Back to my projects...

After a pretty lazy day of watching some political speeches yesterday and doing virtually nothing, I decided to start the flooring project in my middle bedroom. Since I had already pretty well cleaned out all the clutter, there wasn't that much furniture left in there, so I shoved it all to the back half of the room, ripped up the front half of carpet and padding, rolled it and put tape around it and hauled it out to the street. It was a pretty rainy day and I debated about putting the carpet out in the rain, but what the heck. It wasn't that big of pieces that it would be so heavy, even wet. Then I pulled up the tacking strips. When that carpet was put down, they must have glued the strips, as well as nailing them. Geez! But eventually I got them up - at least in that half of the room and the closet.

With that done, I decided to go ahead and start laying the flooring, though this time I used my work room to make the cuts instead of bringing my saw into the room. It's made the job much neater by not getting sawdust all over everything, but it required walking back and forth. Oh, well, I need the exercise. My legs seem so weak it's scaring me. By 9:00 I was exhausted and too stiff to do any more. So, I quit, watched a little movie on TV (Jersey Girl - kinda cute), and then went to bed, though I didn't sleep well and woke up at 5:30! Argh! How I hate it when I do that!

Today was running errands, groceries, etc. When I got back home I noticed somebody had taken the carpet - left the padding, but the carpet was gone. Um - okay. About all I've accomplished since I got back was pull the carpet and padding up on the back half and get it outside. I left that piece intact in case whoever wants it will have a bigger piece. Oh, and I took a nap. I had a very nice and glorious nap! Tonight I'll get my job set up and ready to do it justice tomorrow. Also, I need to do some calling these contractors again and see if I can't get a fire lit under at least one of them.

Speaking of which, yesterday Bob's wife, Diane, called and left a message wanting to know if I had decided what I was going to do about my kitchen. Bob was the one I mentioned the other day who I met in Lowe's who is a contractor and who moved here from Waco. He and his wife came out to see about my cabinets and he offered a blanket bid of over $3,000 to do my kitchen and patio right off the top of his head. I guess I should call them and tell them I'm waiting for more bids. That kind of bidding just makes me very nervous. And besides, I have no idea what kind of workmanship he does, and they haven't offered any references. So, even though he's the only one who's actually acted like he would maybe do something, I'm too reluctant to use him. As if I'm not synical enough by nature, it seems like this experience is making me even more so.

My heart sure goes out to the folks who are having real destruction to deal with! Every time I go down any given street, it's a reminder of how minor my problems are in comparison - not that mine aren't big enough for me, but it does help keep things in perspective.