Reinforcements Arrive

Kate Arrives

It was Tuesday morning, and Larry needed to get back to work. I waved goodbye to him, Nancy and Gary and waited for reinforcements to arrive. My waiting ended about 4:00pm when my daughter, Kaitlin, pulled into the driveway. Since this was her first visit to our big yellow house, I gave her a detailed tour. It was almost dark when we walked to Kristie’s in town to have dinner.

Upon arriving home, there was one more thing I needed to do.  Back in May when we started demoing the kitchen, we were greeted by a unexpected present behind one of the cabinets. A time capsule of sorts, the former owner had placed some pictures and a brief summary of how they came to own the big yellow house in a zip lock back and dropped it behind the cabinets.  We were delighted by this find and thought it was such a good idea we decided to continue the tradition.  In addition to asking Jeanne to update their story--in addition to being the former owner she is also my next door neighbor--I wrote a brief summary of Larry and my story and put both updates into the bag with the original letter.  All 3 stories are now lost behind the cabinets waiting to be "discovered" the next time the kitchen undergoes a major renovation.



Priming the Primer


Wednesday morning, Kate and I headed to the family room to continue the work started over the weekend. First, we washed the remaining wallpaper glue off the upper portion of the walls. Next, we put a second coat of white paint on the chair rail. Then we covered the pink wallpaper primer with a layer of white paint primer. We ended the afternoon by giving the textured wallpaper its first coat of paint. I chose a neutral color by Sherwin Williams called “Dromedary Camel” that makes the wallpaper look like parchment paper. By now it was getting difficult to see, so we cleaned up and called it a day.




Please Use the Front Door


We took some drinks out to the front porch and sat down to enjoy the cooling temperature. Before long, there was a nice breeze and rain had begun to fall. A few minutes later we were grabbing the wicker chairs and running for the front door. My first North Carolina rainstorm was upon us and we could barely see across the street. Then the power went out. Then we heard a large crash and we rushed to the back door. A limb, the width of a man’s leg and about 15 feet long, had fallen from the pecan tree alongside the patio. On the way down, it knocked over two metal patio chairs before crashing through the wood banister leading up to the back door. The limb came to rest against the storm door, pinning us into the house but not breaking the glass.

As soon as the rained stopped, Kate and I stepped outside to assess the damage. Kate found a saw in the shed and began to cut the limb into three pieces so we could drag it to the curb. I picked up armfuls of smaller branches and tossed them into the construction dumpster. Together we lifted the banister and laid it against the house. With just a few minutes of daylight left, and the power still off, we got in the car and went in search of dinner. We came home hungry—the power was out everywhere.


One Wall Painted
 in the Family Room



Things looked much better in the light of day. The storm left behind a sunny, low humidity day and the Public Works Dept. had already sent out a truck to pick up the limbs everyone was dragging to the street. We decided to drive to Roanoke Island and explore the town of Manteo, but not until we put a coat of “China Doll” on the upper portion of one wall in the family room. Declaring the total look a winning combination, we cleaned up and headed east. To quote the well-known singer Maurice Chevalier, “Thank heaven for little girls; they grow up in the most delightful way!” I am thankful my “little girl” was around to help me through these last two days.