Before picture/Cole’s bedroom: I neglected to take one of my bedroom. 

*Hardwood Installation Part 2 (Click to read part 1).

It’s a hardwood out there but perseverance will prevail…

Pick: Ice Cube by Sherwin-Williams was the paint color I finally settled on. It was an unsettling choice because, once I started painting, the first swipe of it had a much stronger blue hue than the chip in the store. I wanted barely gray, not blue. (What I lack in painting skills I make up for in color skills.) It frustrates me that paint stores usually have too much light to accurately see a color. The little light boxes set up to show you what the color will look like in various types of light aren’t even close to accurate. The best way to pick out a paint color is to buy samples of the colors you are interested in, take them home, paint a swatch of the color on different walls in the room and observe them under different light conditions. (Remember the dress?) However, I had been stuck in sample mode for two years, and now it was crunch time. In two days the floors would be installed, and I’m a very messy painter—I get paint on myself just looking at it in the store. The idea of dripping paint on the new floors motivated me to stick with Ice Cube and live with the blue hue. Since Cole’s (my teen) room only needed one wall patched and repainted, he stayed with the same color. (Inquiring minds? Farrow and Ball -Hague Blue No 30)

Paint: I learned a new painting technique. The basic idea is to start in the middle of the wall and use a V motion with the paint roller—left, then right. Cover the wall surface with V’s, then drop down or move up and do more overlapping V’s. It was awkward at first, but in time I got the hang of it…more or less. While I rolled, my teen cut in the border between the wall, ceiling and floor—we were a pretty good team—and in no time we had both my room and his room painted. Both rooms ended up looking good enough, and best of all I am happy with the color. Learning curves have taught me to let go of perfection. Flaws add character and humor to our rehab jobs. We laugh a lot.

Panic: Friday morning, we were ready for our hardwood floors to be installed. The installers arrived promptly at 7:30 a.m. and started to work. I took a deep breath. Everything was coming together.  I should have held my breath. I should have worried. What was I thinking? At 3 p.m., I was informed we were short one box of hardwood. I was floored, by everyone’s calculations the floors should have been finished with one box of hardwood left over. But it’s hard to argue with a bare strip in the middle of the room and empty boxes.

Patience: We couldn’t return to Hobo Hardware before 7 p.m.; in light traffic, it’s an hour’s drive. Friday rush hour in Chicago? Forgetaboutit. The installers agreed to come back first thing Saturday morning. So Friday night at 7:00, we arrived at the Hobo Hardware store where we had originally bought the hardwood flooring, only to find out they had shipped their last three boxes to the Joliet store. (This was confirmed by an ancient computer running Internet Explorer. What could go wrong?) We took off for Joliet.

Pillage: It’s too complicated to really explain our Joliet Hobo experience. Suffice it to say it included mislabeled boxes, Downer Dave and very short tempers. However, we left Joliet with two boxes of hardwood tied onto the roof of our van, our uncertainty that it would match our existing hardwood making for a long ride home. (A Culver’s Butter Burger fortified us, but just barely.) Home again, we determined that the new matched the old, and we ended a very long day on a high note. My bedtime prayer was, Thank you, Thank you, Thank you! I’ll never ask for anything ever again. I mean it this time.

Pow: Saturday morning, the installers were on Polish time, and an 8 a.m. start time turned into an 11:15 a.m. start time. The problem now was that we had to leave our house at 11:30 a.m. to drive to Bloomington, Illinois, to attend our dear friend’s daughter’s opera recital—her college’s senior recital. We negotiated an afternoon return time with the installers when Vickie (our friend, hero and camp helper) would arrive to take care of our pups. Shout out to Vickie—without her, much of our life would not be possible. I felt certain our negotiations would be honored because I was holding the installers’ equipment hostage.

Priority:  My nails. I used attending the recital as an excuse to have my fingernails, toenails and hair done; there are some things a girl must always fit in. I refused to be seen at an opera recital with ragged nails, paint streaks in my hair and sooty feet. Just no. I looked good. So did Cole.

Pleased: YES!!! We arrived home from the recital to find the installers had arrived and finished installing the floors.  After our happy hardwood floor dance, and oohing and ahhing, we got to work putting everything back together again. We took some hard knocks along the way, but the end results made it all worth it.

Teen Bedroom – After picture

Our house to-do list for the next few months is long and labor intensive. For sure it will be an adventure. We may even satisfy a lifetime dream to rent a backhoe for a project in the yard. Stay tune! I’ll keep you posted

What about you? Any projects in the works or upcoming?

Odd Loves Company,

Before: My bedroom floor, hardwood ready

After Hardwood is installed