Unveiling of the Ultimate Party Room

     Mike and I truly are gluttons for punishment. We had been debating for the past two months about when our final "deadline" for the room to be finished and the big "unveiling party" would take place. The date of July 16 had been pretty steady in our minds. As we approached July 4, things were looking sort of doubtful that we would be able to make the 16th. There were numerous activities throughout June including 5 evening programs for me plus a trip to New York with my mom to visit my sister. I went against all my beliefs of invitation etiquette and decided that I would wait until the end of July 4 weekend, see how our progress was, and send out invitations the following Tuesday if we decided the 16th really would be the date of the party. 

Well, it was July 4th weekend and progress really was coming along. Mike, Jeff, Brian, and Olivia had spent countless hours and many early a.m. hours working on this project. I honestly don't know how they did it because I was now squeezing a month of those type of hours into every night and it was really wearing down on me. My grande's went to venti's at Starbucks....and my Diet Dr. Peppers turned into Red Bulls at home.

Mike and Jeff were laying flooring on Saturday, July 2. Yes, I thought, Yes, we could do this!! We could do this by the 16th. Mike was doubtful, but he's always doubtful so I ignored him and started making up the invitations (yes I had bought them months ago when I saw them at Staples).  My glass was half full.....the sky was the limit.....we could accomplish anything, right?

Sometimes I'm a frickin' idiot.

After that weekend, when the invitations went out and we sealed our deadline for good in the minds of 40 friends and relatives, it was go time.  Every night after work we rushed home to rush to Home Depot or Lowe's then rush back home to work until 2-3am. I actually longed for my job to get an escape from the attic. The floor was down but I just didn't realize everything else we had to do!!  So many little details like hardware for the cabinets, trim, plumbing, cleaning, CLEANING, and more CLEANING, and bar stools, and fridge, and pool table delivery and I'm going to stop typing because that familiar knot is building back up in my stomach just thinking about it.

You have to give team SOS credit. Given (what turned out to be) an impossible deadline, we can pull anything out our asses. We are normally the type of people who research any purchase over $150 to death to make sure we are getting the best deal possible....it could take us weeks just to buy a vacuum cleaner.

Not this time.

We learned to walk into a place, find what we want, and make a decision with stealth-like precision. No more thinking, no more analyzing, "Do we like it?" yes. "Can we afford it?" probably not but that's why we're using equity. "Do they have it in stock?" yes. "SOLD." It was like a dance, people.

We had really chopped up our invitation list so there wouldn't be TOO many people coming to our house on the 16th. There were so many people that had heard our stories and knew of our hard work to make this room happen. Family, Friends, people from work, neighbors who had to endure Mike's late-night hammering. We had whittled it down to 30 invitations but not too many people were responding. Then EVERYONE was responding. I tried to stagger what I told different people. I had presented this as an "Open House" so I told some people "get here early!" and others "oh, don't come until later" in the hopes that we would have a steady flow of guests.

Admittedly, there were a few arguments. Usually stress-induced, fatigue-induced, or both, not making any sense and ending in a hug and then getting back to work. It's amazing how yelling out a bunch of obscenities at one-another can give you that second wind.

Let's move forward to Friday, July 15. TWENTY-FOUR HOURS before the big day. I took the day off of work. I started early. I never stopped. Mike got home and promptly got to work with me. We took a break to eat pizza. At 3am, I started to get concerned that we would be too tired to enjoy the party the next evening. At 5am, I started to get worried that even if we didn't go to bed, we might not finish in time. Why the hell did we do this to ourselves???? At 5:30am, I told Mike that we had to get a few hours sleep. I was supposed to pick up the catering (thank God I had the foresight to know I wouldn't have time to cook) at 10am. The mani/pedi I was hoping for? Probably not going to happen.

I woke up at 9:30am and left to pick up the food (and Starbucks, beautiful, wonderful, caffienated Starbucks). I stopped on the way home to pick up some flowers to replace the dead ones on our front porch. When I got back Mike had taken to sawing again even though I had cleaned the whole floor (cue obscenities). He continued preparing his office while I mowed the lawn. Literally 3 hours before the open house began, I was putting touch-up paint on our railings and the trim in the attic room. I felt like I was on that "Trading Spaces" show where people are finishing their projects literally minutes before their neighbors see it.  I squeezed in time for a shower and was squirting on a little perfume just as the doorbell rang. I was practically dead on my feet.

We had a LOT of people come to our house. As I had hoped, they spread themselves among the entire house (I strategically put the food downstairs). It was a bit overwhelming at first trying to get to know my neighbors, meet Mike's work people, show off the final touches to our work crew (including engraved plates for each of them on our bar stools).  I was in total panic mode--is everyone happy? Does everyone have a drink? Oh my God, it's too freakin' hot in this room!!! Did they notice I didn't finish touching up the trim? Where are the kitties? How is the food? Aggghhh!

About 3 hours into the Open House, a lot of the people that just came to see everything started to taper off and the real "partyers" were left behind, to, well, party. Our friends and a few neighbors were gathered around the bar, playing pool, and me and my neighbor Dave were creating the bar's "signature" drink of the evening, the key lime pie martini. My energy was creeping back. This was a lot of fun! Later we scooted the couch over and made a dance floor, led by Natalie and her friend Abbie who had graciously visited from Northern Virginia (I can always count on Nat to liven up a party!).

I don't know how the heck I did it, but I didn't go to bed until 3am that night. It was a great feeling knowing that everyone had a wonderful time (accomplishment #1) and that our Ultimate Project was finally done (accomplishment #2 and most rewarding!).

Now, it's a week later and I'm still a little in recovery mode. Hmmmm, maybe I'll go upstairs and play pool with Mike.

Key Lime Martini, anyone?

Comments

[Jamey R.]

WOW! I am so incredibly impressed with your room!!!! I had NO idea how far you were going to go with this whole project, but I LOVE IT! I wish I could see it in person!! Congrats on your great accomplishment and for having a great party! Glad you guys had fun!

[Michelle]

I had such a great time in the attic. And for what its worth....not a single ounce of all of that stress was visible. What a great party! I enjoyed myself tremendously....and it was really good to spend a little more time with you and Mike and the rest of the gang. I hope we can get together for dinner sometime when I'm down in Richmond again. Great blog too by the way :)

[Greg]

I have to say you really pulled it off! That room looks fantastic. It's amazing what you and Mike have done with your house. Haha and the great thing is that everything will be all done the first time that I get to see it! Anyway what a treat. I know you've been talking about this project practically since you bought the house.