We've been back for a little less than a week, but what an eventful week it has been. The Behler family dance card continues to be full. When we arrived home in the wee hours last Wednesday morning, I thought we were on the set of Extreme Makeover: Home Edition. We got out of the car and walked to the front door and the whole flower bed had been landscaped and we had new patio furniture on the front porch. Little did we know what other surprises awaited on the other side of the door.
First of all, I want to give a great big shout out to Paul Burns for house/dog sitting for us and holding down the fort while we were gone. Indy was happier to see him on Wednesday evening than she was to see us when we got home early Wednesday morning, so we know she was in good hands.
Next I'd like to thank Tim Birt, Kevin Krahel, Isaac Harris and Paul Burns (again) for achieving the monumental task of repairing and redecorating Miranda's bathroom. The genesis of the bathroom failure is kind of funny.
A couple of years ago, the diverter handle on the bathtub spigot broke. No big deal right? Laela and I went to the hardware store and bought one of those universal spigots to replace it with. It was about a $15 item. So I go to install it and of course the "universal adapter kit" leaks all over the place. I decided that I'd replace the copper pipe that the spigot connects to and then everything would be good. I went out, bought a torch, some solder, and a short length of copper pipe and some fittings. Please keep in mind that at the time Miranda's shower walls were constructed of molded plastic with a built in soap dish etc installed over "water resistant" drywall. Well, I didn't know that you could by material to protect the wall from the torch, so away I go with the torch soldering the pipe through the small hole in the plastic/drywall. A brief distraction later (I think my phone rang and I checked the caller id one handed), the plastic wall of the bathroom is on fire. I managed to douse the flames with cold cups of water but the damage was done. It wasn't enough to structurally damage anything, but the plastic wall of the tub was ruined. Laela and I decided that we'd tear down all of the plastic and tile the walls. It wasn't until we tore down the plastic that we realized the rest of the walls were also drywall. Since we decided to tile, all of the drywall would have to come down so that the wall was strong enough to support the tiles. At this point the $15 spigot replacement turned into a monumental job and went into the "what a pain in the ass, I'll get around to it later pile." We have a functional shower in the master bath so it's not like we couldn't bathe.
Fast forward to June when we found out the the big scarlet "C" and planned a long family vacation. Kevin and Tim devised a plan to refinish the bathroom and get Isaac to paint it while we were gone;because, hey what teenage girl doesn't need her own bathroom? So while we were out of town Kevin, Tim, and Paul replumbed the bathtub to fix the slow drain, put up concrete board to support the tile, tiled the walls, and installed new fixtures. They also fixed the ceiling drywall and Isaac painted the walls the color that Miranda had picked out to go with her curtains, trash can, and towels. The end result is an absolutely beautiful bathroom space. I haven't even showered in my own bathroom since I've been home because I've been so stoked on the new one.
I'd like to thank Valerie Smith for conceiving and executing with Kevin and Tim the landscaping of the front of the house. It is gorgeous and put together with the Behler family brown thumbs in mind. That'll make it easy on the eyes as well as low maintenance.
Next want to thank my sister-in-law Libby Sullivan for organizing the cleaning of our house. Before we had left she had organized a small army of our friends and family to come over and clean the house from top to bottom. The place looks absolutely fantastic and will help me to not become sick when my treatments start. I don't have a list of everyone that participated but I know that people dropped everything that they were doing and even came in from out of town to pitch in to help for two consecutive weeks.
Words can't describe how grateful we are to everyone that helped out whether you played a big part or a small part, every single bit is appreciated. We certainly have no way of adequately expressing the gratitude we have in our hearts for everything that was done for us. We have amazing family and friends and unfortunately sometimes it takes a bad event to bring everybody together and tighten up the circle. You are all loved by us very much.
So stay tuned, I think I'm going to continue to throw my thoughts out there every week or so and don't forget the big concert/party on Friday August 6th at the Ravari Room. ALL/Legbone/Children of Reagan/Dirty Side Down will be rockin the room, so come on down and say hi. Let's party and raise a glass together.
