A Week to Oneself

Theo is enjoying Köln Karneval in Germany for a week and I happily stayed home with the dogs. If nothing else, Theo and Wolfgang sure are bright (like a kindergarten classroom… or a Mexican taqueria)!

Theo and Wolfgang ready to party!

Been getting lots done in his absence. The day Theo left, I finally attacked making a padded king-size headboard for the guest house. My first attempt at anything like this, but it turned out okay. Now if the bedding would just be delivered, I could sent an ‘after’ photo of the bedroom. But am still sourcing some nightstands, then lamps, so guess you’ll just have to wait. Or simply come for a stay! You know, the Tour de France comes right through our little town, over the Dordogne bridge, on July 11!!! But I digress…

I had intentions of recycling the headboard that was left in the house. But after crippling my hands pulling out a billion of the staples, I gave up and decided to just use the same shape and start from scratch. Bought new wood, foam, an electric staple gun, some batting, studs, and fabric, and off I went! Took me about 3 hours to do the whole thing and spent about €50 in supplies. But the satisfaction is in doing it myself. So there!

This is what we inherited with the house, a bee-u-tiful pastel tufted and tucked headboard, made for a ??princess?? I’m certain!!!

My new boards cut with a second layer around the outside.

My finished ‘masterpiece.’ (Still on my worktable because the beast is so heavy, I can’t get it up the stairs alone!)

For you folks in France looking for something to clean ‘avant la peinture’ or to cut through horrid gunk, this is your friend!

Also started attacking the cleaning of the guest house, after regrettably letting some of the Portuguese workers stay there. The grease dripping from the brand new kitchen wall tile was unbelievable, and so I donned my rubber gloves and mixed up a concoction that promised to be like TSP. After scrubbing, rinsing, and polishing the walls and the floor, it smells much better in there! Then proceeded to remove the hardware and scrub the cabinets. Used some super-duper epoxy primer and now I have to let it cure for 72 hours before the next step, color. Bought some gray paint for the cabinets months ago, opened it up, and don’t like it at all, so back to the drawing board.

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And so…other than the usual cleaning, organizing, and small handyman jobs around the house… it was such a rainy day here today, I started planning the garden! Who doesn’t like to dream of beautiful flowering beds and scrumptious fresh veggies for the sunny days to come? That, in fact, will be the focus of my next post. Looking for input from all you great gardener friends out there!

 

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4 Responses to A Week to Oneself

  1. Tyler says:

    Your headboard has way more class than the one that the princess left behind!

    Speaking of gardens, did you ever get your bamboo cleared out?

    Miss you guys! Hugs!

    • thecindy@mail.com says:

      Why thank you.

      We gave up on eradicating the bamboo. The septic guy rerouted the drain field to the left of the bamboo, so that solved a bunch of issues. I actually really like the sound the bamboo makes in the breeze — my growing garden will be directly behind the bamboo. Stay tuned!

  2. Stewart says:

    Good job Cindy, house is looking real nice.

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