There are weekends that just go by, unremarkable in the best way, involving laundry, take-out and Netflix.
For me and my cohort, Emily, this past weekend was on the other side of the spectrum, a James-Bond-meets-Martha-Stewart-48-hour-extravaganza.
The mission? To install handmade wallcovering in a 200 year old house in the Bahamas.
The challenges? Well, for starters, neither of us had ever done anything like this before. Then there was the intense tropical heat, the uneven, bowed walls, and the unwieldy nature of the product itself. And did I mention neither of us had done this before?
In my nominal understanding, installing wallcovering is like putting together a large puzzle. First, you measure the walls. Then based on the dimensions of the wallcovering, you figure out the sizes of the pieces needed to cover the wall in the most aesthetically pleasing way possible. It sounds simple in theory, but like most things, it's actually quite challenging in reality.
The more I think about everything that could have gone wrong, the more impressed I am that a) we didn't maul each other or meltdown, in spite of the stress and heat and b) we got the job done. By the way, when I say "we," I really mean Emily. I basically handed her razor blades, cracked jokes, and made sure we were fed and caffeinated.
We made quite a number of fairly disastrous technical errors, but in the end, the room looks amazing. We finished exactly fifteen minutes before we had to leave for the airport less than 24 hours after we'd arrived, exhausted and elated.
Definitely not your average weekend.
For me and my cohort, Emily, this past weekend was on the other side of the spectrum, a James-Bond-meets-Martha-Stewart-48-hour-extravaganza.
The mission? To install handmade wallcovering in a 200 year old house in the Bahamas.
The challenges? Well, for starters, neither of us had ever done anything like this before. Then there was the intense tropical heat, the uneven, bowed walls, and the unwieldy nature of the product itself. And did I mention neither of us had done this before?
In my nominal understanding, installing wallcovering is like putting together a large puzzle. First, you measure the walls. Then based on the dimensions of the wallcovering, you figure out the sizes of the pieces needed to cover the wall in the most aesthetically pleasing way possible. It sounds simple in theory, but like most things, it's actually quite challenging in reality.
The more I think about everything that could have gone wrong, the more impressed I am that a) we didn't maul each other or meltdown, in spite of the stress and heat and b) we got the job done. By the way, when I say "we," I really mean Emily. I basically handed her razor blades, cracked jokes, and made sure we were fed and caffeinated.
We made quite a number of fairly disastrous technical errors, but in the end, the room looks amazing. We finished exactly fifteen minutes before we had to leave for the airport less than 24 hours after we'd arrived, exhausted and elated.
Definitely not your average weekend.
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| Front gate of the house |
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