A Golden Opportunity
Back in February when our two friends Gary and Oswaldo were staying with us for a few weeks, an interesting thing happened. One of the reasons they chose that time (literally right after we made our final escape from New York City) to come and stay with us was that Oswaldo likes to be helpful and he wanted to assist Kim in the moving preparations. He did just that. Oswaldo is an Eveready Bunny that has boundless energy. He was in perpetual motion while he was here, always doing something to help Kim whether she knew about it or not. Gary is more like me and less like Oswaldo. He is more cerebral than action-oriented. Gary spends his time reading and paying attention to international affairs and domestic politics. Given his professional career as a political historian, he always has interesting insights into what’s happening in the world. His views are particularly important in this moment of extreme circumstances in the world situation. And that was the case before Coronavirus took hold of the world.
As much as Gary is not the contributing member to the decorating and home repair and maintenance program, he is a wonderful low-maintenance house guest. He is always a pleasure to be with. In fact, one day when we were sitting in the living room theorizing about how we would fit all our New York artifacts and antiquities into this house, he looked at my five-foot-high eagle statue (made of old hardened wood and rusted copper) and suggested that we should put it outside. The statue has lived inside in Utah, Ithaca and now here in San Diego for over twenty years, but I suspect that before I owned it it might very well have lived outdoors at the artist’s Connecticut property, which was abundant in outdoor sculpture of that sort. In pondering the idea I knew I would have to find a better, more appropriately outdoor pedestal for it to sit upon. I did so and busted a gut getting that into the house and on the balcony where the eagle would sit. I then strapped the eagle to the new pedestal with extra-large and extra-long zip cords. The weight of the two combined would keep that eagle landed on this small “Juliet” balcony off of our master bedroom.
This home had two types of deck railings when we bought it. The big main deck and the guest bedroom deck had railings that were painted tubular railing frames overlaid with painted chain link. This seemed like the sort of thing that someone who ran short of patience or funds might put up with the thought that it would look just fine and no one would ever recognize it as chain link. That was silly if it was the assumption because the moment we saw it we decided to replace it on the main deck. My sister the architect convinced me to spend the money to have a clear glass railing installed. It has always looked beautiful and let the magnificent view in. It was well worthwhile. I left the guest bedroom deck as it was on the theory that it was less seen.
The “Juliet” balcony off the master and the railing on the back study porch were the same tubular steel frame except with nine lateral tubular rails that, while a bit obstructive, at least looked intentional as opposed to the chain link approach. As we settled into this home full time, we decided to replace the chain link in the guest bedroom area with plate glass panels in the existing tubular frame. That is done and looking good. The study porch rail we just finished refinishing and repainting, all handy work done by Handy Brad. He does an amazingly thorough job, sanding down to the brushed steel and then priming before painting. It looks brand new. But the “Juliet” balcony is a bit different. It is visible from our large deck with the glass railing and as such, we always felt it looked a bit out of synch now since it didn’t match the deck rail. What to do?
That’s where Gary came in. After suggesting that we put the eagle out on that balcony (I note that when I go into the bedroom I still feel like I am seeing a man standing out on the balcony, when it is just our vigilant eagle looking out to the ocean), Gary came up with another winning idea. He suggested we consider using a contrasting paint on the balcony railing that might offset the whole balcony in a way that would highlight the eagle and give people on the main deck an area of visual interest on that side of the house rather than more rose beige, which is the color of the house stucco.
We took to the idea quite readily and I went out to Lowe’s in the days before the quarantine and bought a few cans of spray paint for what seemed to be a simple job. I can distinctly recall standing in the aisle of Lowe’s trying to decide which of a full palate of colors suited our purpose. I chose a golden bronze. The cans have sat in the garage for the last two months. Somewhere along the way, we decided that it would be better to leave the rail painting to Handy Brad. What had seemed like an easy task got severely revised watching Brad spend a week on the porch railing, scraping, sanding, masking, priming and more. Last week Brad put himself to the task of the balcony railing and managed to get the first coat of bronze paint on.
We have had a weekend now to get used to the new railing even though the masking is still on the surrounding area and the eagle. The more we have looked at the golden railing, the more we have come to like the decision. It is funny that Brad was very particular about the paint color choice. He is very careful not to take on any decisions himself for what may or may not please us in the final outcome. I tried to explain that my choice of paint color consisted of a hurried choice standing impatiently in a Lowe’s aisle. When I tried to give him the authority to choose another color, he declined so we went with what I had so arbitrarily chosen. The funny thing is that we love the color and couldn’t be happier.
When Gary made the original recommendation in February we hadn’t even placed the eagle on the the balcony and yet the idea struck us as whimsically interesting. My point of this story is to say that these things can always be changed and yet if never tried, they are lost forever. We are very pleased that we seized Gary’s golden opportunity when we did.