It was big. It was long. It was hard. (Get your minds out of the gutter).
Shortly before Christmas, Mrs. Koog got the 1/31 date for the autologous reconstruction surgery. We were warned to get everything done that needed 2 people because as of 1/31 she was out of commission. Strangely, I took this as a challenge.
Here's what we (I) decided we needed to accomplish between 1/1 and 1/30:
1. Clean out garage
2. Order huge new television, 5 speaker sound system with only a notional plan on how to hang it in our family room
3. Due to #2, completely rearrange the family room due to both the new TV, speakers and the GINORMUS lift chair we got to assist the Mrs. after surgery
4. Move B-Koog from his current bedroom, where he and E-Koog share a bathroom, to a new bedroom so he has his own bathroom to prevent more violence due to gross bathroom habits (another blog completely)
5. Buy B-Koog new bed since new room will not fit current bed
6. Paint B-Koog's new room and bathroom
7. Move new bed and other assorted furniture and crap from B-Koog's old room into new room
8. Move old bed and old desk (at least 10 tons) to the garage for donation
9. Set up guest room COMPLETELY in preparation for our guest coming to stay with us for a few days starting 1/31 (basement suite is not available since my awesome sister-in-law was coming to stay with the boys while I was taking care of Mrs. Koog)
So, while I had these 9 things in my mind I probably didn't share the plan widely. Or narrowly. Or at all. My bad, Mrs. Koog.
Here are the results of each item:
Item #1: In my defense, Mrs. Koog was aware of and was a willing participant in this activity. It was also the item that went most smoothly. We made quick work of reorganizing our stuff and putting the car top carrier and the flatbed carrier on the hanging shelves. Done and done.
Item #2 - #3: After our success in the garage, Mrs. Koog was in a light, jaunty mood when the Amazon delivery guy rang our doorbell. "Where do you want the boxes?", he asked innocently. I wish I had a picture of Mrs. Koog's face when I told her about the genius idea about the new family room layout that came to me in the middle of the night. That was also when I purchased the equipment. (My last middle of the night shopping during COVID resulted in the 3ft tall cutouts of Angela Merkel and Gordon Ramsay that reside in my office) She was moderately annoyed when the delivery man brought in the very, very, very large box with a new TV. The moderate annoyance escalated when the 5 boxes of speakers containing the kick-ass new sound system were left in the foyer. Before she played the kick-ass game with my ass, I had to explained my plan. "So-we're-going-to-hang-the-TV-above-the-fireplace-move-the-sofa-here-move-this-chair-over-here-move-that-chair-there-and-your-new-GINORMOUS-chair-will-go-here." With a healthy concern for self preservation I said all of those words quickly and without taking a breath to both impress her with my "plan" and also confuse her into not kicking me in the shins.
With her light, jaunty mood now a memory, she stood in stunned silence staring (glaring) at me. She broke the silence when she asked a really good question, "In your 'plan'; how do we hang the TV over the fireplace when we have a wooden facade and solid brick behind it?" As I've had to explain to her almost daily over our 20 years together, I'm the IDEA person in our relationship, she is responsible for the DETAILS. I did mention that I had pictures of the carpenter making our wooden facade and I was certain it would hold an 80lb television. Even though it was 8pm, I was jazzed to start the moving and hanging, Mrs. Koog not so much. Since I shocked her with my genius ideas, I agreed to wait until morning to execute the plan.
She got started early prying a small peep hole into the facade. OK, I may have been wrong about the amount of weight the facade could handle since it was only adhered with glue and furring strips, not large bolts required to hang the person-sized television. I suggested just using several "big nails and screws and stuff" to hang the TV plate but apparently that was not recommended by people familiar with "details." After spirited debate, I begrudgingly agreed that she may not be wrong and we should call a professional (aka our neighbor Mr. A) and pay him to do this job correctly. I agreed and quickly left since I had a meeting to attend via zoom.
