Dinner Deadlines
Linda and I make no secret about it: we invite people to our house so that we keep the house clean. If you are reading this, and have been invited to our house for something, it probably meant we wanted to accomplish some project and needed to give ourselves a deadline. 8) Cleary, that is tongue-in-cheek -- we invited you over because we liked you and your company. Clearly. Honest. I swear.
Ahem...
It all started so innocently: pull up some ratty rug going up the steps and through the upstairs hallway. Stain the steps. Oops, paint the step risers. Oh, that molding in the upstairs hallway has to go. Oh, and the stairwell and hallway need a few coats of primer and paint. But wait, there are so many knicks in the wall, time to spackle it and sand it. Are those nail pops in the ceiling and in the wall? Better fix all 30 of them too. The bannisters don't match the stained steps, they must be sanded down and re-stained. The bi-fold doors of the closet need to be replaced with new regular doors, oops, that means re-framing the door. While we have the closet cleared, it could use a new coat of paint. The lights in the upstairs hallway now look shoddy and must be replaced with better fixtures. Oh, and the landing at the bottom of the steps needs to be updated. The steps look nice, but we need to add a nice oriental rug runner. Hmm, the runner looks a little plain, perhaps we could add stair rods to complete the look.
We needed something that would end this madness. We needed to invite people over for dinner. And, thus, a normal "friend dinner" was elevated to the launching of the "new and improved stairwell and upstairs hallway". 8)
We got almost everything done in time, just a little trim work that can be handled this weekend. We worked until midnight every night this past week. A few mornings I got up extra early to put in an hour or two of work before going to work. Saturday we spent almost 8 hours painting, nailing, sanding and cleaning before company arrived at 7pm.
How we managed to be clean and not zombies through the dinner is anyone's guess. I'm just happy I can sit and write about it in an office no longer filled wait-high with spackle and sanding dust.
Ahem...
It all started so innocently: pull up some ratty rug going up the steps and through the upstairs hallway. Stain the steps. Oops, paint the step risers. Oh, that molding in the upstairs hallway has to go. Oh, and the stairwell and hallway need a few coats of primer and paint. But wait, there are so many knicks in the wall, time to spackle it and sand it. Are those nail pops in the ceiling and in the wall? Better fix all 30 of them too. The bannisters don't match the stained steps, they must be sanded down and re-stained. The bi-fold doors of the closet need to be replaced with new regular doors, oops, that means re-framing the door. While we have the closet cleared, it could use a new coat of paint. The lights in the upstairs hallway now look shoddy and must be replaced with better fixtures. Oh, and the landing at the bottom of the steps needs to be updated. The steps look nice, but we need to add a nice oriental rug runner. Hmm, the runner looks a little plain, perhaps we could add stair rods to complete the look.
We needed something that would end this madness. We needed to invite people over for dinner. And, thus, a normal "friend dinner" was elevated to the launching of the "new and improved stairwell and upstairs hallway". 8)
We got almost everything done in time, just a little trim work that can be handled this weekend. We worked until midnight every night this past week. A few mornings I got up extra early to put in an hour or two of work before going to work. Saturday we spent almost 8 hours painting, nailing, sanding and cleaning before company arrived at 7pm.
How we managed to be clean and not zombies through the dinner is anyone's guess. I'm just happy I can sit and write about it in an office no longer filled wait-high with spackle and sanding dust.
posted by Ed at 4:17 AM
3 Comments:
Ya know Ed, most people I know fix up thier house, then think about inviting people over to see the completed work. It is not the cause to do the work...
So that's why we have never been invited over!
8)
Just kidding!
-Ed
Actually you haven't been invited over cause... ummmm, why haven't you been invited over?
Huh, well then, maybe we ought to arrange a little dinner or something!
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