And That’s Why You Never Start A New Project

We live in an old house. 151 years old to be exact. It’s neat. It’s big. It’s drafty. It’s solid. It requires a lot of love and patience. It’s not perfect. But . . . it’s ours.

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Silver Linings

My husband and I are going into week 3 of semi-isolation. My husband’s employer mandated that the casino and hotel where he works shut completely down on March 16^th.  Since then he’s been back twice to finish up a couple of unfinished tasks, but the place is basically abandoned. Only the security crew has to stay on property during the shut down. The Baer House, too has been pretty darn quiet. We’re not on lock down, but nobody’s traveling. We have been getting daily cancellations since the second week of March. We currently have no reservations at the inn until the very first part of June.

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The Mysterious Case of the Shattered Chandelier.

Who doesn’t love a good ghost story? I’m not into the creepy, demonic, blood and guts ghost stories where people get hurt, but I do enjoy a good chilling tale now and then.

Original photo by P. Rickrode 2015

The Baer House Inn is one of the houses on the Haunted Vicksburg Tour. The leader of these tours brings people inside and tells them a tale of intrigue that may or may not have happened here.

Now, I have never experienced any of the strange happenings that are talked about on the tour, however, something rather ghostly did happen here. Something unexplainable and very real.

Not too long after my husband and I bought the inn, we started remodeling and redecorating. One of our projects involved relocating some chandeliers. Five to be exact. We hired an electrician and early one morning, they went to work, taking down lights and rehanging them in their new spots. About an hour after they got started, my husband and I were in the hallway talking about something. We heard a crash that sounded like a thousand expensive crystals shattering into a bazillion pieces. Followed by dead silence.

We looked at each other with wide eyes, our mouths yawning into perfect O’s. I muttered a hushed curse. Obviously, the guys working upstairs had dropped one of our super expensive chandeliers. We whispered amongst ourselves about how to handle the situation. Should we confront them or let them come to us? We waited with bated breath for someone to slink downstairs and apologize profusely for damaging our property. Nobody came downstairs.

“They must be texting their boss,” I said. “Find out how to tell us that they’d broken one of our lights.”

We waited. And waited some more. We decided to give them ten more minutes. After five, I couldn’t stand it any more. I crept upstairs, being extra careful not to step in any glass fragments I was sure littered the floor. Nothing. No mess. No sound. Two guys were up on a ladder in one of the rooms attaching a chandelier to the ceiling.

“How’s it going?” I asked.

“Great. We’re almost done.”

Almost done? That’s it? They aren’t even going to mention the broken $10,000 light fixture?

I turned to face my husband and mouthed, “They’re lying.”

I proceeded to march my little self into every single room upstairs, checking for lights, damage, broken glass, a broom, trash bag, anything evidencing the crash we heard downstairs.

Nothing. NOTHING. Every light exactly where it was supposed to be. Say what?

I went back into the room with the men on the ladder.

“Hey,” says I. “Did you guys hear a crash a few minutes ago. Like something big, and crystal, and expensive, falling and breaking?”

“No.”

“Really?”

“We didn’t hear anything.”

Now, my husband and I both heard the crash. We both knew immediately what it was. And yet . . . nothing broken. And that my friends, is the mysterious case of the shattered chandelier.

 

Have you ever had a ghostly encounter? Ever experience something you couldn’t explain? What do you think we heard?

Word of the day: Gagaku

Fun fact about me: I don’t really believe in ghosts. And yet . . .

Original post by Jansen Schmidt, October 2016. Photos courtesy Google Images and P. Rickrode.

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The Perpetual Wheel of Home Improvement Projects

Being a home owner is not all it’s cracked up to be. Oh sure, you get the tax credits and you actually have something to show for your payments, unlike rent or lease payments, but, you also get the headaches that come along with home ownership.

My husband and I have been putting some money into our home lately, getting it all dolled up and fixing some little things that have been bugging us since we moved in. We bought our house about 2 years ago and it was sort of a fixer-upper, although it was certainly cozy enough to live comfortably in. And please don’t get me wrong, I am ever so grateful that I have a warm safe place to lay my head each night. And I have a Deed with my name on it. That’s worth something.

Photo courtesy Google Images

But, owning a home is a little like owning a boat; if you have a boat, you’re fixing a boat. I’m a former boat owner, so I know. Anyone who’s ever owned a boat can attest to that statement.

So, we started doing some improvements to our house and each and every time we finished a project, we became painfully aware of something else that needs improving upon.

It goes sort of like this: When we purchased the house it had REALLY dated and ugly pink “fixtures” in the bathroom. That’s right, we had a pink jetted tub (how awesome is that?) and a pink commode with — a white seat and lid. I didn’t even know anyone on this planet manufactured pink toilets, but there it was in the bathroom of our new home. For 2 years we’ve lived with this horrendous monstrosity of a bathroom.

Photo courtesy Google Images

Well folks, no more. That’s right, we invested in a shiny new toilet — almond colored — and had the bathtub and previously white sink painted to match. Holy smokes, what an improvement! No more pink bathroom. How we marveled at the difference. For exactly fifteen minutes. That’s how long it took us to notice how stained and ugly the faucets were. We’d never paid much attention to the faucets before because we were too distracted by the pinkness of the “fixtures” surrounding the faucets. Now we need new faucets.

Then, we wanted to patch a small spot on the bathroom ceiling that hadn’t been properly fixed at some point in the past. It’s always sort of bugged us and we’ve always talked about getting that eye sore fixed. We had after all just improved the bathroom tremendously, might as well do it all the way. And so the time had finally come, we’d had enough of looking at that ugly spot and decided to fix it.

Photo courtesy Google Images

We plastered and taped and mudded it all up, waited for it to dry, then slathered a thick coat of paint on it. Awesome! It looks fabulous!

We enjoyed the amazing ceiling for exactly two days. That’s when we noticed how ugly and mucked up the light fixture is. Now, whenever we’re in the bathroom, all we see is the ugly and dirty light fixture. How could we not have noticed that before?

We should probably replace the light fixture now that the ceiling is so awesome, but I’m afraid that once we replace the light fixture, we’ll discover how grossly horrible the floor is. Or the cabinets. Or the countertop. So my friends, the light stays. Enough is enough.

I wish I could say the final product looks like this now:

Photo courtesy Google Images.

but alas, it does not. Let’s just say, it’s a hundred times better than it was, ugly light and all.

And on and on it goes. The perpetual wheel of improving then noticing something else that needs improving. It’s a vicious and never-ending cycle. I suggest you never start in the first place. Save yourself the headache.

What’s your perpetual wheel of home improvement projects? Please share. I’d love to commiserate. Have you ever seen a pink toilet or bathed in a pink jetted tub?

Word of the Day: Cathexis

Fun fact about me: I’m much better at paining walls than I am at painting pictures.

Original post by Jansen Schmidt, March 2015. Photos courtesy Google Images.

 

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