A wonderful horrific thing happened in our house one morning several weeks ago. We woke up to find one of the bathrooms had flooded during the night. The damage seemed minor. I cleaned up the water and went back to my Netflix queue Sunday chores. An hour later my husband called from the basement, “What the (your choice of expletive) is this?” “This” as it turned out was the little stream of water that had run under the tile in the bathroom floor, around the insulation, through the drywall and was pooling under the carpet pad as he stood watching…and cussing.
I was nervous as the damage was tallied. Every time they found moisture in another location I prayed for total demolition hoped that the area wouldn’t also be torn up. The hideous kitchen tiles have to be torn out? Oh, too bad. We need all new carpet in the basement? C’est la vie. Yes sir, I agree we should replace those lighting fixtures, and put up new drywall, and paint the walls a decent color. What do you mean the hardwood dried out just fine? I demand that you check again!
It isn’t that I hate my house, it’s just that it was built in the 1980’s, and hasn’t been upgraded much since then. When we moved in we had plans to slowly upgrade and modernize. Since then we’ve, well, we did get some appliances, new lighting fixtures and window coverings. But, there is a long list of 1980’s era touches that have endured. We have blond oak. It’s everywhere: floors, doors, trim, cabinets. I know that it’s good wood so I have reconciled my feelings about the oak. One thing I am less tolerant of: brass. It’s everywhere. It’s in the kitchen, some of the lighting fixtures, around the gas fireplace, I even have…wait for it…a swan’s neck faucet in the (another 80’s left-over) garden tub! As i said, it’s dated.
And now, we have an insurance issue and everything is about to be updated. At once! My head is spinning with the timing of installing new drywall, painting, installing carpet, removing tile, installing tile. Oh, and making the updates that we had always planned to make at the right time during the renovation, which means….we are doing the work ourselves. (Also because all the contractors in town are booked for months!). There is nothing like wanting something so bad that you seemingly wish it into existence. It’s going to be a long summer.