A Whole Lot of Fixin’ Goin’ On

Major house repair for seniors is either a necessity, a dream, or a nightmare.  Ours was a mixture of all of those.  For the last two years there has been a lot of fix-it stuff happening at our house.  It all began with a leaky old roof that needed to be replaced.  That was a blessing in disguise!  Day one – rip off old shingles and some of the plywood underneath.  That night – unexpected rain, or should we say…downpour!  A call to the contractor at 1:00 am got quick results, but not soon enough to prevent water damage to our ceilings.  Before the tarps could cover the exposed roof, enough water had soaked the ceilings that we had major damage in the living room and master bedroom and water stains in two other rooms.

That’s where the blessing comes in.  In the process of making repairs to the ceilings, the workers discovered that the drywall was installed backwards and it was also coming loose from the rafters!  I never knew there was a right and wrong side to drywall, but there is.  The primed side should be facing the room, but ours was not.  That meant that the lovely (snicker) popcorn stuff was barely hanging on, and that the ceiling was not secure!   That old saying “going bump in the night” suddenly had a whole new meaning for us! 

While that repair was going on, we decided to replace the popcorn ceilings in the rooms they were working on.  The newly textured ceilings needed to be painted, which led to the walls being painted, which led to chair rail, window and door trim and baseboards being added (and painted).  Whew! 

Now, after a two year break, it is time to replace windows.  We have already replaced three.  This week three more were done, plus window trim and blinds added …and I am painting again!  And, eek – I even scraped off the popcorn ceiling and textured the sitting room myself!  As I write this, there are six one-gallon cans of paint sitting on the floor looking at me.  They will be upset when they find out I may need to wait until my knee swelling goes away.  There’s no telling what’s happened, but I suspect age, arthritis and being out-of-shape may be the ugly truth here.  My ups and downs on the ladder have sent me to the rocking chair!  Sigh.  I don’t think I am ever going to get used to this aging business!