Leaving Before We're Kicked Out

I think it’s time to leave.

After two full months of her house in turmoil, my sister-in –law is bound to kick us out if we don’t make the first move. 

We emptied her living room and put all the furniture, save for the essential couch and tv, into the garage.  Her home was infused with the incense of fresh paint. You could never be sure that the closest bathroom was in working order. Air vents could fall from the ceiling with no warning.

And all she wanted was new flooring.

I’m horrible at getting “before” pictures.  I rarely get the chance to take them. Hubby tends to jump in with both feet before my feet are even in the doorway. In running to catch up, the best I can do is to document the chaos that follows.

The logic goes like this: If we’re going to change the living room carpet, we may as well paint the room first. The walls of the living room flow into the kitchen, stairway and upstairs hall with no break.

Unlike my multi-disciplined hubby, I’m pretty single talented. I can paint. So I had very little chance of getting away with a California holiday this winter.

Once the painting was done, we removed the old, and now splattered, carpet. With the carpet removed, we ordered the laminate flooring that was going to replace it. Hmmm, it’s a two week wait for the order.  No worries.  The irresistible force moves on.

While waiting for the living room flooring to arrive, it was decided to put new stick-on tiles over the old kitchen linoleum, since the kitchen had also been painted. There were enough tiles left over to do the two small bathrooms and the toilet stall in the master bath. But since that involves removing toilets, we replaced the old toilets, and, hey, why not the sinks, too. And if you change the sinks, you might as well get new faucets, right?

In the old story of the knee bone being connected to the hip bone, if we don’t leave soon, dear sister-in-law may be paying for a whole new house.

I think it’s time to leave.

W

PS. The house looks beautiful.  Sister-in-law breathes a sigh of relief.