Caroline and I were at the pool on Thursday afternoon when my cell phone rang. It was P and he was calling to see if I’d noticed if the house felt hot before we left for the pool. I told him that I didn’t remember it being any hotter than usual but, considering it’s June in South Texas, everything feels hot. Hot is a way of life right now which makes me want to go back and kick the version of myself that complained about the cold this winter.
Unfortunately, it was truly hotter than usual because our air-conditioning had gone out. Thankfully we have two units. One controls the temperature in the bedrooms and the other controls the main living areas of the house and the one that was out was the unit that cools the main living areas. I’ve never been so grateful that we have a T.V. in our bedroom.
The repairman showed up on Friday morning and had my utmost sympathy as he climbed up into our attic because it is approximately the temperature of hell. After about five minutes he came down, looking like he was about to die, and showed me something that is apparently part of our air-conditioning unit . He launched into a lengthy explanation about the motor and the circuit board and I can’t remember what else because I wouldn’t have questioned him if he’d told me that the air-conditioning was powered by fairies. Sir, I don’t care what the problem is, just FIX IT PLEASE.
He went in search of a new motor and, in a last minute effort to make this already uninteresting tale of woe end sooner rather than later, the short version is that there isn’t a York air-conditioner motor to be found in the San Antonio city limits and it’s being shipped from Austin. And it will be here on Tuesday.
For those of you doing the math at home, that means we won’t have any a/c in the main areas of our house until Tuesday. The only upside is it’s given me a brilliant excuse to not cook for the last four days because “we shouldn’t turn on the oven because it will just heat up the kitchen”. That’s what you call making lemonade out of lemons. Which is actually the one thing I made over the course of the weekend.
However, because I am very focused and not easily distracted from my goals (unless I see something shiny or a Real Housewives marathon on Bravo) I spent all day Saturday painting the kitchen turquoise. I hated to do it, what with the whole idea of manual labor and no cool air, but P had already planned to take Caroline and some friends down to the ranch so I had the whole day to paint without a “helper”.
So I went to Lowe’s and bought a gallon of an Eddie Bauer color called Sea Breeze, five different paintbrushes, blue painters tape, and plastic dropcloths to cover the floor. P set up a box fan for me in the kitchen before he left and I spent the rest of the day painting my little heart out.
At the end of the day, the color is somewhere between a box from Tiffany’s and Taco Cabana, leaning a little more towards the Taco Cabana side. If I’m totally honest, it’s a little brighter than what I wanted but not nearly as bright as it looks in these pictures because holy bean and cheese tacos.
My long term goals involve finding some big pieces of white pottery to place on top of the cabinets. Maybe something like this pitcher along with some bowls and whatever else I happen to find.
And then I may do some window mistreatments out of some kind of retro-looking fabric like this pattern from Amy Butler.
I also found these Thomas Paul plates that I think would look so cute hanging on the wall somewhere, but then I’d need to go with a simpler fabric for the windows or just leave them plain or maybe hang the plates above the windows and oh my word you’re getting a live look inside my brain and it’s very crowded in there.
Or maybe I’ll just hang a neon pink sign that reads “Estamos abiertos las 24 horas del día”.
I think I need a little time to adjust to the new color and decide if it works. Especially considering I’ve never been good with change of any kind. And, if I ultimately decide it’s too bright, I’ll repaint it a lighter shade in the fall because painting is like childbirth. You have to forget the pain before you’re ready to do it again.