DH and I had a good -- if lazy (well, lazy for me) -- day. Woke up at a reasonable hour, lounged about eating breakfast, watched the "Sunday Morning" show (thank you j***s for technology that lets you tape shows that are on at flipping dawn so you can watch them at a civilized hour), went to S*bucks for coffee (rather than our usual indie coffee joint), came back home and stared at the clothes dryer (which is apparently possessed by poltergeists and being obdurate), then packed up the Gas Hog (our beloved SUV) and shlepped over to Berkeley, to check out the progress (or lack thereof) on our rental. (More about The Great Project in another post.)
Our son (DS), who has been sent off to live at the house, was absent, having taken off for Nevada for some reason with someone. The place was -- remarkably -- not hideously dirty or messy (well, not more messy than usual), and DS had actually done some of the work DH had asked him to do!
I dropped DH off at the house so he could start his work on the never-ending project, and took myself down the hill to one of my very favorite fabric stores -- Stone Mountain Daughter -- to see if I could find that bolt of fabric I had eyed last weekend, but didn't buy. (A flamboyant print featuring bright pink flamingos, startling green leaves and splashes of eye-burning blue; 100% cotton...) I was lucky -- found it! And there was just enough left on the bolt to have sufficient fabric for something or other. I'm thinking it's just the thing to make a camp shirt for our vacation in Hawaii next March. I'm sure that it'll be done by then. Really. DH has quite a collection of Hawaiian shirts, and I'm feeling that I need to have at least one myself, just to be able to show up in public with him. (Let the record reflect that, for the past several trips to Hawaii, I have been wearing many of the same clothes I wore on a trip to Hawaii when DD -- who is now 21 -- was a babe in arms... Time for mama to sew herself something new!)
After spending more than I had wanted at SMD, off to buy lunch for us (deli sandwiches from the local market), back to the house, munched away, then sat and played with my iPhone while DH worked in The Pit. What, pray tell, is The Pit? It is the excavated crawl space that will be beneath the (new) kitchen floor. The house is on a hillside that is blessed with plentiful underground water springs. Unfortunately, this results in soggy crawl spaces. That, combined with wooden floor joists and a foundation that was disintegrating, resulted in a kitchen floor that was so damaged that I could put my finger through the flooring (which I did). DH ripped out everything, redid the foundation, and decided we need a cement surface under the kitchen, to minimize the damp. It's been a months-long project, but the vapor barrier is now down, and DH taped much of it in place today. One more weekend session of taping, and I think we'll be ready for the pre-cement-pour inspection. DS has been "camping out" at the house, without benefit of a kitchen (although he has a microwave and a hot plate -- geez!), and he will be very happy once the cement is in and cured, the floor joists are in, and we can put the underfloor down. Then, my fun starts -- picking out cabinets and appliances! The house is a 1920s Berkeley brown shingle, and is in a historic district, so we want to maintain the look and feel of the house in our re-do. This is like playing dollhouse, but better. (More to come on that.)
Then, back home (an hour drive). One of my favorite radio shows, "Says You", was on, making the drive a pleasant one. Now laying on the sofa, DH working on his monthly car club newsletter, and I'm rambling on this post. I really need to get with the program here. And I will... soon... Really... Right after finishing up the crossword puzzle...
As I said, "rien"...
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