Mr. A (who was recently locked in the boys bathroom with me due to a greased up doorknob) and Mrs. Koog work quickly and efficiently getting the TV hung and then level. To be fair, level never occurred to me until I came up from my zoom call in the basement and told them the TV was not, in fact, level. By the look on their faces, they didn't like criticism. With the TV now leveled to my liking, we paid Mr. A (not enough) and released him. Pretty sure he ran out the door.
I immediately started with furniture rearranging. This went incredibly smoothly, actually and only required moving things to their new spot once. No joke, this part of my genius idea worked pretty well! Go Koog! With my confidence boosted after the success of the furniture rearrangement, I started with speaker placement. Bing, bang, boom, done! I did annoy Mrs. Koog while equalizing the sound system using both dialogue from a show and Nirvana's "Smells like Teen Spirit." Loudly, very loudly.
Item #4-#9 Our B-Koog is super smart and sweet and kind and gentle. What he is not is neat. Our E-Koog is also super smart and sweet and kind and gentle. Oh, and very neat.
It's important to know that information because our own version of the Odd Couple have shared a jack and jill bathroom since birth, or at least since they were peeing in a toilet. And that's when the trouble started. It was small at first. Little arguments about flushing the toilet and towels on the floor. It escalated to big arguments about what should be condemned by the health department. It came to a head when I had to break up the throwing of hair gel and paint markers because someone didn't drain the bathtub (again) when he finished and the other was not amused by soap scum. To be fair, Mrs. Koog and I are not fans of the ring around the tub so we made him clean it. Because I am the boss (not really) I declared (and asked Mrs. Koog) that B-Koog move into what was the guest room with it's own bathroom. This way he can be gross and only infect himself with disease.
Mrs. Koog did agree with my declaration because the arguments moved to pranks (see the blog about getting stuck in the bathroom with our contractor) and it was escalating fast. So, Mrs. Koog got him a new bed with a loft since the new room was a bit smaller than the other. The guest room was neat and easy to empty out. B-Koog's room, not so much. I considered an infectious disease costume with the mask, face shield and gloves to start cleaning the floor. Anyway, we emptied the guest room and I took B-Koog to the hardware store to pick out paint color. He made a very quick decision and I was so happy. When we got home, he also made a very quick decision that he didn't like the color. Alas, we went back and he got a color he liked this time. We painted that room in record time, set up the new bed and moved most of his stuff into the nicely painted and neat room. B-Koog thanked us a million times and proceeded to draw a bath in his new bathroom. He had the audacity to drain the tub now that he was on his own!
The next day was the day before Mrs. Koog's surgery. It was also the day that broke me. Mrs. Koog and I were very sore from the 10 hour renovation and room switch, but we needed to persevere because tomorrow we lose her set of hands! Also, tomorrow was the day one of my favorite people in the world, Cousin W, was coming to stay at our house while she switched houses for her short term assignment. Yes, we do have another bedroom but my awesome sister-in-law Pg was coming later this evening to help manage the house, kids and dog while I was in DC with Mrs. Koog. Suffice it to say, we needed to get this room done and reset by the end of the night.
This was overwhelming and I started to stare blankly at the room. There was no way the 2 of us could conquer this challenge before leaving for Mrs. K's surgery at 4am. We needed help. My friends here in the 'Ville are like the Superfriends super hero group. I sent one text and almost instantly one was here! She snapped me out of my catatonic state and got the bed disassembled and the desk disassembled in short order. We (mostly her) carried down the enormous and heavy desk and the bed to the garage. She then came upstairs and helped us clean and set up the guest room furniture. I owe her and the other Superfriends (M, Mk and J) so much for keeping me sane during this time. We got everything done and as Superfriend C was leaving Mrs. K was leaving to pick up Pg from the airport bus. In less than 24 hours we painted, swapped and set up 2 room that were "sleep ready" and brought an entire room of furniture down to the garage.
We got it all done. And Superfriend C made us laugh and that's what I remember most about that day. It stands out so much because we hadn't laughed much during Mrs. Koog's health experience.
Mrs. Koog was also super happy to be put under the next day because she said she was still tired!
