We are definitely at that stage where the condo spruce-up is no fun anymore. So I had to try hard to keep my spirits up today, since we had no choice but to keep pushing hard to complete it. I decided that I was going to go ahead and paint all of the baseboards, so they were bright white again. I did this before I moved out of the original Smith Park in Charleston, and I think it made a difference in how fresh and clean the whole place seemed when it hit the market. I was scooting around the floor, making myself feel bruised and bent, and more than a little loopy. The Mr painted the front door and then set about taking care of one of his primary tasks, hanging the towel bar. Last time he tried to do this, he found that where the old bar was, whoever repaired the wall when the last one ripped out had basically filled the hole with silicone caulk. It was spongy and had no structure. He moved the position of the new bar a little to the left, but when he tried to drill in the screw, he pushed too hard, and the molly punched through the weak point, and fell down into the gap behind the drywall. This afternoon, on the way to the condo, we stopped at Ace hardware just long enough to pick up a new metal molly and screw to replace the one that vanished on Monday. So while I was walking past, I saw him start over to finish hanging the towel bar. I heard him say, "I didn't go far enough over." I stopped to watch, and with the slightest push with the screwdriver, molly number two was absorbed into the goo, and fell to its death in the gap behind the drywall. Before he could really wind up a good long string of obscenities, I doubled over laughing. He tried to tell me it wasn't funny, but yes, it was. It was supremely funny. I even laughed while he jammed his fingers into the crappy patch job and ripped it all out, so it could be fixed correctly. I might have taken some of the wind out of his cranky sails, because there was a little chagrin when he said, "Go ahead and take a picture of it for the blog."
I complain about all of this work, but really, it's something I feel like I'm good at, and I get a huge sense of satisfaction over a job well done when it's over. I even get all proud of myself when one or two pieces of the bigger puzzle are done, just enough for me to pause and admire them. This project was helped along by work done by people before us, and I admit to that freely. The flood of 2013 made it possible for us to get rid of the truly fugly condition the condo was in when we bought it three years earlier. The carpet was shot in it, and the counters were some goofball's DIY "faux granite" project. Everything from hip level on down was ripped out, and over 16 months and three restoration companies, we got all new walls, espresso finish bamboo floors, shitty MDF baseboards (my bad for saying paint grade was okay), new white cabinets, and some new appliances. Daughter picked out the floor, the 2x3 slate tiles around the fireplace and kitchen backsplash, and she helped pay for the upgrade to real granite countertops (instead of the red, white, and black paint with gold glitter, covered in urethane that was there before). The bones of this condo were all in place. We needed to upgrade the stove and fridge, paint, clean cat pee (those MDF baseboards swell when they absorb fluids, for the record), replace filters and the old thermostat, and clean, clean, clean. It's so close to ready. The disaster with the towel bar may have been frustrating, but at this point it was just a minor delay.
I'm planning in my head what I want to do for the open house. I have that rustic table that I made, that I want to take over there. I have a pair of ladder back chairs that I used to keep next to it in Charleston, and if my open house is slow, I'll need a place to sit. I want to use one of the pretty rugs that Mr Smith-Park brought back from the Middle East. Maybe use one or two in the bedrooms also. The old common wisdom was to have cookies baking so that people feel good when they're in an open house. Not an option for me, so maybe I'll use a scented wax warmer with an autumn smell, like cinnamon and apples. (I hesitate to use pumpkin spice... don't you think it is yesterday's news at this point?) I could even use flowers from my own garden, which are still going strong. We just have to get to the point when we know for sure that the condo is ready to show. Soon. I swear. Soon.
No comments:
Post a Comment