I sure got my work cut out for me. Some folks say, "hire somebody to do that..." but this is something I can do - I can't do plumbing and not too keen on electrical - but removing wallpaper I can do. Problem is, there's so stinkin' much of it. And it was glued on to stay forever. I paid $150 to have the mirrors removed; it was worth it to me. The mirrors in the bedroom were glued on - well, see for yourself:
now I gotta figure out how to remove the glue... the white part of the wall was the main, center mirror that was five feet wide. There were two, one-foot panels on either side. As my friend neener says, 'good-bye seventies!'
So I have my work cut out for me. Then I became annoyed with the appearance of the front yard. A couple of weeks ago, I purchased a bird of paradise, a dozen or so golden shrimp plants and just as many pentas. I intended to plant then in the planter by the front entrance, but after I bought them I feared they would not get enough sunlight in the planter. I decided to plant them in the yard in front of the planter which had full sun for 4-5 hours. I planted them, and put the Invisible Fence flags around them to keep the dogs out. A few days after, the HOA asked me to remove the flags ('the rules say...' ) . I removed them, and it was only a matter of days before the dogs had nearly destroyed every golden shrimp, and about half of the penta. The front yard was a grey dirt pile and getting worse. So Saturday morning I drove to Home Depot. As I was driving down Gladiolus, I recalled my sister Debbie pointing out a nursery on the south side of the road and asked whether I'd ever been there. I hadn't. I guess we go back to what we know, and I knew Home Depot. As I was passing, I looked it over from the road, and it was a very substantial nursery, geared more for commercial customers. I was heading to Home Depot to buy sod, and as I passed this nursery, there was a sign out front that read SOD . I should stop there, I said to myself. But by that time I was under the fly-over and Gladiolus was under heavy construction. I got to Home Depot, and there was no sod. I didn't ask anyone, they were quite busy and full of lots of perrenials. I had been there last week and saw scant pallets of sod, but this day - no sod. I left and headed to that nursery.
I pulled in and had a brief but pleasant conversation with a man who walked in to the store behind me, and turns out he worked there. He could sell me sod by the piece. They charge a dollar a piece. I told him I needed enough for 14 square feet and he said I'd need half a pallet. What was I driving? "Well you'll need to make a couple of trips. The sod's out back behind us here, so how 'bout you pull around and we'll see how many we can get in one load."
I got home with 33 sheets in the back of my car. First I had to do was dig out the bird of paradise and what penta I could save, Plant the bird of paradise in the planter (yes, the one I had originally intended!), added three peace lilies behind the bird, and then had to rake and clean up the dirt lot. Then I started laying the sod. It was actually fun. I love the smell of the rich earth. I love the look of the young, green grass. I like putting together a puzzle, laying each piece in a snug fit.
I returned to the nursery and picked up another 30 sheets. Of course by now I was quite dirty and had to semi-change just to get in my car. The fellow from the morning was not around, and another young man came out to load the sod. Actually I'm not sure if he helped me or I helped him. But we were down to the end of the pallet and there was no more. I returned home and layed the rest, finishing just about sunset, which worked well as I drank a red stripe and watered the newly placed lawn. It felt good.
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