Guest Room #2 
(when it was "Christina's Room")

2/18/2006-1/3/2010

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2/18/2005      Beth and I rough-sanded Christina's room's floor today.  I stained it.  
     Christina didn't help.
2/19/2005      I put on the first coat of polyurethane on the floor this morning.  Christina didn't help.  Later, she spent the night at a friend's house.
2/20/2005     Put on the 2nd coat of polyurethane on after sanding the floor again.  It looks really nice.  Christina didn't help.  In fact, when I told her that next weekend she had to help she looked depressed.
2/22/2005      Beth and I spent the better part of the day sealing up old entryways and patching the walls.  Christina came home and stood in the doorway talking.  I told her that if she wasn't there to help she should move along.  
     She moved along.
2/23/2005      Today was productive but slow.  Just some skim-coating to help smooth out the new dry walled areas.
     Beth and I did it.
     Christina was nowhere to be found.
2/24/2005      It's snowing again so no work in the construction trade.  I got right onto the final skim-coats while Christina drank cocoa and read a book in the living room.
     To her credit, she vacuumed the room towards the end of the day after being ordered to.
2/26/2005      It should be noted that we closed on the house one year ago on this day.
     Much skim-coating and much sanding.
     The dust is incredible but not as bad as the living room had been.  I'm priming tomorrow even if the walls are still a little 'distressed'.  I don't care.  Whoever we sell this house to will have to  understand that it's a century old and that's that.
     We found a big brass bed for her in Fredericksburg, Va., this afternoon.  Beth and I tied it onto her Lexus' roof while Christina sat in the car.  When we got home I let Beth go inside to start cooking but kept Christina outside to help me carry the bed in as it's very large.  After riding on the roof for two hours in 27° weather at 50 mph it was a little cold to the touch and Christina noted this fact sounding much like a Buddhist monk chanting a mantra through chattering teeth.  If a foreigner had walked up and heard the word 'cold' for the first time, he would think it's spelled with seventeen 'C's.
     It should be noted that we closed on the house one year ago on this day.
3/1/2005     The room is painted and we've made good progress on painting her furniture.  Her stuff is scattered all about the house so this will be one of those projects where everything really comes together in the final hours.
     Christina is upstairs painting her shelves glossy white while we're eating lunch.  Now, there's a nice change.
3/3/2005      Much of today's work was comprised of framing out the brickwork of the exposed chimney and repairing the doors.  The doors were surprisingly easy to fix in that, like all the other doors in the house, they had been kicked in and the screw holes for the hinges had been stripped.  All we had to do was sink some more aggressive screws into the framing and they worked just fine.
3/5/2005      The trim work is repaired, replaced and now primed & painted thanks to Beth. I don't know where she gets the patience to paint trim the way she does.  I can do it.  I just choose not to.
     The replacement moldings look all right.  The wood that we were able to reuse is in pretty bad shape but once it was painted it took on that 'old house' look that actually has its own unique sort of charm and we commiserated over it until we'd totally agreed that such charm should be left as it is instead of doing the right thing and tearing it all out.
3/7/2005      Beth thought the brass bed frame looked a bit large but the guy said it was a twin.  Sure enough, it's a queen.  I won't go into all the details of what it took to figure out a way to get the parts rigged so that they could be attached to the existing bed frame.  Suffice  it to say that it was frustrating and involved much frustration and many scraped fingers getting toggle bolts lined up inside razor sharp brass pipes.  Once we got the adapter boards mounted onto the head and footboards we realized that her bed frame is the kind where the mattress hangs off by about 14 inches at the foot. 
3/10/2005      Happy anniversary to us!
     It was one year ago today that we piled into the trucks and car and headed North!
     Today I had to make yet another trek into Frederick to get some 36" steel shanks that have to be bored out and bolted onto Christina's bed frame.  This will give me the correct length to attach the angle irons at their ends (yet more drilling through 1/4" thick steel) and then the bed will be assembled.  I am so sick of this phase of getting her room in order.
3/11/2005      I'm sitting here at 7:30 a.m..
     The house is quiet.  Christina is off to school, and Beth is sound asleep.
     The evil bed is upstairs waiting for me.  I know this.  It's sitting there in silence biding its time, knowing that soon I'll be yet again cutting my fingers to ribbons, smashing my thumbs in its over-tightened nuts & bolts and becoming enraged as it refuses me any form of cooperation in its transformation into something beautiful and useful.
     I hate that bed.
3/27/2005      The reason we haven't added anything onto this area lately is simple.  We had a computer disaster and lost everything.  It's been almost two weeks and we're just now getting back to where we were.
     As far as the house goes?  You've missed absolutely nothing.  Both of us have allowed ourselves to just take it easy for a while and catch up on other things.  Sure, we'll get back to it soon but for now it's enough just to take care of all the other details in our lives that we've been neglecting.
12/28/2007      We just finished up for the day, we are working on two rooms this week while I'm (Beth) on vacation.  Our dressing room is being renovated and also Christina's room.  On the way to my parents in NC this Thanksgiving we found a new brass bed in a small antique store.  We tied it to the roof of my car and drove the additional 6 plus hours to Otto.  Initially  the plan this week was to assemble the bed as a surprise for her while she was in Florida for Christmas but at some point we decided to paint her room too.   
     We all had grown tired of the bright blue paint on the walls, a while back she picked a color and we purchased window treatments that have been sitting in their packaging under her bed.  Most of the painting is done now (I hope we bought the right shade that she previously picked!) and we hung the window treatments.  The room is looking great even in the disorganized state it is currently in.  Furniture is all over, her decorative pillows and bed spread are laying on our bed, her bed is in the landing room on it's side.  
12/29/2007    We're still slaving over he final touches for Christina's room and the clock is ticking.  I (Chuck) spent much of today in my ice-cold workshop fabricating an in-wall CD rack to replace the wobbly modern rack that used to sit on the floor and get knocked over every time anyone walked by it.  This will kill two birds with one stone in that her CD's will have a stable home while filling in the giant gaping hole where we broke through to install the new plumbing for her shower stall.  (The hole has been there for years!)
     Beth spent most of the day going through all of Christina's stuff and boxing up her more sentimental items so that they can be stored in the attic along with all the pots and pans we're saving to give her when she moves out some day.  She should have a fun time opening them up and reliving the memories of her childhood items.
    I can't wait.
4/18/2009      Christina moves out.
     We redecorated the room, painted, and it looks beautiful!
12/13/2009      Christina moves back in after having a fight with her boyfriend.
     The room looks like hell after only 48 hours, and gets worse by the day.
1/2/2010      Christina moves out again after her boyfriend whines, and cries like a baby to take him back.
     She is told that our home is not a landing pad for her to return to every time she and a boy have a spat.  If she leaves, it is for good.
     She leaves.
1/3/2010     We clean up all of her mess, box and bag her clothing, and the room once again looks wonderful....as it always will.