Sunday, September 13 – Saturday, September 19, 2009
Sunday, September 13
We set the alarm for an early wake-up for this morning and, after cleaning up, throwing some last minute things in the car, and closing up Big V for an extended time, we hit the road early, making our way through the south end of Toccoa on Highway 17 to its intersection with I-85. Once getting to the “big road,” we turned toward the north and spent the rest of the day driving the 468 or so miles to the Richmond, Virginia, area (more specifically Midlothian, Virginia) to spend a couple of weeks with Mike and Kelly and help them get their new home ready to move into.
As we got within an hour or so of the kids’ house, we decided to take a “short-cut” that was recommended by our online map service. It was fewer miles than following I-85 and I-95 all the way, but it certainly didn’t save us any time, as we got behind slow-moving local traffic on two-lane roads that weren’t amenable to speed or passing other vehicles.
Still, we got to the house around 5:30 pm, giving us plenty of time to unload, get set up in one of the guest rooms before Mike and Kelly gave us the grand tour of the place and fixed us a wonderful meal.
We spent the rest of the evening getting caught up on everyone’s latest happenings and getting our painting instructions from Mike and Kelly. For the next few days we will stay in the house to paint and take care of any small repair jobs that we find while the kids spend the nights at their apartment and load boxes to deliver to the house each evening after work.
Monday, September 14
When we planned the trip to Richmond, we told Mike and Kelly that we would just as soon stay at the house because we tend to wake up early and didn’t want to waste valuable work time doing the thirty minute commute to and from their apartment. Even if it meant sleeping on an air mattress until the furniture could be delivered, we felt we could work as early and as late as we felt by just staying put.
Sure enough, we were up by 3:00 this morning and ready to tackle priority one, painting the trim in the master bedroom. But first, we had to spend a few minutes enjoying the peace and quiet of the early morning while sitting in the screened porch at the back of the house, a place that would become our “meditation” and computer room for the remainder of our stay.
After a couple of cups of hot tea (Mike hadn’t moved a coffee maker yet), I went upstairs and started painting the wooden trim while Barbara prepped the primary guest room and started painting in it.
Now, a word or two about the trim; every room in the house is trimmed out in beautiful dark wood with a semi-lustrous finish. The problem that the kids had with it was that it was just way too much, taking away from their plans to brighten every room. Ultimately, it would take three coats of white paint to cover the wood and even then, there would still be places to touch up.
Luckily, Mike and Kelly had already finished painting the walls of the room, leaving the bottom three feet or so unpainted because they wanted wainscoting installed; but, more on that later.
While we were working in our separate rooms, a crew of roofers showed up to re-roof the house. We expected them much earlier than the time they arrived and even then they weren’t completely prepared to start to work. We found out later that there had been a mix-up of some kind with the roofing materials and they had to wait until their boss showed up with whatever was missing. However, by mid-morning, we all looked like a crew from Home Makeover and the neighborhood was full of the sounds and smells of house repair and painting.
Around noon we took time off to make a run to WalMart for groceries to get the things we needed for a crock pot dinner that we had promised the kids. It was only the first of many trips that we would make to either WalMart or Lowe’s during the week. In fact, if we hadn’t left when we did, we probably would be named “Customers of the Month” at both of those stores!
Mike and Kelly came to the house after work, changed clothes and started bringing in boxes of “stuff” from their apartment. Then, after eating a family meal together, we tackled a few minor chores around the house. The first non-painting chore was to change the lock in the front door. The realtor had provided only one key to the house and it didn’t fit the dead-bolt lock, so Mike purchased a couple of sets of locks; and, with a little work and patience, he and I soon had the front door securely locked.
By 9:30 we were all moving around like zombies, so the kids drove their cars back to the apartment and Barbara and I went upstairs and crashed.
Tuesday, September 15
Today was pretty much a repeat of yesterday’s activities. We got a little later start (5:00 a.m.) as I put a finish coat of paint on the trim in the master bedroom and Barbara tackled the job of prepping and painting the walk-in closet.
Later, we moved out things to the primary guest room from the smaller bedroom so we could begin painting there. We’ve found that we make a pretty good painting team when we work together in a room, with each of us having our own assignments…Barbara rolls on the wall paint while I take a trim pad or brush and do the tops and bottoms of the walls and all the corners. The system has served us well, allowing us to finish a room in minimal time and send time with each other rather than yelling from room-to-room. Once we got that going today, the painting was about as fun as painting can be, and the time went by faster. Unfortunately, since we were both painting, there wasn’t an opportunity for us to take pictures of us working. However, we were able to get a shot of Mike taping around the baseboards this evening.
Mike came by and joined us for a light lunch and we worked in a short nap after he left, then spent the afternoon doing the same old, same old, but seeing some progress while we were at it.
