Seeing red again

. . . And not just about windows, though we did start the day with a strategy session by phone with our architect, Dennis.

The second phone call was to lock down the order on our floor materials.

The third was incoming: A frantic call by Roy, our painter, who'd been unable to find our shade of door stain at Sherwin-Williams.

No wonder, we said: We'd gotten it at Benjamin Moore -- and he called from there to say he'd nailed their last quart.

We high-tailed it to Strunk's, and picked up the last two quarts of Provincial on the island, cornering a small market at best.

Then we went out to see Stacy at the bath fixtures store to get our toilets in line and ran into . . . a member of the Historic Architecture Review Commission. I was happy to see her, but when she started asking about our project, told her that, ethically, we shouldn't discuss it, because we would be appearing before her soon. So we talked about her renovation project.

All the time, Santos was working away in the den, re-redding the tongue-and-groove wall and its trim. Nathaniel wandered by late in the day, poked his head in and said, "Y'know, I was worried about all that red, but now I think it's the prettiest room in the house."

Awfully nice to hear.