The paint job spurred a few projects. If you're going to go through the effort of painting you may as well do it ALL right. Our side gate didn't get redone when we did the fencing around the house. The rest of our property has a stylish horizontal fence but the gate continued with the old vertical wood. I decided to take this project on myself. To be honest it took me 3 days to get it done but it took about 2 days of juggling to get materials and the gumption to use a circular saw. Well, I also must say that I needed to juggle the nanny and push off all other appointments (dentist) and needs (sitting at Pete's enjoying a good book and quality me time) to make time to build a gate. It's not so easy for us stay at home moms. Plus, we have a mess all around the house because of all the work. I couldn't find things like my protective eye gear, working gloves or wood screws so easily. I ended up buying new wood screws. It's these stupid, redundant purchases that hike up the cost of projects. I hate buying anything twice. But in the essence of time I had to do what I had to do.
This past week I was finally ready: tools in hand, measurements done, nanny set and so I tackled the gate door. I ended up asking our painter how to use the circular saw and I saw the look of fear on his face. He did the cuts for me...out of pity, out of fear. I lied and told him I had less pieces to cut than what I actually did so I could cut some wood myself. I do have pride you know. And let me tell you it was the best feeling ever. I still fear the saw like nobody's business but at the time I grabbed the bull by the horns and did it! As P says "easy peasy lemon squeezee"!
I started out the project having peaceful time to myself as Dave took the girls to school. I got as far as making all the cuts before he returned with Gemma. He gave me another hour but I knew he had to be at work so I felt under the gun. I hate working under a time constraint...specially when doing something new. I make careless mistakes. But I did manage to get one of those anti-sagging tension things on the back side of the gate and 5 boards up before he came out and said I had another 15 minutes. I got a another two boards up.
The real juggle began as I continued putting boards up while tending to 18 month old Gemma. She doesn't wander off but she does want to do EVERYTHING I'm doing. She was incredibly helpful; she passed me screws and held the opposite side of each board as I screwed it in. She was incredibly unhelpful; she dumped out multiple boxes of screws into one giant pile and moved the drill bits around in the mud. But through it all she seemed to have fun and like my dad taught me, building is not just for the dudes. She is becoming comfortable with power tools. I love that!
I finished the gate in one day. Once I had all my ducks in a row it took about 2 hours. It feels so good to know that as long as we are here I can say "I built my own gate". I will look at that gate everyday and know I did that! It's a great feeling.
One of the painters cracked me up. He came over to tell me the gate looked good. And then he said "I didn't think you were really going to do it. You've been walking around that wood for days just looking at it but not touching it!" I told him I had to face my fear of the saw and do something with the kid. We laughed.
The pictures here will give you a little sneak peak into the new color scheme of the house. As of today the house is basically done. There are a few details....important details that will get finished next Saturday. I also have a huge trek ahead of me to clean up, throw away and reorganize things outside. And then and only then will I take pictures!
Labels: color, painting, wood work