Barbara fixed another great meal and then we all went out to Lowe’s to buy the materials and supplies for tackling the next chore, the installation of the wainscoting in the master bedroom.
Wednesday, September 16
Our goal today was to finish all the trim and touchup in the master bedroom and remove all the tape from windows and floors so we can begin working on the wainscoting. We hoped to have the first two pieces of wainscoting up so Mike and Kelly could get an idea of what it was going to look like.
Now…a word about the wainscoting…we had never heard of such a thing, but when Mike called several months back and told us they were looking for a house, we said that we would tackle any chores that we thought we could do. What we didn’t know when we got here and they told us about wanting wainscoting in the master bedroom, was how very exact all the measurements had to be when accounting for electrical outlets and cutouts around windows. But, after a couple of attempts and only one wasted sheet of the wainscoting, we began to get the hang of it. I learned quickly that the old carpenters rule of measuring twice and cutting once wasn’t nearly enough…measurements were made several times to make sure that I was on track. Meanwhile, Barbara started painting the panels after I cut them (or determined that they didn’t need to be cut) so we could put them up as soon as they were ready.
As we were doing all this, the roofers were finishing up their work and cleaning up the mess…the kids’ house was really beginning to take shape!
And sure enough, by the time Mike and Kelly got to the house after work, the roofers had cleaned everything up and left, and we had two panels of wainscoting in place; best of all, both projects passed the kids’ inspection, a relief for all of us.
Thursday, September 17
For Barbara and me, the word for the day was “wainscoting.” With 16 panels to cut, shape, paint, and install, at an average time of 1 hour for each panel, we had our hands full for the day. Of course, there were breaks along the way, trips to WalMart and Lowe’s, and a much-needed afternoon nap (we have our own union guidelines, refined each day).
By the time the kids got to the house after work, we were over halfway around the master bedroom with the wainscoting and, more importantly, we were through with the most difficult of the panels to shape around the windows.
Friday, September 18
This was an especially exciting (and busy) day for all of us…moving day for the kids as they left their apartment and moved to their new home.
Kelly had a day off from her job, so she stayed at the apartment and cleaned and packed the last few items that wouldn’t go on the truck. Mike took the morning off to oversee the loading of the furniture at the apartment and the unloading at the house.
Meanwhile, Barbara and I finished up the wainscoting project, including the installation of the trim around the top of all the panels. I’d never done anything like that and had to get a miter box and saw so I could shape all the corners. Since this was my first project of this type, I also had to make several attempts at some of the pieces to get them cut and sized the right way…sure should have paid a lot more attention to the things that my dad tried to teach me all those many years ago!
By evening, everything from the apartment was in the house and we all decided that we needed a break. Mike and Kelly had a company dinner to attend, so Barbara and I decided we’d go out to find something other than fast food. We found a really good Mexican restaurant with takeout orders, so we got that and then returned to the house to eat at our leisure.
When we finished eating, we decided we’d help the kids out by setting up their bed in the master bedroom (all the other furniture had been set in the middle of the room while we finished installing the wainscoting).
Mike and Kelly returned while we were still trying to figure out how their bed was supposed to be put together and told us to just go downstairs and relax for the rest of the evening. Since we were already worn to a frazzle, it didn’t take much convincing to do that.
After about an hour, the kids came down and told us OUR room was ready; they had spent the time putting up a bed for us (we’d been sleeping on the air mattress all week) and setting up some other furniture for that room.
We were exhausted, but Mike and Kelly were excited about being in their new home, so we showered and went to bed (and quickly fell asleep) while the kids stayed up much later to arrange the furniture in their room.
Saturday, September 19
We had all voted that this would be a day off from painting and fixing…everyone was tired from the many activities of the week. Barbara and I still woke up early and went to the screen porch to open the computers and check our mail.
It was nearly 10:00 when the kids finally got up and moving around. We had a quick breakfast and then, in spite of our vows to not do too much today, started working on some minor chores around the place.
When Mike and Kelly got married last October, they were given a really nice gas barbecue grill. Unfortunately, they weren’t able to use it at their apartment complex and it stayed in its box at all this time. Since we had friends coming over tonight, Mike decided to get busy and build the grill, a chore that occupied the next few hours of his afternoon.
During the evening we spent a wonderful time with Josh and Amanda Barbe, who have been in Richmond for a couple of months. Josh was Mike’s roommate when they were in China for three years and we had the privilege of attending Josh and Amanda’s wedding in Fort Worth a few years ago.
Before retiring for the night, we got these shots of the new master bedroom…quite a transformation from last Sunday!
From Mike and Kelly’s new home in Midlothian, Virginia,
Jim/Dad/Gramps and Barbara/Mom/Grams
