We finished the ceiling trim and the middle ribs, the latter a necessity
in a room that has walls made of tongue-and-groove paneling, bead
board, sheetrock, and plywood. That's one of the reasons we chose a
rustic "Western" theme for the room, that and the need to find something
playfull enough for the children and palatable for grownups.
We've
installed 22 shelves, including a video game case, a Doctor Who
book-and-DVD case, and extra wide top shelves for puppets and stuffed
animals. There's also another 16 shelves in the pantry we built.
There's another DVD case to come, but it's far enough away from where
the TV will sit that we shouldn't have to worry about the TV being
damaged.
We tried to buy some linoleum at Lowe's but even though
they've previously delivered the next day for free, now they want $79 to
deliver in two weeks -- maybe. We found an indie hardware store that
sold us a better product $80 cheaper and was willing to deliver the next
day for $15. Guess who got our money? But with all the extra running
around it won't be installed until this week.
The TV arrived
Saturday, our first new one since 1996, which means the first new one
the children have ever seen, and our first flatscreen. It's a mid-size
LG, according to the reviews not considered good enough for those used
to high quality HGTV, but we're not and our jaws dropped just fine.
It's currently screwed into the carpet in the living room, waiting for
us to build it a proper base in the den.
My husband was concerned
about the fragility of the screen, and had me prop it up under the
edges with hardcovers. "Now make a barricade of books around it to keep
the children from getting close."
I raised an eyebrow. "If I build a book fort, they're going to play in it."
"Oh, right. That's out. Can we put up an electrified fence?"
We
got out our old DVD player and hooked up it. It had a Clannad CD in
it, the same one I'd been playing the day before the worst of the
burgularies, when we realized the best locks we could buy would no
longer work. I flashed back to that night when we packed up the
children and what little a theif might value, and fled the house right
before the predawn light.
Clannad began to play. My husband looked up. "It's working!"
I grinned. "You bought me a really big tape deck."
He grinned back. "And a really expensive one, too!"
We
got out My Neighbor Totoro. The first break-in had been a few days
before Owl's second birthday. Here we were, a few days before Owl's
fourth birthday. It was the first time in two years that we had had the
opportunity to sit down in our own house to watch our own TV and feel
safe while doing in. As we oohed and aahed over the picture, I may have
shed a few tears.
Later, as Owl lined up flowers from the back
yard on the table and we installed yet another shelf, my husband asked.
"Was that nice?"
"Uh, no. Not exactly."
"Hmm? Was it fun?"
"No. It was -- cathartic."
He was silent for a while, then said, "Yeah, me too."
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