Projects

The temperature dropped down into the 40’s last night…even though it’s mid-June! I think that is cool (pun intended). The high today was 71. I like the cooler temps.

JJ had to be at work at noon today. After he left, the guy EJ had called about bringing gravel for our driveway stopped by to look at our driveway, which is being nibbled away by erosion. There are deep chasms along our driveway–first on one side and then on the other–so driving down it is a challenging adventure. The guy said he could do something or other that would cause the rain to not run down the driveway and cause erosion and, I think, he can use some sort of road stuff that would pack down and become almost like blacktop. The guy is going to write up an estimate. He project will be more than EJ originally planned, but it will be cheaper if we don’t have to dump loads of gravel on our driveway every year.

After the gravel guy left, I drove to the lumber store to pick up the paint they had ready for me. Ugh. The blue walls in our living room was so dark that it took 3 gallons to cover it! EJ and I decided to get some Kilz as primer for the kitchen walls–which are currently red–so I don’t have to keep buying paint. The poor guys at the lumber store have to keep special ordering the base paint so they can mix the paint for me. One of them said that people are not buying much flat paint these days but are going with eggshell or gloss so they don’t keep much flat base at the store.

I have decided on the colors for the master bedroom and JJ’s bedroom. When I went to pick up the paint for the living room, I asked the guy if he could mix up those for me too. Of course, the lumber store didn’t have the correct base. I called EJ to ask if I should get the paint there or get it at the hardware store. I don’t know how to get to the hardware store yet, so EJ would have to go with me. We decided to just order it so I can pick it up when I need it. I told the lumber guy that I felt really bad that I was causing him to special order all the time, but we just moved here and his store is the only one I know how to get to. He said, “This is the only store!” as if he were using Jedi mind tricks on me. Ha! We laughed about me only knowing how to get to his store. We got to talking about where we used to live, and living up here versus living down south (much better up here). He told me where his sister lives down there and it just happened to be the town where I grew up. It is only about 30 minutes from our old house so we often shop…er, shopped, there. Small world, huh?

I told the lumber guy that I love living up here, and I love watching the animals that come into our yard. He said, “We’ve got bears up here.” I told him, yeah, I know, and bears kind of scare me, but I love the other animals.

After EJ left for work, I walked to the mailbox but I left Danny in the house because the hill is too much for him.

I spent the rest of the day finishing painting the living room. There is a sort of pillar that goes up and across the ceiling and that was more difficult to paint so it took me a long time. Tomorrow I just have a few little areas to touch up and then I will be able to move on to preparing the kitchen for painting.

After I cleaned everything up, it was almost time for JJ to get out of work, so I went out into the kitchen and made oven-fried chicken with strawberry shortcake for dessert. Yum.

EJ and I have been discussing whether to go south this weekend and bring up another load of stuff from the old house or take a break. We’d really like to get everything up here as soon as we can so we don’t have to keep making trips down south and so we can call a realtor and sell the house. However, EJ’s back has been spasming and I think it’s because the long drives are hard on his back. Since neither EJ nor JJ have to work this Friday, we are thinking about maybe taking the weekend off and doing something fun.