Thursday, September 10, 2009

Day Twenty Three: Moving in to Hell's Furnace...

Dude. It was 110 degrees today in Felton. ONE-HUNDRED-AND-TEN-DEGREES-FAHRENHEIT-IN-FELTON. Hottest day on record since 1965.

And we decided to move today. Of course.

Our ridiculously wonderful friends showed up at 9:30, worked like crazed ants and were up at the house by 11:30 with almost 80% of our stuff!!! (SAY WHAT?) They hauled, they sweated, they smiled, they cursed, they laughed, they almost died from heat stroke... but they kept working. Box after box after sofa after bed after chair. We have some ridiculously fabulous friends.

Turns out the little AC unit that the previous owners massacred a window to install (with half-assed plywood and a little plastic accordion piece, no less) actually works! Not very well, but you don't knock ANY form of cooling when it is that dang hot. We cranked it all the way on for our lunch of pizza and beer - it was less than uncomfortable in the front room with all our friends perched on furniture and boxes, so obviously the AC thingy was doing something! I was petrified that someone would keel over and have a stroke on the front steps, so I tried to steer people to stand in front of the AC unit for at least five minutes with a bottle of ice water whenever possible. It gave me the excuse of standing near the cooler air, too, to try to bring down the swelling that turned my feet into blimps and my fingers in to bratwursts. Not fun.

The crew was all done by mid-afternoon and even volunteered to help us unpack and get settled in. (Did I mention that our friends are ridiculously fabulous? Geesh.) We shooed them out to their air conditioned cars and off to their hopefully cooler homes. And then the nesting bug hit. And I just had to unpack every box in the kitchen. The bug started to subside when my feet started throbbing, but not by much.

Thru all of this, our buddy Joel was tiling our bathroom floor. Inside, in 110 degree heat. What a guy. The floor looks GREAT (oh my gosh, look at those little curved pieces around the tub!) and he will be back tomorrow to grout the tub and floor. Wahoo!

We took our first outdoor shower at the new house tonight - can I just say that this is a PERK of moving into a house without a working bath? A full view of redwoods, stars up above, warm water run thru a hose out the back window... Fabulous. It was so nice to remove an inch-thick layer of sweat buildup at the end of the day.

Matisse did OK with the move, but was really worrying me with her panting and lethargy. Extreme even for a cat. Poor baby, she was so hot on top of the stress of moving to a new place - I can't imagine having a fur coat today. She'll be better off than us in the winter, but for now... no bueno. She plopped herself down on the cool-ish stone hearth (and then kept moving slightly when she over-warmed that spot...) and looked up at us with sad, sad "why are you doing this to me???" eyes. *sniff* I try to be a good cat mommy!

So... we're living in BOXLANDIA for now... in ridiculous heat... in an old house that creaks... without a shower... and it is *awesome.*

(And yes, Matt *is* wearing board shorts in this picture.)

Day Twenty: Meet Your Neighbors...

TileWatch’09 continued today; Dad made great strides and finished the shower tile... AT 8:30 p.m.!!!! He then packed up and went home, much to my mother’s relief. Sometimes the cats just aren’t enough company...

When I stopped in to have lunch with Dad today we discovered a lovely congregation of GINORMOUS ANTS in the garage. Some even had wings! For some reason they absolutely love the quickset and were making a nuisance of themselves in the powder bag. We tried our best to smash them into oblivion (they made large crunching noises... and I was in flip flops.) Matt will do a *wonderful* job taking care of them later. You should see him attack ants – it’s more than a hobby for my husband. It’s a mission!

We’re winding down on the house in preparation for the move this weekend... While we are nowhere NEAR done, the time has come for us to make it happen. Oh Lord.

Day Nineteen: Do we name her Paulina?

Following a crazy work-packed weekend, my dad, Paul, took three days of vacation time to… work on our house?!? Yesterday he started on the subway tile in the bathroom between coats of floor varithane. Can I just say that our floors are AMAZING!?!??!!??! It looks like we had them professionally refinished! Who says you need to spend $2K and stay out of your house for two weeks to have great looking floors? (You just need crazy talented parents who are really good at home repairs/remodels…) I can’t believe Dad is up here for three days.

The tile is coming along, slowly but surely. Dad is a *very* meticulous worker (read: borderline over-the-top-perfectionist… ;o) His mantra is measure three (or four) times, cut once. And his work is GORGEOUS. I’m more of a measure twice, cut once person. Matt is a “you measured?” type – but more often than not is dead on. Darn talented booger. *smooch*

It was extra special to come up to the house on a week day and have lunch with Dad – two days in a row now! I attacked the dead caulking behind the kitchen sink with a vengeance, but still only one third the energy I’m used to being able to expend on repair projects. This remodeling-while-preggo thing is getting old.

Matt came by after work and continued working on the bathroom walls, covering screws with another layer of mudd. There is much debate over how we will finish the walls – I want a smooth wall finish but have been informed that this is beyond the skill/patience level of the workers on hand (mainly Matt and dad.) Ugh. We’d better not have to do the orange peel finish. I hate that. Maybe I’ll grab a palate knife and see what kind of mischief I can get into… Or not.