Week 29: The World Wide Garage Sale

Craigslist has been our surrogate neighborhood garage sale since the purchase of The Blueberry. This mecca of recyclables has provided everything from Clint’s truck to Hardie Plank siding. We have also had run-ins a unique breed of Washingtonians. Craigslist posters seem to fall into three basic categories: Freddy the professional poster, the anti-clutter Smith family, and Tina the desperate city hopper:

Inspired by SPAM, ******!!!!!! FREDDY USES CAPS AND UBIQUITOUS EXCLAMATION MARKS TO LURE YOU TO HIS HOMEROOM FLOOR!!!!!******

The Smiths put their Pottery Barn collection up for $5, which sells in 3 minutes. Disappointment marks the 307 calls they receive after selling the amazing deal.

Tina is moving to Japan in an hour and needs to purge her entire apartment. If potential buyers change their mind, she calls them back to explain that the 30” oven will go on a diet to fit in the 29” opening. And she’ll throw in a pink fondue set.

Week #28: Kitchen Tetris

There are some things Clint will always be better at than I: packing boxes, loading U-Hauls, parallel parking, and installing cabinets. All require spatial skills he learned from playing video games (and perhaps a bit from his degree in engineering). These wooden containers of cabinetry came floating down the kitchen as Clint and his dad quickly found the right location to place them. We now are ready for granite countertops, and a game of Tetris, in our nearly finished room of food. Well, now I’m off to pack some boxes into a u-haul that I’ll parallel park for practice.

Week #27: Our 1st Anniversary

While Clint and I were dating, we took a day trip to Bainbridge Island. We wandered into an inn with guests finishing dinner under strings of lights in the courtyard. It was too romantic not to dance, so we did. After our wedding, we returned to this same small inn. We didn’t have dancing at our wedding, so I danced with Clint in my wedding dress in the courtyard. The Eagle Harbor Inn has secured a place in our traditions and our hearts. The weekend was filled with swinging on park swing sets, munching at farmers’ markets, and just slowing down. Here are some things we’re (starting) to learn about marriage:

10. Goals must be flexible

9. Building a house is hard

8. Clint is a verbal processor; Jen is an internal processor

7. Forgiveness keeps us unified

6. Meals together— on the floor; at a restaurant; surrounded by paint cans—are equally delicious

5. Luxury is relative

4. Laughing keeps us from taking ourselves too seriously

3. We love each other

2. We need to be headed in the same direction

1. That direction needs to be toward God

Week 26: Marathon Man

2:30 Tuesday: We rented a sander from Home Depot. Besides a 10 minute catnap, Clint powered through the night to wrap up the floor project.

2:17 Wednesday: We returned sander with 3 minutes to spare. When Clint said it would take him a day to sand the floors, he meant it literally.

3:00 Wednesday: We returned home to cover the floors with construction paper. This will protect the sanded hardwoods when the cabinets are delivered and installed

4:00 Wednesday: Clint passed out on the newly sanded and papered floors, waiting for the cabinets to come;

4:36 Wednesday: The kitchen cabinets arrive!

Week #25: The Earl of Grey

Is it weird to have a date night at Lowes? If so, we’re in trouble. Before anymore progress could be made on the kitchen, the walls needed paint. We took our samples of cabinet wood and granite and set off to find a perfect wall color at Lowes. When I came across a shade of beige entitled “Earl Grey”, and I couldn’t resist. As an avid tea drinker, it was a fitting hue. Colors can be deceiving, though. After painting a section of the wall, it looked really dark. Once paint is mixed at Lowes, it is not returnable, so we bought cans of white paint and mixed two parts white to one part Earl Grey. I guess that makes it a London Fog. So, maybe our next date night will be spent drinking tea lattes in our freshly painted room.

Week 24:Uncovering Hardwoods

That Book of Murphy’s Law whacked us in the head when we continued our floor refinishing. It seemed so simple. Rip up linoleum, and uncover well-preserved hardwoods. We didn’t anticipate the linoleum’s laminate glue residue would be such so tenacious. Clint first gently spritzed the floors with water, then lay wet sheets on to loosen the glue, and finally resorted to dumping buckets of water to help with removal. The linoleum manufacturers must have intended flooring decisions to be lifelong. But, unlike diamonds, linoleum is not forever and is definitely not a girl’s best friend. Clint spent days scraping, inch by inch, the gooey sludge from the floors. As he finished, we tucked the Murphy Law book away in hopes we wouldn’t need it again.

Week 23: Wasted Euphony

The word “linoleum” rolls off the tongue like butter. The liquid consonants and long vowels create smoothness of sound. This beautiful word is wasted on its true meaning: a cheap plastic composite that reminds us why the 1970s is fondly forgotten. In order to refinish the original pine wood floors, this layer of linoleum needed to go. Shockingly, the project took less time than we planned. We pulled the floor pieces in large sheets and finished in thirty minutes! We kept waiting for lightening to strike and uncover a book of Murphy’s Law. No such misfortune occurred, and we spent the rest of the day relaxing.