Blame It on the Boogie (or Cats)
April 22nd, 2007 by 
Caroline Spector
Here it is, 11PM Saturday, and I haven’t written my blog post yet. You see, I have a very good reason for not having my post up: My office is strewn about the house. The upside? There’s a gorgeous, new wood floor in my now-empty office.
Today, Jesse and His Crew of Renown installed the last half of the new floor. They would have had it done yesterday, but, as I have discovered in all the projects I’ve done in Casa Spector, if there was a funky/cheap/bizarro way of fixing/installing anything, that was the method preferred by the previous residents. Every man Jack of them.
This means every project, no matter how apparently straightforward, takes roughly three times as long as it normally would. (I realize that this is the case with most household projects, but really, it’s super-special in my house. Really. We just don’t have room here for details.)
And now I need to paint the office.
I hadn’t planned on painting the office, but there were places where the walls needed patching. When I went to look for my can of touch-up paint, it had vanished.
I found my original paint sample and took it to the office to compare the colors. The paint on the wall had faded, so even if I got a quart to match the paint sample, it would be darker than the walls.
Now I have to paint that bad boy before they deliver the new bookcases on Wednesday.
New cases that I wouldn’t’ve needed, except when we were moving the old bookcases out to put the new floor in, we discovered that most of them were too rickety to continue using. (They’re fifteen-year-old particle board with melamine coating. Hard to believe, eh?)
Somehow or another this floor thing has snowballed . . .
And it’s all the cats’ fault. I wouldn’t have needed a new floor in the office were it not for the cats.
And I’d explain why all this is the cats’ fault, but it’s 11 PM, and I’m falling asleep, and you’ll just have to trust me.
It’s the cats’ fault.
Posted in Caroline, Daily Life | 
6 Comments »
April 22nd, 2007 at 1:14 pm
What color are you going to paint? Do you need help?
April 22nd, 2007 at 1:17 pm
I completely understand what you are saying. I had a friend that bought a perfectly fine house that needed minor adjustments before moving in. You know new flooring, maybe some paint. Well it’s 3 years later and no one lives there yet. The good news, the house now has it’s walls back. (They look exactly the same as the old walls to me.)
April 22nd, 2007 at 3:51 pm
It’s always the cats’ fault. That’s a given.
I’m thinking of moving my “office” (a term that loosely applies to the desk at the end of the sunroom, but more accurately applies to the laptop in my lap) to the tiny little house we have in the back yard. This would require painting, maybe taking up the world’s ugliest astroturf flooring, and some actual thought about where things should go. And a space heater, so the books don’t turn to soup. Just hearing that someone else has gone through something similar is both encouraging and exhausting. And yes, our house also seems to have been built/remodeled by people who repaired to the beat of their own weird drummer, and it causes the most interesting problems down the line…
April 22nd, 2007 at 5:37 pm
I’m just repainting a fresh coat of the old color. I still quite like the shade. A mauvey/grey color, very neutral. (And be careful on those offers of help, Maureen. I am well-known for my Tom Sawyer like proclivities.)
No, it really is the cats’ fault. Had they not decided to express their uhm, displeasure on the carpet, none of this would be happening.
On the other hand, the walls needed a fresh coat of paint. The bookcases were rickety. And The Dude and I needed to Come to Jesus about our scary file cabinets. On the whole, more of a win than not.
April 23rd, 2007 at 8:40 pm
Well, I’ll just get my roller and be right over. Uh, oh, yeah. Eight hundred miles. Tsk.
April 26th, 2007 at 12:14 pm
I’m glad that the cats were able to help you decide to fix things up. they’re often helpful that way. One certainly helped me get a new couch, for instance.
So, does this mean that you guys have decided to quit looking for a new house? I remember when y’all were feverish about that, but I haven’t heard anything on the subject for awhile.