the WingDangDoo

I’m not sure I have the fortitude to post the befores. The tile was old. And mismatched. And… pink.

But here are the afters.

I wanted a playful, boyish bathroom that would serve my kidlets well through their middle and high school years, and that was stylish enough for everyone to use comfortably.

What I didn’t realize? Was that I was recreating every indoor pool deck I’ve visited in my 44 years.

It all started with this window. It’s off-center and awkward, and I didn’t know what to do to unify the vanity and the off-center window. So I said f it, let’s tile the wall. Who will notice the window on a tiled wall?

You can take the girl out of the pool…

And, oh, yeah. The vanity? IKEA godmorgon. Similar to the one dooce used in her bathroom remodel. And for what it’s worth? I’m well aware that we’re all gonna die. In fact, that’s the reason we remodeled in the first place.

Turns out we were doing it wrong.

We didn’t click the acrylic beads into place properly. When the electricians hung the light (the first time), I can only imagine it was like what happens when you finally bust open a pinata.

It only took 2 more hours of finger-breaking labor.

One more coat of poly on the floor until I can move into my new home office.

And enjoy the lovely view outside the windows.

But with so much new loveliness inside the house, who am I to complain?

My home office needs a light.

This looked like a good one.

The instructions failed to mention that some assembly would be required.

Here’s hoping it doesn’t disintegrate when the electricians hang it on Tuesday.

No children were harmed in the assembly of this light. Not permanently, anyway.

When you’re cash poor and carrying two mortgages, it’s hard to turn down free furniture.

Even when it’s this dumpy.

I mean dumpy in its most literal translation. It was from the dump. For free. Eleven years ago, my father took pity on us and dropped off random pieces of furniture from the dump every once and again. The chair served its purpose. It was in heavy rotation in our house until we sprung for some new furniture. And by new, I mean purchased through the classifieds. Yes, kids, it’s true: before craigslist made its way to the ‘burbs, we used to use small ads in the newspaper to buy and sell things. Crazy, right? Once we bought our new used couches and the like, this baby was left in the basement, where it became a victim of my youngest’s tape fetish.

Nothing a little vinegar, scrubbing and sand paper couldn’t solve.

Along with some metallic spray paint, IKEA fabric, and Scotch Guard.

I like to think the 8 stands for “I spent no more than $8 on this chair.”

We’re renovating the house. I’d like to think my thrift with this chair makes up for my excesses with porcelain, glass and marble tile everywhere else. Once my new home office is complete, my figure 8 will be the star of the show.  For now, it’s waiting in front of a patched-and-primed wall where a door used to be. That’s ok. The figure 8 already waited 11 years for its transformation. She and I can wait a few more weeks.

Wondering if the code hacks into wordpress on my host server account have rendered this blog useless… or if this thing is still on.

Truth is, I never thought for a minute they would run so fast.

But they came back.

So there are things that happen to me.

And there are things that simply don’t. And I’m fine with that.

Except one big thing that doesn’t ever happen to me actually happened.

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Dear Friends,

It was an honor to represent you this morning in Swim Across America’s 1.5 mile swim from Greenwich to Stamford. Your generosity made me one of the top 5 “earners” for this event. We raised more than $6,500 for cancer gene therapy research, or more than 2% of the total of $300,000 in contributions yielded by the swim. I can’t thank you enough!

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Did I happen to mention what I’m doing this weekend? What’s that? Only a billion and seven times?

Oh.

Both sets of footprints are mine.