Of bridesmaid dresses, doors, and stripping

I went bridesmaid dress shopping yesterday, and now I have lots of stripping to do. I came home with three doors.

My sister and another bridesmaid picked me up in the 'shwa to go dress shopping around 10am. The goal of the trip was simple: figure out what hideous taffeta number with puffed sleeves my sister would have me and her other two attendants wear for her wedding, leaving us resembling hideous monsters, and her, the shining bride in the perfect dress.

(Well, not exactly, but I'm all about the dramatic flair.)

After hitting two stores we had a winner, deposits laid down, and dresses ordered. The dress we all picked out (given that the bride is nothing like I described above) are cute, and have neither taffeta nor puffed sleeves as I'd feared. I can't find a version online, but they're remarkably similar (cough cough, knockoff, cough cough) to this dress, only it'll be in misty blue, with a misty blue bow, instead of a black bow with blue that the original required. Perfect!

After much shopping, we decided to hit a restaurant, and since one of our crew has some pretty severe allergies (and since she's nice and all and I'm awkward with epi pens) we ended up going to East Side Mario's for lunch.

I haven't really ever been a fan of the place, and generally have a pretty strong dislike for chain restaurants, but I was happy to go along with the crowd.

I ordered a broccoli and chicken pasta, which ended up being a definite disappointment. there were FOUR pieces of broccoli in the whole thing. To me the attraction to the dish was BROCCOLI, followed by pasta and chicken. When the waitress asked, I did say things were fine, but I was surprised there didn't seem to be much broccoli to their broccoli and chicken pasta she offered to bring me more. Being a bit of a broccoli fiend I was excited at the prospect and quickly agreed. Unfortunately things didn't really go as planned.

She came back about 15 minutes later with a few pieces of broccoli, but something was amiss. This broccoli looked like it'd been open roasted by one of the cooks' bic lighters on a dare. A wafting aroma of burnt veggie was pretty evident, and when I picked up a piece some of it actually crumbled in my hand. Broccoli is good. Burnt broccoli, not so much.

We headed back chez mes parents in Cobourg and I realized we might have some time to kill before my sister drove me back to the 'shwa on her way back to the hammer (Hamilton for you non-locals).

So, I commandeered my mum to check out this vintage building supply company which only sells old stuff - doors, planks, pretty much anything. I even brought another of my sister's bridesmaids along since she has an older house and we swapped reno stories through the day (hoo-ee am I exciting conversationalist!).

When we moved in to our tiny abode there was no door on the closet in our room, so I'd like to remedy that with a nice door that actually suits the age of the house. We also spent WAY too much time stripping one of the bedroom doors down to the original wood, and wanted a knob to match the original holes in the door that would suit the decor.

We arrived at Legacy building supply, only to find a bar across the driveway and a sign which read:

In a challenge to the culture of productivity, speed and consumerism,our shop will be closed from December 18/06 through January 16/07. We would like to wish everyone a safe and happy holiday season.

What a cool idea, if it weren't for the fact that I really don't get there very often and even less often when they're actually home. I really wanted to see if they had anything that would suit our closet outside in the yard, so I slipped under the gate and walked around drooling over the beautiful wrought iron gates and huge old door frames and posts and toodled back to the car, freezing, and unsuccessful. There were no doors to be found there

Bummed, mum suggested we check out the habitat for humanity resale store just a block away and I just about keeled over with excitement. Inside I didn't even get to see all the aisles, but found a door that would need only two saw cuts to fit our closet (old houses = odd sizing), and two other doors with handles on them that were just gorgeous and about the right age for our house.

I asked one of the kids working there if I could just buy the knobs and leave the doors, but after checking with his manager we couldn't.

That left me buying one door but no knobs for the closet, and, in a rash move, I bought two other doors for their knobs alone. For $15 each, you really can't beat the price so I went for it. I'm sure I've seen knobs with backplates like them for $60 each, and you can't buy a new antique looking passage handle for $15. Score!

I also picked up an MDF board for the basement for $1.50.

As you might imagine, fitting three people, three doors, and an MDF board in the back of a camry isn't an easy task and it certainly wasn't a well thought out plan on my part (those of you who know me are sensing a theme). The ride home involved me sitting with one ass cheek on the folded down seat, and the other clenched in midair, hoping my mum would avoid any unnecessary turns and planning a speech explaining things for when the officer pulled us over.

Laughing at my idiocy on the way home I realized, though that only one of the doors was excess, since our bathroom door is a regular hollow core one, and now we have a nice vintage one to replace it.

So now, we have beautiful hardware just waiting to be cleaned and replaced, and two (more) doors to strip. Apparently I like making work for myself.