Adventures in remodeling

My friends Jenn and Paul and Paul's brother, Justin recently went in together to buy a house. They're so grown up. Buying a house seems like a mirage on the horizon of my life experiences. Anyway, originally they were just going to redo the bathroom and add a second one. Then they decided to move a couple walls. Now they're tearing out the kitchen and replacing everything, rerouting hall ways, taking out closets... It seems like this is normally how remodeling goes.

So I volunteered to help them paint. On a steady diet of pizza and soda, the four of us spent the afternoon rolling olive-colored paint onto their living room walls, over our names, which we had painted on earlier. It was cool to watch the room transition, and actually kind of therapeutic to get wrapped up in filling in the missed spots near the ceiling with a paint brush. Somehow I was the one who ended up with the most paint all over me. I even had it on my contact lenses from painting the ceiling.

While Justin and I were putting on the finishing touches, Jenn and Paul started tearing down tile in the bathroom. It was funny to look down the hall and watch Jenn wielding a sledgehammer while the sheet rock flew around her. Judging from the magnitude of the shattering tile, that girl is deceivingly strong. Following one crash, I heard her say dramatically, "I woke up this morning, and I just hated everything" (A line from which movie - I can't remember).

We followed up the work with a movie at my place (Scary Movie IV, I wouldn't recommend it.) Of course, they brought more soda, sour fish, Ben and Jerry's Chunky Monkey ice cream, pop corn and Mike and Ike. I ate so much junk food today I feel sick.

Lesson learned: Wear closed toed shoes - not flip flops - while participating in construction projects. (I couldn't try the sledge hammer because of this faux pas).