Friday, July 30, 2021

Friday, July 30, 2021

Tonight's picture was taken in July of 2004. This was Mattie's second trip to the Outer Banks of North Carolina. That year, we invited Peter's parents, his brother, sister-in-law, and Mattie's cousins along. That year Mattie loved sand time, and though the water still scared him, it did not prevent him from learning to play and build in the sand. 

Quote of the day: Today's coronavirus update from Johns Hopkins.

• Number of people diagnosed with the virus: 34,927,584
• Number of people who died from the virus: 612,934

Every Friday, since April, I have been participating in a two hour conference call to work with a research team to design and develop an implementation science proposal. The proposal is to qualify for a $1M government grant, over four years. If we should be lucky enough to win this grant, this would then be the first largest implementation study with the psychosocial standards of care.

After the call, Sunny and I jumped into the car to head to the house as both the painters and the wood floor folks wanted me there. This is what our living room used to look like when we bought the house. It had dark brown walls and the floors looked pink! What you may not be able to see is the room had speakers near the ceiling, wires, and holes everywhere. 

This is what the living room now looks like! I can't tell you how it brightens up the house! The floors are stained and three coats of oil sealant are going on it. Today only the first coat went on, and the rest will be done on Monday and Tuesday. Then in about a week, the team will be back to sand the stairs and banister, so that all the woods on the first floor match. 

This is what our family room used to look it. Holes in wall, mirror over fireplace, and the orange rectangle on the wall is actually old paint that was covered by a TV. Overall the color in the room was grey. 

This is what the room now looks like. 

This was the color of the dining room. I would say this room has had the most significant transformation, as it needed a ton of work. Wallpaper removal and then fixing the walls because the wallpaper removal revealed that the walls had a stucco texture. 

The new look! This Medici Ivory color just brightens up the whole house and makes it look much warmer. 

I snapped this photo because it shows the consistency in wood color. This is important, because every room has a different wood grain. So unless it is stained correctly, the rooms looked very disjointed before. 

While waiting on the patio today, I found a woodpecker at our feeders. It was a long day. I don't do well with waiting around, I much prefer to be active and doing something. But I knew my presence was necessary, as today was the final day for the painters. The lead painter returns in August to do final touch ups and to finish our laundry room. The laundry room is on hold until electrical work is done in about a week.

We have had the painters for 16 days straight. I am looking forward to having our space back, because we literally couldn't be inside the house while they were working.