paint in many happy bright colors, and are going to have all sorts of different colorations going. We're also going to paint the wall hangings that are metal, and perhaps some of the plant pots (what the heck).

Yesterday I painted four of the metal items. Three chairs and a small table. Green, red and yellow. Well, doing it in the garage was a pain. Paint everywhere. And no way to keep colors off each other. Plus, the cute little trigger thing we got stopped working, so I ended up having my finger all numbed from pressing the nozzle. Argh. And I still have a blue chair and an orange table and glider to paint! Worse, today is just supposed to be partly cloudy, but it is drizzling!

The wooden chairs and loungers need to be sanded, primed, then painted, so they will take longer. I got us a sander, and one chair is done. Looks good. We also have to repair the chairs a bit--tightening their bolts and such--they are old. They will be pink, purple, yellow, blue and something else. Red...the idea is we will have two of every color once we are done.

I must say that, though it was a lot of work and mess, the ones I painted yesterday look spectacular and the patio already looks more cheery. I think it will be a fun look. Why be boring in the back yard, right?