TheBanyanTree: re-arranging furnture

[paul]

We found this house in June, 1992.  The four months to close the deal?
Nervewracking.  The first electric bill is dated October.  What the
heck?  1992?  16 years ago?  Yes.  Fred has been gone a year this past
May and he was trotting around the old house, a just weaned puppy, my
shadow, my 200 MPH dawg, in June 1992.

For a Britanny, from what I've read, 15 is old.

House needed a lot of work.  It smelled.  They were getting divorced and
who the hell is gonna clean anything when it's not their turn?  It was
not pretty.  The dishwasher, fridge, washing machine and dryer were all
going back to Sears.  Just as well.  I don't know what Sears did, the
stuff was dented (?) and filthy.  I didn't need any of it and would have
had to haul it all to the dump.

We put in the contract that the water heater and central heat/ac and the
wood stove have to stay.  Well, it made sense at the time.  The rest of
the appliances were going....

That's what we got... and one 40 watt bulb in each light fixture.  And
hanging wires in the livingroom and dining room because they took the
ceiling fans.  Why you would want a ceiling fan above your dining table?

I pulled up the "glued to the wood floor "was white when new" berber
carpet and burned it on a pile of brush.  A huge pile of brush and
carpet.  Out in the middle of 25 acres, you have room for things like
burn piles.   Why white carpet?  <shrug>  Plywood flooring was much more
attractive anyway.


It gets worse.

"Oh, look, the house gets good light, see all the rings from the flower
pots?"   Uh, no.... after a couple of weeks away, the smell of the
closed up house is more like un-trained dogs instead of dirty carpet.  I
found some expensive yeasty odor killer, mopped the floor, covered the
spots with newspaper, soaked them with more yeasty stuff, and we left
for two weeks.  Nice.  No more kennel stench.  Kind of a "rising bread"
scent.

Some days when the humidity is just right, I can smell the "before".
When it's time for new carpet, I'll paint the entire floor with Kilz or
similar.

Then we painted.  Several coats on the flower pot rings.  Everything but
the ceilings.  I tried but the popcorn texture started to come off...
and I didn't know about airless sprayers.  Yet.

Meanwhile, we're trying to sell the house in Austin.  A buyer appears
and wants to close in March.  We have to get our asses in gear.

And we did.  Moved in mid-January 1993 and started commuting to
jobs in Austin.  The buyer backed out with a very trivial excuse.  Uh, I
would have replaced the bath room faucets... gladly.  The single-knob
faucets were less than a year old.  But you want different faucets?
With two knobs?  Sure!  We became unwilling slumlords several months
later.  Gotta make the payments!

I quit my job end of March.  Stayed home clearing land and building
pens.  The first pair of emu arrived in May, 1993.

Anyway.  Cleaned the House.  And cleaned it again.  Scraped the grunge
off of the kitchen counters... soak with 409 and Windex and scraped them
clean with my driver's license.  It was handy.  Painted the interior.
Painted the "flower pots rings".  Laid ceramic tile under the woodstove
and at the entries.  Laid parquet in the dining room.  Replaced the
vinyl tile in the kitchen and laundry room.  Had new carpet installed.
Have yet to do much to the baths other than new light fixtures, sinks,
faucets, and potties.  Which leaves just the tub and flooring to
replace.  One of the neighbors is still amazed that the house is
habitable.  Looking back, yeah, I agree.  But we've never had a roach...
or ants... scorpions, yeah, we get them.  Degrees of filth, eh?

It all came out looking pretty damn nice if I may say.  Not McMansion at
all (the term dinna exist back then) but nice.  It's Comfortable.

Still smells like un-trained puppies once in a while when the temp and
humidity are right.  Not strong.  R doesn't notice at all.  But I know
the smell.  <shrug>  The house in Austin had to have had a smell but I
never noticed.

We're a mile from the paved road.  For folks from Austin, after a 50 or
70 mile drive, out through the outback to Burnet, that last mile of
gravel road freaks people out.... ala Deliverance.  They walk into the
house and are shocked that it looks so normal.  <grin>   We have a/c.
Running water and even flush toilets!  Gee, like a Real House.

Well, with the woodstove, furniture layout options are limited.  The
sofa has always been "there" with the area rug in under the coffee
table.  The lazyboys have always been "there".  For sixteen years.

Last week I swapped the lazyboys and sofa.  The area rug moved a bit.
The room looks empty.  Which makes no sense because nothing was removed. 
  Her Highness, queen *itch Wilma is confused... it smells right but it
looks wrong.  The stereo sounds different.  I need to find the 
directions and re-set the surround sound.  Oh, and we need new
furniture.  The coffee table is still forever cool while the rest
suddenly looks worn out.  Very worn out.  Then again, I bought the stuff
when Cory was new and he's almost 23 years old.  duh.  I was like 27...
then.

How do I get the dents out of the carpet?  Someone babbled nonsense
about pulling the carpet up and steaming it from the back.  And I could
even do it myself with a steam iron.  Yeah!  Stretching carpet and
attaching it to the tack strips... for sure, I DON'T have the tools.
And this not like pulling up a corner, it's pulling up 3/4 of the room.
  Too much work... easier to drop a few dog toys to cover the spots from
company.  Wilma has not touched a toy since she teethed... but Company
doesn't know that.  :)

Fred?  I miss him.  A lot.  Still.

paul
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