Well today Mr NilsenLife and I had a hot date. We decided we'd go ahead and strip on our front porch. Way to spice things up, right?
It's an old house - ninety plus, actually - and needs a little cosmetic work. This spring, the project is stripping the paint on the front porch, columns and trim, and prepping it for repainting. Can't say that the prospect filled either of us with joy: how to execute a huge task and at the same time keep small people out of lead paint dust and caustic stripping chemicals?
Cue the generous offer of Grandparental Babysitting, and we were faced with an entire day - a beautiful, 70-degree spring day with nothing but the two of us, a can of paint stripper, and a scraping tool called a Five-Way. (Kinky bunch, those housepainters.)
So 9am found us out on the porch, scraping away. Our getup for the hot date consisted of paint-covered jeans, old tshirts, and my hair scraped back under a hat. Didn't matter. We spent our morning working quietly, side-by-side, concentrating on scraping and chipping. By 11:00, though, we'd hit our stride: we chatted about football and the World Cup, about blog posts and the mystery of site traffic, and by the time we got towards 4:00 the conversations had moved on to Big Ticket Items - the topics that never come up in your normal week, due in large part to sheer exhaustion.
We ate lunch together on the steps - spicy salami, pickles & cheddar on baguette. We took turns checking Facebook to see what was going on in the world. (Answer? not much.) We scheduled an iced coffee break, and even had a little impromptu break dance session when the Beastie Boys came on the stereo. (Aw yeah the girl can shake it. Uh huh uh huh...) There was a well-deserved beer towards the end of the afternoon.
Ask an old married couple - ask 'em what they would love to do if they had an entire day together. Chances are they might say something along the lines of "a chance for a whole conversation. A good meal together. Drinking coffee. Dancing. Re-living old times."
That, my friends, is exactly what we did today. I had a whole day of romance, a whole day of connection, a whole day of good times with my best friend. Hot date indeed. I'll strip with you any day, babe.
10 comments:
Sounds like fun. Except of the stripping part. I was hoping for something a bit more..actually, strike that. I do not need that kind of info!
Today David and I were outside at the same time - for five minutes. Then he went in and took a nap while I continued pruning. I tried, tho!
I love that! I should post one of the only pics of me doing a DIY project on our old house - stripping paint. Not fun. I am glad you made the most of it!
I could've used an iced coffee today...
All that together time goodness AND you're getting a beautiful porch too. Good stuff!
30 minutes a week of quality communication is good? Oh I feel much better about my relationship with my husband now then as we do manage that, but not much more!
Glad you got to have a fun day together - as they say a change is as good as a rest and just having that special time alone without the kids must have been nice.
you can come strip here next! Very cute. Glad it was fun!
Fantastic. sounds like you had a wonderful day. it's a happy couple that can turning working together on something like that into a fun and meaningful day. kudos to you both. and you did a damn good job of writing it up too. double kudos
That sounds down right heavenly! I can't tell you how in love with my husband I feel when i see him painting a wall. Its unreal!!
So you spend the day stripping the porch, then end it at the soiree... that's a day for the record books!
it was great to see you in person again! carry on!
angie
Awesome!!! On a side note, someday soon when your blog has become a household name, I hope you will remember us - who were your faithful followers from the early days. You could have posts where you write lovely things about us. *hehe*
I love this. What an inspiration for quality real time.
LOVE the photo and your humor, of course. Sounds like a VERY good day to me.
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