I love having a house
I'm in the midst of a glorious three-day 'weekend' - the second in a row for me, which is nothing short of amazing. Tom is heading to work now after four days off himself, so between the two of us, we've been getting a lot done by way of housework.
Tom finished sanding the dining room floors on Tuesday, and yesterday he applied a couple of coats of polyurathane, so now they're done. ^_^ They don't look as great as we hoped - some stains didn't come up with the sanding and some of the blackness from the ghastly tar still lingers between boards and along the edges. Still, it's such an improvement to what they were, that I have no intention of complaining. All we have to do now is nail up the baseboards and crown molding and we will be *done* in there! In a few days the coating will be hardened enough for me to bring the dining room table back in, and for the first time in the three months we've lived here, we'll have an actual place to eat. We've been eating on the back porch a lot, and downstairs in front of the TV too often lately, so this will be good.
I spent the whole day yesterday cleaning my kitchen. Not a wonderful way to spend six or seven hours, but sorely needed. With all the work going on in the adjoining rooms, there has been a near-constant influx of dust over the whole house. First it was drywall dust, then plaster dust, then wood dust. I tried to keep up at first, but it was a losing battle and I ended up just keeping cooking and prep surfaces clean of it and washing dusty things before using them. So now that the dust time was finally over, my kitchen was due for the kind of cleaning that takes all day. It was very satisfying, though now my hands are dry and cracking around the nails. I never think to put on gloves until it's too late.
Then, in the evening, Pop came by to help with another project. Tom bought a glass-block window kit to replace the nasty old basement window in his painting room (we figure well eventually replace all the windows, but that room was his priority). He worked for *hours* getting the old one out (it had a fierce metal frame that was well-imbedded in the concrete walls), and then when he finally did, he had to rebuild the cement sill. But the window went in at last. I'd like to say "without a hitch" but I can't. It was a bitch to install, and by the time we finished it was almost 9 o'clock and quite dark outside. Still, it looks much, much better than the old window, and it lets a lot of natural light into the room, so I guess it's worth the struggle and busted knuckles.
Tomorrow is another cleaning day for me, but tonight I'm heading over to Li's for some intensive writing. I'm really struggling with writing here - I think there's so much housework to do that I can't concentrate well. I'm hoping to get a lot accomplished tonight and, with any luck, rekindle an enthusiasm that will get me back to writing every day. My goal of having this draft done before the baby comes is starting to seem pretty hard to reach. It's time to knuckle down and get to work!
Tom finished sanding the dining room floors on Tuesday, and yesterday he applied a couple of coats of polyurathane, so now they're done. ^_^ They don't look as great as we hoped - some stains didn't come up with the sanding and some of the blackness from the ghastly tar still lingers between boards and along the edges. Still, it's such an improvement to what they were, that I have no intention of complaining. All we have to do now is nail up the baseboards and crown molding and we will be *done* in there! In a few days the coating will be hardened enough for me to bring the dining room table back in, and for the first time in the three months we've lived here, we'll have an actual place to eat. We've been eating on the back porch a lot, and downstairs in front of the TV too often lately, so this will be good.
I spent the whole day yesterday cleaning my kitchen. Not a wonderful way to spend six or seven hours, but sorely needed. With all the work going on in the adjoining rooms, there has been a near-constant influx of dust over the whole house. First it was drywall dust, then plaster dust, then wood dust. I tried to keep up at first, but it was a losing battle and I ended up just keeping cooking and prep surfaces clean of it and washing dusty things before using them. So now that the dust time was finally over, my kitchen was due for the kind of cleaning that takes all day. It was very satisfying, though now my hands are dry and cracking around the nails. I never think to put on gloves until it's too late.
Then, in the evening, Pop came by to help with another project. Tom bought a glass-block window kit to replace the nasty old basement window in his painting room (we figure well eventually replace all the windows, but that room was his priority). He worked for *hours* getting the old one out (it had a fierce metal frame that was well-imbedded in the concrete walls), and then when he finally did, he had to rebuild the cement sill. But the window went in at last. I'd like to say "without a hitch" but I can't. It was a bitch to install, and by the time we finished it was almost 9 o'clock and quite dark outside. Still, it looks much, much better than the old window, and it lets a lot of natural light into the room, so I guess it's worth the struggle and busted knuckles.
Tomorrow is another cleaning day for me, but tonight I'm heading over to Li's for some intensive writing. I'm really struggling with writing here - I think there's so much housework to do that I can't concentrate well. I'm hoping to get a lot accomplished tonight and, with any luck, rekindle an enthusiasm that will get me back to writing every day. My goal of having this draft done before the baby comes is starting to seem pretty hard to reach. It's time to knuckle down and get to work!