More on that later...
Shortly before Christmas, Mrs. Koog got the 1/31 date for the autologous reconstruction surgery. We were warned to get everything done that needed 2 people because as of 1/31 she was out of commission. Strangely, I took this as a challenge.
Here's what we (I) decided we needed to accomplish between 1/1 and 1/30:
1. Clean out garage
2. Order huge new television, 5 speaker sound system with only a notional plan on how to hang it in our family room
3. Due to #2, completely rearrange the family room due to both the new TV, speakers and the GINORMUS lift chair we got to assist the Mrs. after surgery
4. Move B-Koog from his current bedroom, where he and E-Koog share a bathroom, to a new bedroom so he has his own bathroom to prevent more violence due to gross bathroom habits (another blog completely)
5. Buy B-Koog new bed since new room will not fit current bed
6. Paint B-Koog's new room and bathroom
7. Move new bed and other assorted furniture and crap from B-Koog's old room into new room
8. Move old bed and old desk (at least 10 tons) to the garage for donation
9. Set up guest room COMPLETELY in preparation for our guest coming to stay with us for a few days starting 1/31 (basement suite is not available since my awesome sister-in-law was coming to stay with the boys while I was taking care of Mrs. Koog)
So, while I had these 9 things in my mind I probably didn't share the plan widely. Or narrowly. Or at all. My bad, Mrs. Koog.
Here are the results of each item:
Item #1: In my defense, Mrs. Koog was aware of and was a willing participant in this activity. It was also the item that went most smoothly. We made quick work of reorganizing our stuff and putting the car top carrier and the flatbed carrier on the hanging shelves. Done and done.
Item #2 - #3: After our success in the garage, Mrs. Koog was in a light, jaunty mood when the Amazon delivery guy rang our doorbell. "Where do you want the boxes?", he asked innocently. I wish I had a picture of Mrs. Koog's face when I told her about the genius idea about the new family room layout that came to me in the middle of the night. That was also when I purchased the equipment. (My last middle of the night shopping during COVID resulted in the 3ft tall cutouts of Angela Merkel and Gordon Ramsay that reside in my office) She was moderately annoyed when the delivery man brought in the very, very, very large box with a new TV. The moderate annoyance escalated when the 5 boxes of speakers containing the kick-ass new sound system were left in the foyer. Before she played the kick-ass game with my ass, I had to explained my plan. "So-we're-going-to-hang-the-TV-above-the-fireplace-move-the-sofa-here-move-this-chair-over-here-move-that-chair-there-and-your-new-GINORMOUS-chair-will-go-here." With a healthy concern for self preservation I said all of those words quickly and without taking a breath to both impress her with my "plan" and also confuse her into not kicking me in the shins.
With her light, jaunty mood now a memory, she stood in stunned silence staring (glaring) at me. She broke the silence when she asked a really good question, "In your 'plan'; how do we hang the TV over the fireplace when we have a wooden facade and solid brick behind it?" As I've had to explain to her almost daily over our 20 years together, I'm the IDEA person in our relationship, she is responsible for the DETAILS. I did mention that I had pictures of the carpenter making our wooden facade and I was certain it would hold an 80lb television. Even though it was 8pm, I was jazzed to start the moving and hanging, Mrs. Koog not so much. Since I shocked her with my genius ideas, I agreed to wait until morning to execute the plan.
She got started early prying a small peep hole into the facade. OK, I may have been wrong about the amount of weight the facade could handle since it was only adhered with glue and furring strips, not large bolts required to hang the person-sized television. I suggested just using several "big nails and screws and stuff" to hang the TV plate but apparently that was not recommended by people familiar with "details." After spirited debate, I begrudgingly agreed that she may not be wrong and we should call a professional (aka our neighbor Mr. A) and pay him to do this job correctly. I agreed and quickly left since I had a meeting to attend via zoom.
