Floorplay!

We survived the Great Flooring of 09 today. Starting with the crew arriving an hour and a half early, and having to be sent away again, till I'd finished HP's morning care, which I'd started early anyway, but it takes up to two hours, and I'd asked them not to show before 10. As they left the chief person was studying the paperwork and saying in Russian, I guess,dangit, shoulda read this before.....

Great crew though, they did a wonderful job, really good craftsmen, complete with earrings, shorts falling off, very teenage styles, but could they work. They were just meticulous, worked as a good team, and didn't miss a thing. No nailpop went unturned, and the trim work was beautiful. They finished by mopping, sweeping and polishing the new floor before bringing the furniture in again.

This is the same company that did the condo for me, and though these are new and younger guys, just as good as the others. Not a word of English other than good morning and goodbye, but they were good humored, joking away all day in, I think Russian, maybe Polish I don't recognize the rhythms well enough to know.



So all is happy chez Adams this evening. The ceaseless din has ended, the floor is pretty and the cats are considering whether they will continue to live here since their request to keep the grotty old rug was overruled.



The hard part was being stuck in the kitchen, very cramped, but I was able to set up HP with his card table for his newspapers, pens, multiple spectacles, drinks, later lunch and snacks. I had done a dry run of moving him into the kitchen to see if we could navigate two quick right angle turns with a big chair in a small space, and we just about did it.

Then it was BORING, not being able to get out and about the house, and having to listen to the din, and not having the AC on since all the doors were wide open for the workers. They put a lot of our stuff out on the patio, mercifully the weather is fine, so the screen door was open, and the front door had to be permanently open for tools and cords and generators and whatever the heck else was making the racket. And of course the landscapers came around to add to the din with mowers and hackers and blowers and snowers and who knowers.

but it is so worth it. Expensive, but I keep on saying bravely, we're only doing this ONCE!

Interesting social sidelight here: in this region most construction is done by Russians and Poles, most landscaping by Hispanics, and most human services work, like home health aides, by Ghanaians, Haitians and other people from the islands. No idea why this is so, but it is.

A generation ago, I remember hiring, and all the landscapers, including the owners of the companies, were Italian, all the construction people were US born catholics. most of German descent. Different waves of immigration.

So, the Big Floor is Done, yay. And I really like the warm color, which you will see in action, more or less. Next comes the return of the books....at which point the house will look more like a place I can show to a prospective cleaning crew so they can tell what they would be doing. That's the next part of the Plan.

I already put out multiple feelers for companion for Andy a couple of times a week, and everyone is on vacation till September.....

Reading while imprisoned in the kitchen today: Heartburn by Norah Ephron, or maybe it's Delia, anyway, one of the Ephrons, a delicious revenge book officially a novel replete with recipes, but really she wrote it to piss off Carl Bernstein after he did terrible stuff to her, full of references to Washington figures I don't know about, but it is still funny in a name-dropping kind of way.

I've read this before but I found it while we were moving books, so you never know. I would not recommend a single recipe from this book unless you really do want heartburn. Terrible stuff, wall to wall stodge. But fun to read about, not to eat!