Site visit

I spent Memorial Day weekend in Pennsylvania, which is no surprise since I've spent just about every holiday in Pennsylvania for the past three years. I came with a laundry list of things to do, and I left with a laundry list of things undone. Part of this was because the northeast had a heat wave, and I flew out of the mid-70s and landed in the low-90s, and I didn't pack any shorts.

Our biggest accomplishment was spending two hours "researching" new mattresses for the B&Bs. I put that in quotes because Dawn, who has been sleeping on a futon for the last 15 months, would not lightly surrender the comfort of the new beds, leaving me to fend off the salesmen while she snuggled in with a thick pillow. That said, we both really liked the Stearns & Foster Garden-something firm mattress, which my cousin also highly recommended. (This is not an ad for Stearns & Foster, but should they see fit to donate some of these mattresses for marketing purposes, we would not refuse them. They cost $1800 each, and we need five.)

We both agreed not to do custom cabinet pulls on the kitchen island, which would have run about $179 each, and instead buy some $10 stock "Eastlake" pulls. We tried out the Sherwin-Williams "Colonial Yellow" in the kitchen and realized why it was nicknamed "DeWalt yellow" -- it was not the light, pleasing shade we expected, but a sharp, cut-through-the-fog color that blended well with power tools. So Dawn picked up "Harvester gold" which, she hopes, will pick up the subtle colors in the granite slab she selected.

We also went and looked at an antique secretary desk Dawn had found for $900. It has a pull-down lid that doubles as the desk, plus a set of drawers that would be perfect as a small dresser, and it fits in the small corner of Bill's room. Using the small closet for clothes, this would avoid losing any more space to an armoire (like I had planned), plus include a nice writing desk that is perfect for a laptop. However, the secretary had several scratches, and I was not comfortable paying that much for something in second-rate condition, so we passed. We tried looking at other antique stores in Adamstown, but it was Sunday afternoon and we managed to arrive at three places just as each one was closing.

Finally, we worked on the project schedule for about 30 seconds before I snapped. I asked Dawn what needed to be accomplished for the grand opening, and she went on for 10 minutes on the type of food we should serve, before I cut her off and told her I had written down "food and drinks." She did not appreciate that, and it went downhill from there. It was not unexpected, though--we've never been able to work together on things like that. So I will go off and draw up all of the plans on my own and send them to her for validation, and she will put them in a drawer and do whatever she was planning on doing anyway. Then I will get upset and she will act surprised, and the cycle will start over. It is a little game we play.

With an angled bar, Dawn pointed out the closet would be perfect for shirts and pants, and we can provide a wall hook for long dresses. Behind Ben is where the secretary would go.