Sink Happiness

It sits there quietly emitting a glow. That shine is a reflection of the sunlight finding it's way through the small window situated high in the wall above the bathtub. The glow is from the white porcelain sink and shiny chrome faucets that sit on the sink vanity in this elongated bathroom at the daughter's house. Yessiree folks! the plastic peeling stained sink was ceremoniously tossed into the trash heap yesterday and the new one sits proudly surveying her new domain.

 

All this rave about a sink you say? Well yes! It does make me this happy. I'm a "fixer-upper" and I can't tolerate stained, soiled or broken which this sink was all of these. New water shut off valves were also installed which satisfies the daughter's request for this bathroom and we are very grateful to Shane for accomplishing this for us.

 

Shane is not a tiny fellow and seeing him laying flat out on that tiny bathroom floor with the rest of his body beneath the sink, I had to feel for how uncomfortable he must have been.

 

Renovating this little bathroom is coming along nicely. I layered some more spackling on the holes that had to be repaired and today I should be able to sand them to a nice smooth finish in preparation for the painting that will be my final step.

 

The new door facings have been stained to a rich glossy walnut color and will be cut and put in place today. Tomorrow will be a day off. We have to do a little prep work for Carrie's birthday party on Monday.

 

Monday afternoon the immediate family will gather together after school and present Carrie with a small cake and few gifts. Brother, sister, mother and grandmother will be there and a 14 ft. trampoline will be sitting in the back yard with a big lavender bow on it. We have to get this set up on Monday while Carrie is in school.

 

She will be very surprised as she has wished for one just recently since both her siblings had the fun of having a trampoline. It's Carrie's turn now. She thinks she is getting a pair of knee high boots and she is but that's not surprising enough.

 

Yesterday her mother and Shane went shopping for her while she stayed at my house playing Super Mario with me on the WII. I suck at this game and had never played before so she was aware that she would be my instructor. I felt much anxiety and patience is not one of Carrie's big virtues at age 6. I heard over and over again "Nana, I told you to stay behind me" or "you were supposed to JUMP" and "now look..you're dead!".  As soon as was prudent, I invited Carrie to the back yard to hit a few tennis balls with her hot pink metal bat. We use a tennis ball as getting hit by a softball is something I do not want to experience and occasionally she hits that tennis ball and drills it into me. I scream and shriek like a little girl. I've never wanted to play baseball and be left with the imprint of the ball threads on my forehead.

 

I stand two concrete cracks back (standing on a concrete pad extension from the patio). I  lob the ball underhanded to her but not before giving the chant "batter batter batter" to which she takes the bat and taps it two times on the concrete, a chime ringing out from the contact of the metal against the stone. She swiftly stands erect, elbows out and swings just as the ball crosses home plate.  Most of the times she connects and sends the ball hurtling toward me where I stand with my head tucked between my upraised arms, squealing in fear. I'm not a fan of baseball but I did play basketball. Getting hit by an air filled basket ball wasn't a painful as a hard baseball. I'm quick on picking up on what causes the most pain and decided early on to stay away from small hard baseballs. Carrie has a strong swing and when she connects with that ball it will smack into the board fence that surrounds the yard or sail high into the air and into the neighbors yard. It's her job to do "retrieval." Good exercise.

 

Since attention spans are short on these little humans, we were next drawing a hopscotch design on the concrete and pitching the chalk to land on one of the squares which would be jumped over on our trip across. I was just thankfull we didn;t have a jump rope session planned.

 

We were keeping ourselves entertained while the sink was being placed and the plumbing and shopping done at Carrie's house.

 

The last hopscotch scotched, the last ball pitched and hit, we packed up our stuff and went back to the daughter's house where we found the final steps in finishing the sink placement. It's amazing what a difference it made and I was satisfied with the progress on this room.

 

While we were gone, the daughter and Shane did some birthday shopping for the birthday girl. The wrapped packages sat on the kichen table enticing a 6 almost 7 year old to pick each one up individually and carry it to my chair on the deck where I was sitting enjoying the view and the time out. She shook them, each one; we laid our ear on them and very seriously I said "I don't hear a ticking." Her puzzled look relaxed into a grin when I finished by saying "I don't think it's a bomb."  "Ah Nanny, you are so silly." she said as she disappeared back into the house to bring out another package for our inspection. Isn't it wonderful to see the excitement of a 6 almost 7 year old at birthdays and Christmases. It would be great if we could feel that excitement on approaching birthdays througout our lifetimes.  

 

As we near the finish line on the bathroom project, I can't help but start a mental list of what I will need for the next project. Have I mentioned that  I'm a bit OCD? And on that note, I must get to the store and pick up some wrapping paper and some tape and a trampoline and a very large lavendar bow!