We headed west recently… which is always a nice drive.
.
.
Destination?
.
.
An unassuming little Italian restaurant housed in an old shoe factory.
.
.
Lots of original exposed beams and sunlight.
.
.
And some seriously good mojitos. This one is blackberry.
.
.
I passed on the pickle.
🤢
.
.
Lunch for me was a tasty chicken carbonara tortellini. Their pasta is fresh and fabulous. Mojito #2? Mango.
.
.
Husband went with haddock piccata minus the capers, garlic butter linguini and maple glazed carrots. Scrumptious.
.
.
I meant to ask the bartender about this rather odd Nesquick placement but was too busy eating.
.
.
Raspberry cheesecake for the spouse.
.
.
And a rare bananas foster for me. I love this caramel and rum soaked treat but rarely find it in Maine. It was too apt to melt for a leftover box so I had to each the whole thing in one sitting.
Work resumed in the crap filled dungeon cellar the other day and more ceiling panels were installed…. with one glaring difference.
.
.
I wasn’t assisting.
After the last bout of me trying (and failing) to hold a sheet a plywood in place over my head while the husband drilled …. replacement help was enlisted in the form of my husband’s cousin.
.
.
This is a completed section with ceiling, insulated walls and shelving. Not that you can see much of it through the solid mass of worthless crap treasure.
.
.
This is an uncompleted section, and if you look closely you can see the husband on a ladder surrounded by his ridiculous amount of junk treasures.
.
.
Funny part is his cousin turned out to be a pretty useless assistant. He was always in the way and actually dropped a piece of plywood on my husband’s head.
Spring is here … though to be honest I’m still waiting for winter. March in Maine used to mean cold and snow but temps have been near 50 most of the month and up until last week’s snow storm we had green grass in places.
Sigh.
.
.
It’s been damp and too warm all winter.
.
.
Though I admit the morning fog is soothing.
.
.
His Lordship?
.
.
Never misses his morning coffee.
.
.
And now that his scratchy post has been returned to its normal living room site…
.
.
All is right with his world.
.
.
I just hope the furniture stores don’t mind a little cat hair on their fabric samples.
Replacing the trim around our new bedroom windows was painful. We tried multiple types and colors of stain but never really came close to matching the existing. The only saving grace there was the new pieces didn’t lay against the old and with distance there’s room for variation.
Not so this new living room flooring project. New baseboard had to butt up to old at the two kitchen entrances and the hallway… not to mention the fireplace and built in bookcases.
It was a major challenge.
The husband and I made three trips to three different stores and bought three different colors but nothing worked.
.
.
The piece on the left is what we needed to match. Most never came close. And mind you baseboard moulding is sold by the foot so every test piece that fails?
Ka-Ching! 💰
.
.
We had to stain over 100 feet and I wanted it to look nice.
.
.
Three more stores, three more rejects. I couldn’t understand it, we’d bring in my sample piece and match it perfectly to theirs only to find it wasn’t close when we got home and applied it.
Then we went to Sherwin Williams. Turns out they’ve bought the Minwax company… and guess what?
They can color match stain.
What!!! Why did no one ever tell me this was possible?
They also told us the reason we could never match our color was because all the store samples are done on oak and baseboard moulding is typically pine.
What!! Why did no one ever tell me this?
After stifling my anger at the stain industry, we purchased a can of perfectly tinted stain and happily started the process.
.
.
Have finger, will travel.
Yes, the stain looks red but when gently applied with a rag and my forefinger instead of heavy handing it with a brush, it was almost perfect.
.
.
Sadly my old Grateful Dead tee shirt gave its life to the cause.
.
.
Two coats of stain, two coats of amber poly and one giant air bubble in the plastic later, we were done.
After cleaning and bleaching the black mold off the wallboard, our contractor wanted to make sure there wasn’t a larger problem lurking behind the wall and hauled out his spy camera.
.
.
It’s a wonderfully nonevasive way to take a peek.
.
.
And in a very unexpected turn of good luck in our usually cursed house…
.
.
Everything looked fine.
No water damage, no mold. Yay!
Before the contractor started on something else, I had him remove an old useless thermostat left over from electric baseboard heat that was used in the ‘80’s.
Under that thermostat?
.
.
Some really beautiful vintage wallpaper.
.
.
Not!
But it does have all those wonderful 1970’s colors… olive green, gold and orange.
🤣
.
.
A few more pieces of wood ripped out …
And then the reason our contractor loves charging us by the hour becomes clear.
.
.
My husband, talking.
And talking. And talking. And talking.
Ka-Ching!
💰
.
.
His Lordship?
Sleeping in the sun with a catnip mouse.
I wish my husband would do that, it would be so much cheaper.
.
Where there's only one step from the sublime to the ridiculous.
River's world..... 