Gene Pool

These are my feet at a hazardous waste site. I am not afraid of working in chemical goo--I am trained, proficient and experienced. I can take samples from tanks all day long. I am comfortable in this environment. I am however inadequate in all things domestic. I do not have the M.S. (Martha Stewart) gene. I am not a domestic....diva, engineer, or miracle worker. I never took home economics in high school. I was too busy breaking the gender barrier in Agricultural Science--I was on the Dairy Judging Team. To this day I can still recite the Future Farmers Pledge(FFA) and say the greek alphabet 3 times holding a match (ADPi). Skills that might come in handy during a discussion of stupid animal tricks, but are absolutely useless when one is remodeling. I have been way out of my comfort zone since we started this project. Do you know how many choices of flooring and carpet are available? That there is laminate, engineered wood and wood flooring. Wood flooring can be scraped, hand scraped, stressed, distressed, strips (2.25 inch) or planks (3 and 5 inch). We went to Floor and Decor and I nearly had a panic attack, rows and rows of tile--so many choices of color, texture and material--that I was literally frozen to the spot overwhelmed by possibilities. My husband and I walked every aisle like we had never been to the big city, mouths open, mind numbing. So we decided to hire a professional---first question out of their mouth was "What do you want?". Floors can be wood, tile, carpet ? What I want is to go to bed and wake up with a completely remodeled living room...Can you do that? I want you to send me on a vacation and come home to the perfect house (I know it happens that way on T.V.).

We are at week 3 of the remodel (of course the wood we finally chose was back-ordered and the carpet can't be laid until the wood is in). We have beautiful haze colored walls (the color of the sand on the mesa); white ceiling and trim, faux-wood blinds (actual material not specified); a new fireplace mantel--no furniture and concrete floors. This weekend we bought furniture--to be delivered on October 13th (provided floors arrive). I drug my husband to 10 furniture stores from low-end to high end--over two days, we must of looked at hundreds of sectionals--we loved only two--one at the high end of the low-end and one at the low-end of the high-end.

We opted on the high end of the low end--mostly because it could be available by October 13th, we saved about 800 dollars and our daughter could sit on it. The other sofa might be ready in time for Thanksgiving; but for sure by Christmas. The low-end/high-end also contained down pillows (which our daughter is allergic to); the salesman said they were hypo-allergic and sealed-- We were unsure if this was a pro or con--

Pro: It would ensure that the our daughter and her flock of teenage friends would use the den and leave the living room to us

Con: It might also cause our daughter eyes to swell shut (like when I surprised her with down pillows--also hypo-allergic sealed) and we found out that she was in fact allergic to down).

We opted for our daughter to be able to sit in the living room with us (she doesn't believe us-but we really do love her). We are however not putting a T.V. in the room so that it can be a reading room.

Today we have furniture on order, carpet on order, wood on order, and a very big empty room with concrete floors in which we taped the dimensions of all of the future furniture (to ensure that everything will fit). If I close my eyes and tap my heels together 3 times I can visualize it done. I am simply praying that everything matches when it finally arrives. If it doesn't I am going to Garden Ridge and Tuesday Morning and purchase a "inspirational piece" in a bright color and toss it around the room in pillows, candles, drapes to tie it all together. That is what Martha would do.