Sprucing up

by Gina Hamilton
Coastal Journal editor

Well, I have managed to wash the pale Sanibel Gray (really a light blue) paint out of my hair, but Rudie the Dog still has some in hers.

Down at Turning Tide Cottage, we have been sprucing up, on account of having a few days off and planning to have holiday visitors, to wit, my Aunt Susanna, and our son and heir Tristan, who will be coming home for a few days at Christmas, and the whole guest list coming for the Boxing Day feast the day after Christmas. If you’re not busy that evening, feel free to drop by. We cook an amazing dinner from some sunny and warm locale, somewhere in the world. We’re flirting with the idea of doing Morocco this year, but we haven’t decided quite yet.

Our bedroom is over the ell, and there are three rooms in that section of the house, all fairly small. Because Turning Tide cottage is a 1 1/2 story Cape, the upper floor is very much like Munchkin Land. Chris swears he hits his head when he gets out of bed. I don’t, but I am a few inches shorter than he is. Because the bedroom is so small, only the bed, the bedside tables, a mirror, my vanity, and a couple of sweater chests reside in it. Our regular dressers live in a room we call the Antechamber, a small room through which one has to pass to get to the bedroom itself. Another tiny bedroom, which we call the Baby’s Room, opens off the Antechamber. We don’t currently have a baby, but it’s good to be prepared for any eventuality. Right now, it’s a tiny, tiny guest room, for tiny, tiny guests. Only children have stayed in it so far.

Beyond these three rooms is a small hall, which opens into our rather spacious and very disorderly Office, then another hall which leads to the stairs, the bathroom, and the son and heir’s bedroom.

Downstairs, we have the living room, library, diningroom, kitchen, and coffee room. But except for the kitchen and coffee room, we already painted down there.

So anyway, we started the paint job this weekend, at the tail end of our vacation week. We painted on a day when the rain came down in buckets ... sounded like a good idea at the time. Some of the rain was coming inside, too, and Chris crawled out on the roof to empty the gutters, which seemed to work. One of our dead mice was also on the roof, and I don’t know exactly how he got there. But at least he was outside, not in the walls, where some of his bretheren are, and they do not render a room a happy place to be right now.

Because we bought fairly good paint, it dried quickly anyway, even in the pouring rain, so I am taking that as an object lesson. For next time.

I am not sure I have ever painted a room before lying on my stomach, but that was actually necessary in the bedroom. Because the roof slants down so alarmingly, the upright part of the wall is perhaps eighteen inches high. And we didn’t need a stepladder to paint the ceiling, which was nice.

Of course, Rudie wanted to help. She was delighted having us all to herself this past week, so it was impossible to turn her away, even though she was a bit of a nuisance. We spoil that dog shamelessly, but it’s hard not to relent when you look at her soft brown eyes that only want to be looking at you. Dogs know what they’re doing, and they’re master manipulators.

So anyway, the whole job took about two hours, and Rudie and I ended up covered in paint. But hey, it looks really nice now. I also bought some pretty fabric and made curtains for the closet, which doesn’t have a door. The room cheered up enormously. Now all we have to do is find a better light cover and the energy to paint all those other rooms.

Oh, and about a thousand other things.