Doing Our Part to Help the Economy

When part of the living room ceiling crashed to the floor, Dr. Lobo and I decided we’d procrastinated long enough. It was time to fix the ceiling.

Our house is nearly a hundred years old. When we bought it, we planned to do a lot of things to fix it up.

But we moved in when Wild Child was three weeks old. Wild Child was an extremely bright, energetic, and busy child, and he kept us busy. He kept us busy for eighteen years, and a little bit more. We also had two other children, who were (thank the Good Lord) not as busy, but nevertheless required time and attention.

There was also the problem of money. Or rather, the lack of money. For most of the years when our kids were young, I was a stay-at-home mom. Living on one income was tough, and we lived from paycheck to paycheck.
Years passed. Thirty-two years, to be precise. No time and no money equals no home remodeling. But when the ceiling fell, it knocked us back into reality.

Dr. Lobo is a handy guy, and he has done lots of projects through the years. But he’s older, heavier, and tireder now. And being both tired and retired, he has an attitude about work. A bad attitude.

Me? I can barely identify basic tools, let alone use them.

Larry and his son Lee came to our rescue. They tore up the ceiling and built a new one, lower than the original.

We decided that as long as they were already working for us, we'd have them do a few other things.

They stripped off the wallpaper, took down the paneling, and covered a window.

They painted the ceiling, walls, fireplace, and trim.

They repaired part of the hardwood floor.

While we were spending money anyway, Dr. Lobo and I decided to replace the light fixture with a ceiling fan. Then the room looked so good that we didn’t want to keep the old mini-blinds that the cats had used to perfect their climbing skills, so we ordered new shades. Next we found some new lamps that would look so good in our new room, we had to buy them.

We rearranged the furniture, moved a bookcase so that it blocked the doorway into the kitchen, and decorated.

Of course all of this cost us more and took longer than we had planned. But we’ve done our part to help the economy.

Tomorrow a couple of friends are coming over for the Grand Opening of the New Living Room celebration. Come back in a couple of days and I'll show you our wonderful new room.