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“If you can get it done before Thanksgiving you can start, if not, we will have to wait until after tax season next year.” This is how my conversation was going with Scott regarding the renovation of our dining room. Scott assured me in his normally loud voice accompanied by his booming laugh that he could get it done. Scott has been doing renovations in the Allen House for so long that our children still refer to him lovingly as “Scott the Worker Man.” Scott chuckled with delight as he was giving me a “to do” list with instructions that the trigger must be pulled quickly so that the project would not be held up. Anyone that knows me knows I do not make decisions in haste and I certainly don’t let loose of my money unless I’m completely positive I have made the right choice. My “to do” list—pick out the wallpaper; buy an antique door with glass panes to match our entry way and living room doors; purchase two new chandeliers complete with two ceiling medallions. Both Scott and my husband, David, groaned when the list was handed out. These are major decisions and the Kae Allen they know and love has little chance of getting them made in the requisite time period allotted.
Little did these two little nay-sayers know but I had been plotting out this dining room renovation for close to a year in my mind. I had spent hours at an internet site called “Wallpaper Pirate” going over wallpaper patterns and had already found the perfect wallpaper. Now that the time had come, I just had to go through the formality of getting the book, bringing it home and seeing what it actually looked like in its future setting. I had spent countless hours scouring the internet for chandeliers and had narrowed the decision down to two options—one a traditional crystal chandelier, the other an Empire style with sparkly crystals draping down. Once again, if you know me, you know I love the sparklies. The Empire style was the winner and two sparkly chandeliers have been delivered to my door. The door was my only issue. Once again the internet saved the day. I was able to research the doors, find a place in Nashville that salvages old doors and voila, we have a beautiful12 pane beveled glass antique door riding home in the back of our suburban. My “to do” list is complete and on schedule.
My house has been invaded for weeks with the sound of mysterious banging and clanging as new walls are put up and the ceiling leveled. My hallway has been the constant home to large piles of aromatic cherry wood waiting to be milled into new moldings, wainscoting and crown mold. Today is the Saturday before Thanksgiving and my house is overrun with Scott the Worker Man’s worker men. The house reverberates with the whine of an air compressor and the sound of nails being snapped out of a pneumatic nail gun furiously putting wood trim into its rightful place.
The excitement in the air indicates that we all know the clock is ticking. The wallpaper man is coming on Monday as scheduled; the trim has to be up, stained and ready to go. TICK TOCK, TICK TOCK! Now I’m holding my breath to see if Scott the Worker Man can beat the clock!
