This Didn't Take Long

Since our last meet up, I've got a whole new house. Seriously, for six months or so I've been thinking about having the house repainted. I'm not sure exactly how long it's been but I do know that Bill was still living at home at the time.

Another home issue we've been ignoring is the fence. Five years ago about one quarter of the fence was built on site---a repair made necessary by our visit from Hurricane Charley. Because the rest of the fence looked ok at the time, that is all we had done. Flash forward to this year and the rotting along the bottom was really making me sad. Because Bruce is finally not traveling this week he had the time to project manage this repair. A guy he's used commercially came out on Monday morning to check it out. Bruce told him he'd like to have the entire fence repainted and once I heard that I knew I had to spring into action before it was done with the old color.

More like skyrocketing into action, I give you the changes thus far (albeit in reverse order):

 

 

Yesterday on my way to the museum I stopped by the Benjamin Moore paint store picking up some paint chips along with two brochures, one meant for interiors, one for exteriors. Apparently all paint companies must be based up North because none of the pictured houses came close to looking like our little 1960 ranch style home. Immediately I found what I was looking for in the interior brochure. A beautiful combination of a lovely, creamy shade of yellow, clear, almost cornflower blue, spring green, and an off white. All that was left was to find a paint color that was a neutral (I've chosen a soft gray), and a phone call to Luis, our painter and here we are about 30 hours later!

Luis painted the house last time as well as faux painted our sunroom, one of the lovliest spots in the house. I called him around 2:30 yesterday afternoon and turns out it was a God send because not only have they been slow this year, but they could start today. I'd decided to use the green for the shutters and the blue for the doors but he convinced me to flip-flop that decision and I'm sure he's probably right. I was just ready for a lighter, brighter look. You may remember six months ago I got that awning made which I'll have to figure out what to do about. My friend Kelly tells me that the awning place will probably replace the cover but to tell you the truth, neither of us liked it so much. I'll have to ponder this one.

The fence guys arrived around 9 this morning and progress is being made--posts are in position, and that's about all I can tell you right now because not only do all the windows have plastic on them, so do the doors! I can't see a thing. The last section of the fence literally fell down once Edmund cut some vines loose on my neighbors side!

By Friday evening the house should be done and I'm assuming the fence as well. I can hardly wait! Angela thinks I'm plum crazy for picking out the colors just like that but when I see something I like I go for it. Remind you of anything? I was thinking about Bruce, once I met him I knew he was perfect. 36 years later, I'm thrilled with that choice!

Last evening we saw Jackson Browne at the Bob Carr Auditorium--what a treat. Just him and fifteen guitars lined up along with a keyboard. He sang lots of the old favorites for all of us oldies in the crowd along with some of his newer material. He explained he starts these acoustic shows with no set list, just plays what he feels like. Apparentlly the crowd thought he needed help with his choices because they kept shouting out their favorites. Lots of gray hair in the audience!

I've placed my order for this weekend and I should have it by tomorrow--let's hope I do well this weekend--spending all this much money at once makes me a little nervous...