A bargain

Sergio showed me around the Haddon house yesterday and it looks amazing. The new colors are beautiful, with just enough substance to provide contrast to the lovely white trim. The floor had been sanded, and under the dark red varnish it turns out to be white oak. The new stain will be more neutral. That was yesterday. Today is the first coat of polyurethane; Thursday is the second coat; Friday and Saturday it dries while they put in custom molding, perfect the painting of the baseboards, and finish up with painting a couple of closet interiors and reinstalling the doorknobs and outlet covers and so on. We don't expect to be back in until Sunday.

The living room and the kitchen, after painting and floor sanding.










I am sort of hoping that we can sleep in the basement on Friday and Saturday nights instead of going back to Glenway for another weekend. This is my project for the next couple of days, to see if I can organize enough in there to make it inhabitable. Saturday during the day, we maybe can spend with neighbors; at least half the day will be devoted to the yard sale, anyway. (That will free up a lot of space in the basement.)

Meanwhile more work goes on outside. Even aside from the exterior painting, for which Dale and I are clearly unequipped, there is no way we could possibly have done the landscaping that they are doing. It is a huge amount of work and has generated multiple truckloads of trash. Thank goodness the weather was coolish for a while, down to 80 and not so humid. Now, though, it's back to the sopping heat.

Overall we are basically stunned by the incredible job that Sergio and his crew are doing. They're prompt, they're nice, they're thorough, they do good work, they keep in touch, they clean up after themselves, they leave the place secure, and they just take care of everything. They will be working on our house for a total of about eleven eight-hour days, with 2-4 workers every day. Dale never thought he would say this about a remodeling job, but last night he said, "It's a bargain."