Two Sisters Design Team

It started as Two Sisters Landscaping. My sister Linda, who lives in Iowa, came up to visit this past week. I was in the process of transplanting my perennials to our new house and Linda joined in. We dug up hostas and columbines, and a seriously entrenched false indigo, put them in boxes and loaded up the back of the Gator for the three-mile trip.
At the new house, we chose the perfect spots for each plant and lovingly nestled them into their new home. When we were finished landscaping, we went into the house. She hadn’t seen my new house yet and I was eager to hear her ideas for renovations. We began to measure rooms and windows. Two Sisters Landscaping turned into Two Sisters Design Team.
When renovating an old house, Linda is a good person to have on your design team. She has an artist’s eye and years of experience renovating her own homes. She recently purchased an old house in Iowa and did the gut out and rebuildroutine. My talents are confined to pounding in a nail now and then and slapping on a coat of paint. Linda knows her way around the workshop.
My limited measuring talents mean I can’t be trusted to cut a piece of wood to size. Linda can measure to a sixteenth of an inch and use a compound sliding mitresaw to make the cut in one try.
Where I would try to pound a nail into sheetrock and expect it to hold 100 pounds, my sister knows how to find a stud and has the smarts to know when reinforcement is needed. Linda can lay tile, put up drywall, add texture to walls, and install curtain rods that are level. While I thought I was doing good by being able to tear out the old, soiled carpeting, my sister can tear out complete walls and use a sander to refinish wood floors.
I had previously purchased a closet organizer from Menards, only to find out it was designed for sheetrock walls in closets that are square. I have neither, so with measurements in hand;we headed to Menards in Superior. Another talent my sister has is knowing how to navigate in Menards. Whether it was sink stoppers or curtain rod hardware, I pushed the cart while she led the way. We found the perfect drapes for the bedroom, rods for installation, and a carpet remnant the exact size to finish two bedrooms.
Back at the house, I was the ‘here hold this’ and ‘go get me a (fill in the blank tool)’ while Linda was on the ladder installing and on the ground making perfectly measured cuts in the carpet roll.
However, even with my sister at hand, the Two Sisters Design Team got Tom Sawyer-edby my husband.
We were contemplating how to install the perfect curved shower curtain rod on bathroom walls of questionable origin when my husband Paul came in. He looked at the walls, tapped with his fingers and had the look of consternation on his face only a seasoned carpenter can muster.
“This is going to be a tough job,” he said. “Trying to find something behind these walls to attach to is going to be very difficult. We may need to re-inforce behind the wall.”
It sounded like a job that would challenge even my sister. Paul had just finished installing shelves in a kitchen closet and was about to begin painting the interior of the closet.
“I’ll try to find a way to hang this rod if you want to paint the inside of that closet,” he offered.
Seeing hours of work to hang the rod in front of me, I grabbed the chance to spend the time with a paint brush instead. The closet was a tight space, and I didn’t have my painting clothes on, but it sounded much more doable than the enormous job my husband seemed to think the rod was going to be.
I got the painting supplies and had about one wall done when I heard my husband say, “Oh, this wall seems to be some kind of wood. Looks like I can put these screws into it anywhere I want.”
Within five minutes, he had the rod installed and was off on his next adventure.
By the time I finished painting the inside of the closet (picture a space just big enough to barely turn around in with about an inch of head room), I had paint in my hair and on my shoes.
The good news is that while I was ensconced in the paint job no one else wanted, my sister had been busy washing my windows.
After spending the day with my sister, the one-woman contractor, I spent some time watching her fix the cover for the box of her truck. Then I spent the evening helping her weave handles on the Raku pottery she had made and fired in her own kiln.
I know there may be many of you reading this who will want to borrow my multi-talented sister, but she’s mine and you can’t have her. I sent her home with extra perennials, two bags of horse manure, and some nice rocks to put in her garden. And I offered to babysit her aged dog for a week in August. It’s a small price to pay, and hopefully enough incentive to bring her back for another visit, soon.