Linda Mae’s garden buddha.
People in Nova Scotia are pretty laid back and I think this is even more true in Bear River. So our landlady Linda Mae only slightly surprised us when she said: “While you are housesitting this year, paint the inside of my house whatever color you want that will make you feel comfortable living here.” And then to top it off she said: “Plant whatever you want in the garden that will make you feel happy to live here for the next year. You say you want to dig a big piece out of the front lawn? Go right ahead!”
Linda Mae took us on her walking trail and tagged the way so we won’t get lost!
The last time I looked at a rental contract in Toronto it’s stipulated what you could not do to the walls of your overpriced apartment and even went so far as to stipulate whether or not you could hang a wreath on your front door.
As this is my reference point, I kept trying to show Linda Mae paint chips and colour schemes and to sell her a vision of the place, but she would just wave her hand and say ” I’m sure it will be great… surprise me!” and then she’d jump in her car and drive off to a Tai Chi conference somewhere.
So we’ve been working really hard this weekend on our quest to paint the downstairs. Here’s a bit of the transformation that happened.
It really helped our timeline to learn that some Toronto friends will be arriving here for a couple of nights this week. It sure got us putting in full days on the rearranging committee. I guess we haven’t got the laid back thing perfected yet.
3 responses so far ↓
Steven van Schaik // June 18, 2008 at 5:56 pm
Hey, nice job with the painting Larry. Looks pro, union like.
BTW, make sure you give that garden lots and lots of water. I see that big ole tree (Maple?) not too far from the garden. It will get thirsty too and you may find your garden gets a bit dry.
emilybee // June 20, 2008 at 2:18 am
Wow, it looks SOOOOOO nice in that room with that beautiful sunny, lemon yellow! Are you planning on painting more rooms? What a lot of work, but it looks like it’s worth it!
Flora // June 20, 2008 at 9:00 am
Emmy…Isn’t it bright and happy! Our bed is in there because we couldn’t get it up the stairs to the second floor!. So we are basically living downstairs in less space than the studio. This was always my dream anyway because the studio is like a giant playroom….I’m sure you remember that growing up, we always picked the largest room in the house as the ‘playroom’.! haha
We will finish painting the woodwork white and we will carry that yellow/white throughout the whole downstairs. I really like the colour too. The slight green in it compliments the red in all the wood and enhances the green view out of EVERY window. Maybe that colour was also inspired a bit by the amazing light we encountered visiting with you in LA. You’ll have to come up here and see it in person! !