Having a whole four days off together seemed like the perfect time to invite parents and friends up for a weekend of work and play. The rub, though, was that it was floor-refinishing weekend.
The advantage of the cottage not having been touched in years means there are incredible bones to work with. The disadvantage is what we discovered about some of those bones. The living room and alcove floors, having lived under the previously-mentioned carpet for too long, were in decent shape and "only" needed an entire day of R going bucky on them with a rented padded sander. The kitchen and the bedrooms? They were a whole other story. Layers and layers of red, brown, gold, blue, and turquoise paint, plus tar underneath the linoleum layers, gave us a giant run for our money.
You know the old adage "measure twice, cut once"? It should be "x 100" when your house is on an island and the nearest hardware store is a ferry ride and then 10 miles away. The sander we'd rented just wasn't doing the trick, and was making R want to tear out her beautiful head of hair. So, Saturday morning, we woke up at 6:15, took the first ferry back to Bellingham, and were back at the cottage by 9am, with a totally intense drum sander.
While sanders were going in each bedroom, and hand sanders, too, N and T were sweet enough to tackle massive honey locus offshoot weeds in the backyard. In the pouring rain. Yes, they are amazing.
After a hard day's work, we hit the town for burgers and beer at the Beach Store Cafe (you can't even believe the deliciousness of this food!), and the next morning, we feasted on a crab and veggie scramble on the front porch, the crab courtesy of a neighbor's generosity, and marveled at our stunning adventure. Labor Day weekend resulted in excellent progress!
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