I woke this morning after a restless night’s sleep – I flip flopped all over the bed, head towards the feet, feet towards the side – couldn’t find any rest. I walked the Bean and the weather was beautiful, a hint of humidity but a nice breeze blowing. I stopped on the other side of the bayou and looked back at the LaLa – it’s coming along, but last night I thought I was going to sink under the weight of it all. I almost got up and took a Xanax or Atavan or something to take the house terrors away but needed to not be hung over from any self medicating today.
I’ve been catching up with my reporters since late last week – seeing where there mind is on their areas of coverage – what they are anticipating – what they are seeing now. I called one and we talked about her house that was remodelled last year. A six month job that took nine and is still kind of going on. She lives in a normal city, with a husband, and competent contractors and architects etc. She said it was hard, really hard. And she likened it to a marathon and that was what I needed to hear.
When I turned 42 I called S and said what are we going to do – we are 42 years old for godsakes? – and she and I decided right then to run a marathon – we trained for only three months and ran the Portland Marathon one month after 9/11. The first 20 miles were a breeze – I couldn’t believe how good I felt and my body felt. The next six plus almost killed me. I had to summon every mental power I possessed to get over the fact that I had not trained enough and that I was running a marathon – really – geez Louise – what the hell was I thinking? But I did it – I did it because I had the mental power and the stamina and something that is part of my nature – endurance – that I brought to the fore and crossed the finish line. I was shaking like a leaf once over and couldn’t pee for a week afterwards because I could barely lower my body, my thighs were so tight, but hey I am now and for life a marathoner.
Again I say – this is the hardest endeavor I’ve attempted – this house – but you know what? I’m gonna make it because I am going to summon all of what I have to do it.
I went to the LaLa this morning, having called S to come pow wow with me and K. We had a meeting of the minds and set the agenda for the week:
1. K is to focus on finishing the trim before he leaves again on Sep 13 and start thinking about scaffolding for the windows.
2. C is finishing the flooring in the master and has brought in K to do the guest bath flooring while S works on prepping the shower stalls.
3. The three 4 x 11′ window frames arrive on Thursday and need to be uncrated on the truck – the crate weighs 850 lbs. The glass is coming next week in six pieces. I’m awaiting the installer’s estimate.
4. P (S’s son) is priming the main house and re-finishing the wood columns.
5. T is stripping old windows.
Terrace decking problem solved:
I told K I would pay him $1000 to put down the rubber roof, then put down parallel sleepers (he wants to attach to the side), then lay the deck boards.
Outdoor shower problem solved:
I’ve decided to have double screen doors that were part of the front door now used as the entrance to the outdoor shower rather than shutters – we will need to build a screen top that will enclose the entire screen porch from there rather than taking it all the way down to the shower. That alleviates having to figure out how to suspend a screen over the shower thereby covering up the sky (I thought we could just frame a screen in but it couldn’t take the pummelling of rain and so it was looking like a hard surface, which inevitably defeats the whole outdoor shower experience). Rather than shutters also as the finish wall – we are using the old colored glass insert that was in the front facade of the roof and framing it and adding to more colored glass – it will be funky and I like it.
There it is – we are at the 20 mile mark and there are six more miles to go – they are the most arduous of the journey – but the rewards I predict will be psychedelic!