The Sky is Falling!

I woke up to quite a surprise Friday morning!  I noticed pieces of chalky chunks of plaster on the breakfast room floor and following it into the family room, like following a trail of bread crumbs, I discovered this... 

 

Part of my family room ceiling collapsed, probably due to all the heavy rain we've had in California over the last two weeks and roof flashing failure to divert the rain properly.  What a mess!  My first call, of course, was to the insurance company.  They told me to go ahead and contact a contractor to assess the situation, try to determine the cause, and to take measures as necessary to prevent further damage.  Trying to get someone out on a Friday before Christmas week is challenging!  I've used a terrific contractor, Eric, before but he couldn't make it out until Saturday.  Early Saturday morning the rain clouds moved in again and I was up at 4 a.m., placing a multitude of pots, pans, baking dishes and buckets on black trash bags I had laid out as the water dripped in.   

Eric arrived and checked out the roof and ceiling.  He removed the soggy insulation and now the ceiling hole looks like this...

 

He told me the ceiling for 3-4 feet surrounding the hole is also soft, and as you can see the corner walls have also been affected.  So we are looking at tearing out the soft board, drying it out for a couple days to avoid mold, putting in new insulation and sheet rock, seaming, texturizing, and finally painting.  This will take several days, not to mention the roof repair that will need done.  I've talked to the insurance adjuster and he will be out tomorrow.  I have a good roof -- it's a 40 year roof, installed 12 years ago -- but for some reason this small flashing section wreaked this kind of havoc! 

Thank goodness the sun is out today and it is supposed to be dry for the next several days.

Progress and the Home Stretch

More buzzing and pounding today, but the end is in sight!  Mike said he hopes to be finished by this evening.  I had homework last night!  They dropped off all the baseboards (I'm having new 3 inch high baseboards installed throughout most of the downstairs) -- they were primed but needed painted.  So after they left yesterday afternoon I ran up to Home Depot and began searching the color samples for the perfect shade of white.  Those of you who paint regularly know how many shades of white there are!  Some too pink, some too yellow, some too gray.  I finally settled on "Spiced White."  (To be honest, who would really know the difference now that they are on the wall?)  I came home where they had kindly set up some saw horses and the 16' long slats of baseboard in the garage for me to tackle.  I changed into my "paint clothes," turned on Pandora to Crosby, Stills and Nash and Led Zepplin, and began rolling on the paint.

Can you tell which ones I've done and which ones are still just "primer-painted?"  (Me neither!)  It was a whole lot of wood to paint, but it looks so nice now that they are skirting the rooms!

The rooms are coming along -- the guys just have a bit more caulking to do and the stairs to the bedroom wing to finish off.  Then they will help me put the furniture back into place and the cleaning of the dustbowl begins!  Everything is covered in fine dust, which has me sneezing.

I'll take a picture of the finished room once the tables are dusted, the plants and candles are placed, and all is in order again.

And now I'm going to go check on their progress again!

Buzz, buzz. Pound, pound.

I'm hanging out in my upstairs studio right now, listening to the sounds of carpet being pulled up and new wood laminate flooring being put down in my family room below.  Lots of chaos and noise but it will be so worth it!  In order to stay out of the floor crews' way, I'm forced into exile -- what better day to declutter and organize the home office/studio.  Frosty and Chaucer don't care much for the buzzing and disruption and are staying close to my side throughout the ordeal.  This is similar to what I picked out:

Fresh Paint!

My heart just went out of writing in this blog ever since my dad passed away.  It had to be from my heart -- not forced, no fake smiles, no hallow words.  So I waited.  I tried. I waited some more.  I don't know if my heart is fully into writing here on a regular basis again, but tonight I feel somewhat inspired so I'll capture what I can. 

Summer has arrived.  Not a joyous, yippee, shout it from the rooftops summer, but a soft roll into longer days, sleepy mornings, warm walks in the sun.  It has been a good summer to take care of needs -- inside and out.

So I've been having work done on my house.  Some wood siding and window trim showing signs of wood rot have been removed, the house has been pressure washed and fresh butter-colored paint applied from top to bottom, some plumbing and electrical repairs made. 

The side fence which was in such pathetic shape that the nails wouldn't even hold the slats when I tried to repair it, has been replaced with a sturdy redwood fence.  Pretty new cushions now adorn our patio furniture.  And next week I'm having my old family room and hallway carpet (with one too many stains) pulled up and homey wood floors put down.  The house seems grateful for the overdue attention. 

My dad was a carpenter -- a good one!  He had a saying, "Be a job, big or small, do it right or not at all."  I thought of him often as the carpenters were sawing and hammering on the sides of my house.  He would have been happy I was getting things fixed around the place.

Green is the color of my kitchen wall...

...in the morning, when I rise. Not yet -- but it's coming! We started painting the kitchen this weekend -- soft white ceiling and trim and a pretty green called "celery bunch". The photo below is from the Behr paint website of a kitchen done in celery bunch. I have some art work ideas to create for the breakfast nook wall, but I'll show those after I try them out first.

Painting the ceiling required muscles in the neck and shoulders that I haven't used for a long time, leaving me with a stiff neck and slowing down my progress, so this project may take a few weekends. But just having the breakfast nook ceiling painted makes the room brighter and more cheerful already!