I like the view of my backyard. It’s green and lovely and the flowers, particularly the begonias, are marvelous at this time of year. Jay has worked on the grass until it resembles a thick, green, lush carpet. Shag carpet, if the shags never got pressed down but stood proud and defiant in the face of all foot traffic!
If only I could see it while pouring myself a hot cup of coffee in the morning.
Sigh.
I’ve been meaning to wash them since the weather first got nice back in April but there just always seems to be something else more pressing. The lake, for instance, isn’t going to walk around itself, is it?
No, it is not and I’ve been hiking its perimeter with regularity all summer so last Tuesday, while Jay cooked me dinner, I took on the windows. There are five of them and each consists of four large panes, one of which must be lifted off in order for the outside face to get scrubbed. The final pane of each window must be washed from outside, so it’s definitely a job for nice weather and some time.
The weather doesn’t get any better than what we’ve been treated to since School started and I finally took the time.
I started in the corner near the kitchen and worked my way around the room, moving furniture out of the way so I could reach every corner of the large panes. I knocked down cobwebs and dusted off spiderwebs as I went. Those corners were full of dead bug carcasses. The spiders will remember ’15 as a bountiful year, until the dreaded miracle cloth hurricane wiped them out. Same as every other year.
I was scrubbing and sweating and polishing up those big, flat panes all the way around the room. I noticed when I moved the velvet, camel backed love seat I got from Uncle Bruce that my damn cat has been sharpening her claws on the back of it. I won’t miss her when she dies, stupid cat.
When I got to the last window, I saw that the piano bench I’ve been using as an end table for years has been taking a beating. Sunlight and the occasional rain that gets in before we can close all the windows had ruined the finish on the top of the bench.
No problem! Thanks to the projects I’d been working on for Josie all summer, all my refinishing tools are at my fingertips in the garage! I finished cleaning windows, cleared off the bench and carried it out to the driveway. Before Jay took the meat off the grill, I had the old finish scraped off the top of the bench.
A break for dinner and I was able to put some new stain and apply a fresh coat of varnish before it got dark out. I’m using the oil based varnish I used on the sunshine face over the garage, since the bench clearly gets more heavy duty wear and tear than my water based varnishes can withstand. Back in the house, I printed the word BENCH on the white board to remind me to put it in the garage before I went to bed; it’s been raining at night quite often and rain will not be conducive to a good finish.
Then Katie came over. She had come to pick up a few things to take to Josie on her next visit. Naturally, she, Zack and I got carried away, talking about books, movies and other things we thought would interest each other.
It was about an hour after dark when I realized that beneath the conversation I heard something else; it was pouring rain outside.
I ran out, grabbed the bench and stuck it in the garage but it was too late; the fresh coat of varnish had been ruined.
The next morning, I had to start over; I scraped off the wrecked coat of varnish, which took most of the new stain with it; re-stained it and finally, around lunch time, varnished it again. Just to be on the safe side, I kept it in the garage, even though the skies looked clear. Fool me once, etc.
Two days after I started, two attempts at refinishing the piano bench later, everything is back on the porch, looking more beautiful than ever. By Friday morning, I was able to pour myself a hot cup of coffee and look out at my lush, green backyard through my freshly scrubbed windows.
They were streaky.
I hate housework.