Mr. A (who was recently locked in the boys bathroom with me due to a greased up doorknob) and Mrs. Koog work quickly and efficiently getting the TV hung and then level. To be fair, level never occurred to me until I came up from my zoom call in the basement and told them the TV was not, in fact, level. By the look on their faces, they didn't like criticism. With the TV now leveled to my liking, we paid Mr. A (not enough) and released him. Pretty sure he ran out the door.
I immediately started with furniture rearranging. This went incredibly smoothly, actually and only required moving things to their new spot once. No joke, this part of my genius idea worked pretty well! Go Koog! With my confidence boosted after the success of the furniture rearrangement, I started with speaker placement. Bing, bang, boom, done! I did annoy Mrs. Koog while equalizing the sound system using both dialogue from a show and Nirvana's "Smells like Teen Spirit." Loudly, very loudly.
Item #4-#9 Our B-Koog is super smart and sweet and kind and gentle. What he is not is neat. Our E-Koog is also super smart and sweet and kind and gentle. Oh, and very neat.
It's important to know that information because our own version of the Odd Couple have shared a jack and jill bathroom since birth, or at least since they were peeing in a toilet. And that's when the trouble started. It was small at first. Little arguments about flushing the toilet and towels on the floor. It escalated to big arguments about what should be condemned by the health department. It came to a head when I had to break up the throwing of hair gel and paint markers because someone didn't drain the bathtub (again) when he finished and the other was not amused by soap scum. To be fair, Mrs. Koog and I are not fans of the ring around the tub so we made him clean it. Because I am the boss (not really) I declared (and asked Mrs. Koog) that B-Koog move into what was the guest room with it's own bathroom. This way he can be gross and only infect himself with disease.
Mrs. Koog did agree with my declaration because the arguments moved to pranks (see the blog about getting stuck in the bathroom with our contractor) and it was escalating fast. So, Mrs. Koog got him a new bed with a loft since the new room was a bit smaller than the other. The guest room was neat and easy to empty out. B-Koog's room, not so much. I considered an infectious disease costume with the mask, face shield and gloves to start cleaning the floor. Anyway, we emptied the guest room and I took B-Koog to the hardware store to pick out paint color. He made a very quick decision and I was so happy. When we got home, he also made a very quick decision that he didn't like the color. Alas, we went back and he got a color he liked this time. We painted that room in record time, set up the new bed and moved most of his stuff into the nicely painted and neat room. B-Koog thanked us a million times and proceeded to draw a bath in his new bathroom. He had the audacity to drain the tub now that he was on his own!
The next day was the day before Mrs. Koog's surgery. It was also the day that broke me. Mrs. Koog and I were very sore from the 10 hour renovation and room switch, but we needed to persevere because tomorrow we lose her set of hands! Also, tomorrow was the day one of my favorite people in the world, Cousin W, was coming to stay at our house while she switched houses for her short term assignment. Yes, we do have another bedroom but my awesome sister-in-law Pg was coming later this evening to help manage the house, kids and dog while I was in DC with Mrs. Koog. Suffice it to say, we needed to get this room done and reset by the end of the night.
This was overwhelming and I started to stare blankly at the room. There was no way the 2 of us could conquer this challenge before leaving for Mrs. K's surgery at 4am. We needed help. My friends here in the 'Ville are like the Superfriends super hero group. I sent one text and almost instantly one was here! She snapped me out of my catatonic state and got the bed disassembled and the desk disassembled in short order. We (mostly her) carried down the enormous and heavy desk and the bed to the garage. She then came upstairs and helped us clean and set up the guest room furniture. I owe her and the other Superfriends (M, Mk and J) so much for keeping me sane during this time. We got everything done and as Superfriend C was leaving Mrs. K was leaving to pick up Pg from the airport bus. In less than 24 hours we painted, swapped and set up 2 room that were "sleep ready" and brought an entire room of furniture down to the garage.
We got it all done. And Superfriend C made us laugh and that's what I remember most about that day. It stands out so much because we hadn't laughed much during Mrs. Koog's health experience.
Mrs. Koog was also super happy to be put under the next day because she said she was still tired!
More on that later...
Comments
Post a Comment