Tag: Bert

First Meal

Saturday morning I got up bright and early and refreshed and went to tackle the bistro table. IMG_9256I’d looked at the instructions the night before, which caused a raging headache which led to yelling and misery. 🙂 I know – none of YOU have ever had a melt-down. The directions, although ostensibly in English, seemed extremely convoluted. In addition, there was a piece on the table base that did not appear in any picture I had of the completed table – not online, not in the directions. My husband was convinced he knew what it was and I thought he was probably correct, but it was making me crazy not to see it anywhere or have it mentioned anywhere. After repeated readings of the instructions, I finally realized where a different piece was “hidden” in the packing and things began to make a bit more sense. Lesson learned: don’t try to function when you are dehydrated and tired.

IMG_9257ANYWAY, I got up Saturday morning and put the table base together. Extremely simple. The table top is large and very heavy – it took the 2 of us to lift it, place it and turn it until it locked in place. I was surprised at the height of the completed table. It was several inches higher than I’d expected. I went back and began reading every review and all of the specifications for the table. I’d misread one of the measurements but I loved the table. The more I looked at it the less inclined I was to worry about the height. In fact, when I sat on the bay window seat, it was the perfect height for the table. I’ve been eating all my meals there! The more I looked, the more I loved. My husband loved it right from the start. I still worry that when we move the sideboard back into that room the overall effect of the 2 pieces will be too “heavy”. In the meantime I have ordered 2 counter height chairs for the table. And the electricians, who were here all day yesterday, also love the table. *grin* Which reminds me….

IMG_9271Bert, our neighbor, El Exigente, approves of the table. He came on Sunday to do his weekly critique. He told me he couldn’t find anything to criticize – he loved everything. *laughing* Of course he DID find things he didn’t like. He started in again about the blinds, expressed reservations about the wood color. He actually mentioned something that I thought was worth a follow-up but I can’t remember at the moment. The best part of his visit was that he annoyed my husband, who has always been amused at how annoyed all the rest of us get, but he himself is not annoyed. Until Sunday, when Bert got under HIS skin. LOVED IT! Schadenfreude for the win!

Everyone is Entitled to an Opinion

We had our weekly visit from our neighbor this morning. He comes over most Saturdays to survey the progress on our renovation. He’s not shy about voicing his opinions (when you reach 93 you are pretty much allowed to say what you want). On the one hand he is effusive with praise for our architectural decisions and product choices. On the other hand he argues with our decisions and choices. 🙂 Things he loves: the new doorway, the appliances, the cabinets, the floor, the pocket door, how we’ve made small rooms feel open and spacious, and, new this week, the cabinet hardware (last time he informed me that my choice was too ornate and over-done for a kitchen. 🙂 ). IMG_9165Things he dislikes (or at least this week): our bay window seat in the breakfast room (“it’s horrendous – get rid of it”), my (brand-new) white blinds in the kitchen bay window (“they’re horrible, no one uses blinds anymore, get rid of them”), self-closing cabinet doors/drawers (“wait til they break”), our ceiling fan (he only saw the picture but didn’t like it), our bistro table (only saw the picture but doesn’t like it – too dark, won’t go), our chestnut wood trim (“it’s too dark”), and something on which we can agree: “how will you ever reach the top shelves of the cabinets?”.

He also has some great insights, things that we had not considered. It was his idea to look into using the counter material on the bay window seat. That won’t be happening, but he got me thinking of other options for that seat. Today he had ideas on what we should investigate with the cabinets – to use either stops mounted very high and very low to keep the doors from hitting walls or to see if the contractors can limit the swing of the doors so they cannot open far enough to hit the walls. IMG_9166Those are great ideas. I hadn’t thought much beyond putting felt on the walls to protect them from the cabinet knobs. His ideas are better. 🙂

Trying to explain our plans for the broom closet this morning was, however, an epic fail. I don’t think he’s going to appreciate what we plan until he sees it executed. *laughing* One of his suggestions was for us to cut down the broom and mop handles. Once he finally seemed to get the idea of the cutout on the shelf to fit the handles, he started telling me not to divide the bottom of the cabinet because I’d need a wide space for buckets, etc. *smile* It doesn’t matter that I said I don’t keep things like that with the brooms – that’s what I NEED to do. *grin*

He’s our neighbor, our friend, my husband’s BFF, and we should only be as sharp and as healthy as he is when we reach his age. At least his parting words are always “you’re doing a fantastic job, I can’t wait to see it next week”.