The Tent is Down!

Drywall between living and Florida room.

The weekend saw Rick putting up drywall between the living room and the Florida room to try to marry the two spaces together.  At first I thought that we would frame the walls with wood like the wide doorways in the old house I grew up in, but Rick suggested just putting drywall in to de-emphasize the walls, and I think that was a great decision.

We have tried to take the last two days to get a little relaxation after a very rocky start.  We knew that the Bay Area Termite and Pest Control people were supposed to be at our house by noon on Tuesday, so I packed up a few things on Monday and Rick assured me that we would have all of Tuesday morning to finish packing what we wanted to get out of the house before they tented it for termites.

Tenting starts as we finish packing inside!

The tents go up.

We got up at 7:00 so we would have plenty of time to strip the bed, do the laundry, finish packing the food, and then we got the phone call: the Pest Control guys were 10 minutes away, and the clock was only reading 8:30 a.m.!  We did a very quick scramble to finish packing the food and getting the final items into our suitcases.  We were still scrambling to get everything into the truck as the guys were already on the roof putting tarps over the house.  I left laundry in the clothes hamper, dishes in tubs that we intended to remove from the house (but didn't), and everything in an unsettled state.   By the time we drove off, our house was completely tented, and we were on our way to two days of "relaxation."

One of the things we had planned on doing was to visit a little shop here in Dunedin that allows people to paint their own pottery.  Because I, butter-fingers that I am, dropped and broke our camper's napkin holder, I chose to paint a new napkin holder. I talked Rick into painting a flower vase for me since I do not have a vase here in Florida.  I will post pictures of the finished results when we pick up the pieces next Tuesday after they are fired.  Although the pottery and studio fees were pricey, I could not believe how good it felt to do something creative beyond the realm of remodeling.

After lunch, we toured some of the quaint little shops of the city.  One of the shops that we visited was an upscale consignment shop.  I love to look at all of the unique merchandise in these shops, and this shop was outstanding.  The woman who worked with us told us that many people buy condos in Florida, fill them with furniture, and then decide that Florida is not for them.  They need to sell the furniture, so much of it ends up in consignment shops.

Dining room table and chairs with "crap" on it.

While we were in there, we found a glass-topped dining room table and four chairs that I really liked.  Rick was not sold on it at first, and even less enthusiastic after finding three scratched on the table top.  We left the shop and visited two other furniture stores looking at glass-topped tables. Nothing we saw thrilled us, and the prices on some were too high. Additionally, none of the sets we looked at had chairs that were as comfortable as the chairs in the consignment shop.  Then we found that Kane's, one of the furniture stores, sold new glass table tops for a reasonable price.  We went back to the consignment shop and did a little price haggling.  The owner was willing to come down on the price of the already-reduced set.

Back of the dining room chair.

The funky table, which has wrought-iron legs and a tin insert under the table to match the tin chair backs, comes with four chairs.  The upholstery on the chairs is a tan suede-like fabric that looks brand new.

Baker's rack with some of the "crap" removed.

Standing next to the table was a matching baker's rack.  Rick was totally turned off to the rack although we would have room for it in Gladys.  What was hard to see was that the rack had a matching tin medallion and room for six bottles of wine and hanging wine glasses.  There was so much "crap" (Rick's word) on the rack that no one could really see what it looked like.  I started to remove some of the items on the rack, and the clean, more simplified rack emerged.  Although it does not have great deal of practical value, Rick reasoned that this was a unique set and that we would never be able to find a matching piece to go with the table.  The price was right, so we bought it also.  In all, we probably saved 40 - 50% of the cost of the set if it were new.  The colors will coordinate well with the tans of the terrazzo, and we are excited to finally have a dining room table!

The only rat left in Gladys.

Before we left the house earlier this week, we received a "house warming" gift from Steve and Chris.  Rick called them tonight and told Steve that we had a problem:  all of the rats were dead due to the poison gas they pumped into the house except one.  When Steve asked how that could be, Rick told him the rat appeared to be stuffed!  The joke turned out to be on them, too.

Gulf waters between Dunedin and Clearwater Beach.

The one good thing about being in a hotel is that this one is in Dunedin, and it is right on the Gulf.  I have added one final picture: the view that we have from the window of our third-floor hotel room.  We get to return to Gladys tomorrow afternoon, and I must admit that it will feel good to be home again.