The Remodel Upgrade is Half Finished

My remodel upgrade is half finished.

 

That’s the good news.

 

The bad news is that the finished rooms make the unfinished hallways, kitchen and bathroom look even worse, by comparison…

 

I’ve painted the unfinished rooms, so the walls look nice, but the flooring is dotted with paint. Since it’s going to be covered by new flooring, or torn out before the new flooring goes in, I didn’t bother to use drop cloths.

 

See, when I paint, I use my mom’s tongue-in-cheek philosophy: “paint everything and then take it off where it shouldn’t be!”

 

While painting, of course, I used masking tape where two colors on a wall met in the middle but otherwise I threw caution to the wind and painted feverishly, ruining two shirts and a pair of sweatpants in the process.

 

Jackie couldn’t believe how fast I got everything painted.

 

I do not dawdle when working (physically). I bust my butt.

 

Dad always told me, “Don’t ever work by the hour. You’re a producer: you do more in three hours than most people do in an eight-hour day.”

 

I was told that at my first job at Warner Bros., too: “Slow down. You’re making the rest of us look bad!”

 

I worked in Consumer Products then, serving one boss. Before long I ran out of work and asked others if I could help them with anything. Oh, yes, I could.

 

Before much longer, I was serving four marketing directors (or their secretaries). That’s when I was told to slow down.

 

But I get bored when I work at a snail’s pace (er, at a normal person’s working pace). I don’t think most people get as big a kick out of producing as I do.

 

And since I enjoy reaching goals, I tackle tasks, hammer and tong, with immense  aplomb. I see the end from the beginning and do what’s necessary to get there the fastest way possible without sacrificing quality.

 

I’m wired this way. It isn’t something I even think about. It’s just my usual pace: get ‘er done!

 

Which is why waiting for other workers to get the parts of this remodel upgrade done is a wee bit frustrating. If I had the skills to lay flooring and set quartz, my side of this “duplex” of sorts would be finished in the next few days. But because we need experts for those tasks, I will be looking at “the wreck of the Hesperus” (the unfinished rooms) for the next several weeks.

 

My bathroom towel cabinet and above-the-toilet cabinet sit in the hallway just outside my bedroom right now.  I’m contemplating ripping out the cork flooring in the bathroom so the new flooring can be laid level with the same flooring outside the bathroom. But to do that, I’d have to remove the toilet and I don’t want to do that until the day the flooring guys get here.

 

There should be plenty of time to rip it out while they’re working in other rooms. It’s a very small bathroom. I just don’t know how much of a project it’s going to be. Is the cork board glued down, or floating? I dunno.

 

If it’s floating, it’ll be a breeze to rip it up.

 

If it’s glued down, it could be a nightmare without the proper tools and might not be worth doing…

 

So, all of these thoughts, and more, circulate through my brain day and night:

 

What else can I do in the meantime to stay ahead of the game?

 

I’ve ordered new tableware. (My old stuff is 40 years old and mismatched.)

 

I’ve put up a new curtain in the kitchen (green) to complement the new colors in the kitchen.

 

I’ve painted and reinstalled 90% of the baseboards in the living room (100% in the bedroom). One of the baseboards in the living room broke when I removed it so I need to replace that one and add baseboards to places where the new carpet extends beyond where the old carpet was.

 

I need to buy about sixty feet of additional baseboards and paint them so they’ll be ready to install as soon as the new flooring is laid.

 

I need to get a half sheet of high grade 5/8″ plywood to place beneath the refrigerator to fix the floor there. There’s an access hole under the fridge so workers can work below the floor if it ever becomes necessary to re-plumb or do other work. The access hole cover looks like hell, so I want to cover it with plywood and put some of the same new flooring on the plywood so it looks as if the flooring continues seamlessly under the appliance.

 

I think that’s about all…

 

WHEE!!!

 

I’m not getting many writing assignments post-COVID, so I can invest the time doing this kind of stuff. But when it’s completely finished, I sure hope more writing work comes in, because I’m a producer and I’m only truly happy when I’m producing something!

 

The other stuff I do fills non-productive time: reading (which produces more wisdom!), sitting with my cats and goats (which produces pleasure!) and hanging with friends (ditto)!

 

My brain never rests except when I’m asleep (and sometimes not even then). It produces constantly, so I’m rarely bored.

 

I’m not a frantic producer. I’m a peaceful producer. It’s kinda like a meditation to me, not a race.  But it seems I get things done significantly faster than most, anyway!