Aftermath
The carpet went into the apartment yesterday afternoon. After work I started moving furniture back into the kitchen and living room. Nothing in the kitchen was damaged, but there's a big space left in the living room where the couch, armchair and coffee table used to live. I'll bring a table and armchair from the office to make more room there, and move the TV from the bedroom.
I still went back to Sylvie and Sarah's to sleep last night. After spending a week enjoying good company of my parents and friends, I am suddenly unenthused about returning to the solitude of my apartment. Or maybe I'm just deterred about how much work needs to be done to make the place liveable again.
Some of the cookbooks that got damp are still useful. Books with lots of glossy pictures didn't fare so well. Several of my favourite gardening books were destroyed. On the other hand, I have room for new books, for the first time in years.
The kitchen, living room and hall look pretty good after the restoration. The rooms that weren't damaged-office, bedroom and bathroom-which served as a dump for books, furniture and random junk, will take longer to recover. This doesn't look much different from normal, if one forgets I had actually tidied my office just before this happened.
