still ketchup

We're still talking abt August, verging into September.  After this week, you will know all the answers to all the things.  Knowledge is power & we just don't have the time to talk the deets lo, these last 10 years.

 

The second and third projects at Sal's were actually one tandem project.  First, I had to manage ("manage," he is the sweetest, nicest, most professional guy) Gilberto while he replaced the sub-flooring on the second floor.  It was a no-brainer and pretty much consisted of sitting on the front porch polishing my toenails and fulfilling one request for cash to purvey an unexpected thing. 

 

This is the part where I stayed on-site while Gil & his 2-man crew went to lunch & I just wandered around in a sweaty haze, glad as hell that this was not my real house.

The floor was super-creaky, and when Sal asked Gil about it last year, he said the only way was to replace the sub-floor.  Ok. 

Actually, before Gil came in -- and this was the hectic part, because we had to schedule all these different contractors working at cross-purposes in a step-one, step-two way -- we had the carpeting people come.  Sal was all convinced we needed to go to Home Depot or wherever ... as the household manager, I blew that off & scheduled Empire to come one evening after work. 

Then, as if he were my actual husband, instead of just sitting on the sofa with my husband, he kept calling me during the Empire presentation, full of anxiety about me getting back to the house.  I mean, what?  I delivered the guy to his house, I made sure he was there to meet the guy, he needed me to shop, too?

 

Evidently.  Although really, he needed Fille. 

 

We returned in the 11th hour of the Empire Times.  Sal & Mari had fully reviewed the Carpeting Look Books, which were upstairs, spread out on the carpet in the hall.  They had made notes of their choices, and ranked them.  Fille & I went upstairs and did the same. 

Sal joined us upstairs, with the Empire guy, and we compared notes.  Then I prevailed upon Empire Man to tell me about the differences in price & value, etc.  Just briefly, but you know. 

The four of us had picked one or two of the same colors.  Maybe three or four.  But Sal was making the final decision.  He picked Color A, which was the exact same color he had already, but obvs cleaner and a more stain-resistant iteration.  (Sal is a coffee-slosher par excellence.)

I was pulling for more of an oatmeal-heathery, coffee-stain-camoflauge color, but Sal was not budging.  Whatever, because I had talked him into the most stain-resistant carpeting category, and that was what I really cared about.  Color A it would be.  Sure, whatever.  Then he got hooked on the color B that was in the book of carpeting I talked him into.  Then he wavered.  I reminded him how it is with most improvements -- once it's down or up or whatever, you do not too much regret the tone variance in the look book, yk?

Fille got involved when he decided declaratively on Color B.  It was so strange to watch; she practically threw herself in front of him.  Words came from her mouth like, "Color B is a terrible mistake!"  and "I can't let you choose Color B."  She was excitedly talking in color-value words like rich and warm and undertones, also telling him where he had to compare the values and evidently, it was not in the hallway, because she picked up the giant samples book by one corner and dragged it away, with Sal following her.

 

The Empire Guy was kind of puzzled.  I was, too.  We talked it out, standing around, waiting.  While I was just kind of saying, yk, "She's really good with colors.  I often trust her implicitly when I can't decide myself," it dawned on me.  Holy wow! 

Besides all that color mumbo-jumbo, I suddenly realized she can see the whole room in any one of those colors.  Like, she can look at a tiny square of carpet or a paint swatch or anything, and she can visualize the whole thing.  She is like one of those interior-decorator apps, but inside her mind! 

I told Empire Guy this & he said, "That's pretty cool, really?"  And I told him this story. 

They emerged from wherever they had gone & he signed on the dotted line for the color she endorsed. 

He is not sorry.  She is so pleased.  It does everything, enhances everything, exactly as she promised it would.  It is the same color as before, but much rosier, and it brings the house to life.  It is completely trippy. 

I will let you imagine the nightmare of how we had to move a bunch of furniture and shit all over the second floor in a mincing, merry-go-round way for contractor after contractor.  Everything piled up here & there and the this & that and the cats' terror.  (So glad it is not my real house.)

 

When it was over, after we called it a night on putting shit back everywhere; I let Sal feed me a couple of mystery cocktails featuring gin & I let my husband take me to bed at the Willard.  Good night, babies!  Have fun with Uncle Sal!  We love you!   

 

Love to you, too. xo

 

Comments

[becky]

Dude, I really like that carpet color. She was right! It kind of blew my mind a little bit, thinking of how she can picture that swatch blown up to cover a whole room.

Why have I never been to the Willard?

[lala]

You strike me as more of a Four Seasons gal, honestly.

I left out the most important part, which was that when he went for B, she said, "NO, if you want B, you require C," and that's what their row was about. And their secret carpeting summit. But it really does bring the whole house up, it's amazing. xo