Cats and Varnish

We began the varnishing here on the eighth night of Memorial Day Weekend and we completed the whole staircase. Not the newel posts or the railings but all the risers and treads all the way up. Or all the way down since we started at the top. And when I say we, I mean Susan. She did most of the work. However, instead of just sitting around watching TV this time, I actually put myself in a support kind of mode. I fetched beer, kept the music going, answered the phone (except for the one time it actually rang and Susan got it), and ciphered out a way to keep the cats away from the stairs.

While I was doing that, Susan suggested that we close the pocket doors in the living room, block off the door into the TV room and somehow block the hallway. This reminded me of the backstairs discovery I made when Susan told me about the backstairs. It was pure genious on my part...the part where I listened to her. I keep wondering when she is going to figure out that I married much better than she did.

This picture doesn't show the blockade very well and of course, it remains to be seen if we have really outwitted the cats. They are crafty little mammals and usually figure out a way past our previous blockades. I guess it won't be too bad to have cat paws and cat hair permanently infused into the varnish.