Just when we think we've got a plan...

Hello.

Long time, no see.

I know I haven't checked in lately.

Don't worry. It's not you.

It's me.

No, really.

I'm not just saying that.

I've been horrible with this blogging thing.

And I have two now.

What was I thinking.

Anyway, now that we're reacquainted, have I got a story for you.

See it all started with staring at our blue bedroom walls.

The wall color was fine.

But it brought out the ugly side of our bedroom furniture.

It highlighted the orange undertones of it.

Not a fan of the orange.

Never have been.

Gotta fix it.

What to do.

We could repaint the room.

OR

We could stain the furniture darker.

Yeah let's do that.

It'll fix the underlying issue.

That's how we roll.

Why take care of the problem temporarily when you can permanently fix it?

Google confirmed our plan would work.

Off to the paint store.

Got the stain.

The guys at the paint store remembered us from when we refinished our dining room furniture.

We get a discount.

Not too shabby.

The dresser and the nightstands go off without a hitch.

The bed is the only piece left to refinish.

And that requires disassembling the bed.

Which means sleeping elsewhere for an evening.

We set a plan.

It looks like this.

Friday, we take the bed apart.

I stain it like the other pieces and we let it dry Friday night.

We camp out in the living room.

Saturday we fix the ceiling fan in the bedroom. It wobbles. And squeaks. Matt can't sleep with a squeaky ceiling fan. Many a night I've woken to him standing on the bed trying to stabilize the fan so it won't squeak. So we just run it at a lower speed so it won't squeak. We don't sleep with the AC on to save money and because it's loud. So it gets a lil warm without the ceiling fan. Gotta fix it.

Then we'll varnish the bed, let it dry during the day.

Change out the rug under the bed. The one we had was torn up. Don't get a looped pile rug if you have a lab who likes to put her big ol' paws on it and drag her claws all the way across the rug ripping up the yarn. It'll look bad within two months and you'll have to get a new one.

Reassemble the bed and sleep in it Saturday night.

Simple right?

We choose a weekend.

Friday afternoon.

Disassemble the bed.

Go to stain it.

Um.

The stain dried out.

How?

Don't know.

Gotta run to the paint store to get more.

It closes at 5:30 for the weekend.

It's 4:20.

Matt's outside trying to fix our lawn mower.

We think it's the muffler.

We decide to look for a muffler after we get the stain.

Make it to the paint store in time to get the stain before they close.

Go to 3 stores looking for a muffler.

We have to special order it.

Do we have a 160cc motor or 190cc?

Don't know.

We'll go home and check.

Check and head back to the store.

We have a 160cc.

You mean the 160cc costs $22 and the 190cc costs $7?

Of course it does.

We go home and order our $22 muffler online.

Back to staining.

It goes well.

A plan of ours is actually working.

A miracle.

We camp out in the living room and don't sleep very well at all.

Saturday.

Fix the ceiling fan.

The metal ring holding the fan together won't come off.

We spend 30-45 minutes trying to figure out how to get the ring off so we can take the fan down.

There is gripping.

Twisting.

With a silicone pot holder.

Banging.

From all angles.

Prying with a chisel.

Finally it comes off.

Matt assesses the situation.

Screws the electrical box tighter into the stud in the ceiling.

Puts the whole thing back together.

It works beautifully.

On high speed.

We rejoice that it will be cool in our room.

I varnish the bed.

We plan to grill chicken and get a movie.

We just have to change out the rug and reassemble the bed.

We go into the bedroom to finish up.

Matt: "Did you slow the ceiling fan down?"

Me: "No."

Matt: "Hmm."

We both know where this is going.

We had the same issue in our living room.

Turned out there was some exposed wiring that overheated the ceiling fan when the light was on and slowed it down.

He disassembles the fan again.

Puts electrical tape over all the wiring.

Reassembles the fan.

Still doesn't work.

Makes a funny noise.

Disassembles the fan.

Checks wiring again.

Takes fan all the way apart to get to the motor.

Can't get the motor open.

Reassembles the fan.

Still doesn't work.

We decide to get another one.

$100 we didn't want to spend.

Off to Lowe's.

They have the same fan.

But they're out of stock at the South location.

We head to the North location.

They're out too.

We ask a guy.

He tells us we can call every few days to see if they get it in.

Might be a week.

Might be longer.

When they finally get them in, we should ask them to hold it and try to be one of the first 10 people to get there and get one.

That sounds like fun.

I don't really have anything going on for the next couple weeks, so I can babysit this ceiling fan issue.

Not really.

We decide to try Home Depot to see if there's one we like better and then look online.

Home Depot disappoints.

We go online.

It's on clearance.

$75 including shipping.

We order it and will have to wait.

We get Wendy's for dinner.

It's now 9 p.m.

We get home.

We change out the rugs.

Put the bed on the rug.

Put the box spring on the bed.

Put the mattress on.

Time for the sheets.

They're not dry.

Of course they're not.

I could've dried them all afternoon if I had thought about it.

But I didn't.

So we wait for them to dry.

It's now 10 p.m.

We
are
exhausted.

The sheets dry.

We make the bed and go to sleep.

We both wake up feeling our age.

Between all the physical activity and our living room campout, Matt's injured his neck and his back.

We'll be making a chiropractor appointment in the morning.

So much for a fun bedroom makeover.

At least it's starting to take shape.

The worst is over.

That's what we keep telling ourselves.

The muffler and fan should arrive this week.

Then it's round 2.