Bursts of Excitement

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Views from a Train: Mount Shasta. 2007

I love days that move by smoothly interspersed with bursts of excitement. The decorator arrived with armloads of fabrics. Some of them looked remarkably like some that mother picked in the 1950’s. I had to laugh at this small bit of excitement.

We spread fabrics out everywhere. Neutral curtains were chosen….with a thread of turquoise. No neutral for the chair and ottoman….a giant plaid with a muted turquoise as its focus. Lampshade for Gimpa’s bronze lamp and small chair are both to be in a Japanese inspired turquoise. The fabrics all go together, and they all go with G’s bedspread, the carpet, the turquoise ceiling, and my heart.

I’d comment on a piece of furniture, and she’d say, “It’s amazing you know so much about each piece.”

I don’t know which grandmother owned the little chair before me, but I have a guess. The small rosewood chair was damaged in shipping from Wisconsin, so my guess is that it’s from one of Gimpa’s grandparents. The repairs could have been better. I’ll love it in the Japanese inspired turquoise fabric just as much as mother did when it was in horsehair.

Resources that I didn’t have were spread out and discussed. More art on one wall. Gimpa’s plein air piece photographed and a jpg of the damage emailed to her restorer. Mother had it above the fireplace in a house where everyone smoked. Except for a ruined center strip of paint, the piece is salvageable.

I talked with the “Quieter Home Program” person and he said the ceiling in the computer room would be the one they would lower for the upstairs heating and air conditioning. This will leave the bathroom ceiling intact, but it will delay finishing the bedroom trim. Sometime next year, I will add molding around the ceiling that will match molding now on the closet.

Slowly this project get’s done.

Then the day was quiet for the longest time. News that Lenora arrived in Oregon preceded dinner, and after dinner we drove down and picked up our tickets for the trip. Bursts of excitement indeed.