Echoes in a Hollow Space

The built-ins were installed yesterday. The carpenter left about noon and we started on the urethaning—at least enough to let it dry so we could get the dresser back in place so I could move through my bedroom again. Then we had to move more furniture displaced by the installation and by then we were too tired to finish the urethaning, so no books on the shelves yet. (You can see where we left off. The top and middle shelves are what the color of the oak will be when the shelves are all done.)

The old bookshelves that we put out on the curb Sunday were gone within an hour! And as an added bonus, since the carpenter had to take up the carpet to put the built-ins in place, he volunteered to take out the carpet tacks and strips in that section of the room, a terrible job. So we cut the awful old carpet clear over to just underneath the bed and he was able to remove another large chunk to reveal lovely old hardwood floors. The roommate and I will be removing another big chunk of hideous brown when we've recuperated from this adventure. (The furniture moving is the biggest obstacle since we just can't shift some things by ourselves.)

Am tired.

( Kindle isn't this pretty, at least. )

After posting the pictures of the kitchen paint job yesterday it occurred to me that one really positive aspect of 2007 was that we did a lot of remodeling—both big jobs and small, by ourselves and hiring people. It started off small, buying new light fixtures and the like, because we couldn't really afford the big things. Both my bathroom and the roommate's were in really bad shape, but we were just going to have to live with them.

Then the floor of the roommate's shower (one of those prefab stalls) caved in on her. We didn't have any choice about fixing it then. So we decided that if we had to spend the money, we'd get a modest home loan and do both bathrooms and if there was anything left, get some painting done, et al.

Again, I didn't take too many before pictures, but here's the gallery of changes.

( 16 remodeling pictures. )

P.S. We are now out of money. :-(

The Month and a Half From Heck is finally over:

☛ One of the busiest end of the fiscal years I've experienced in awhile
☛ Followed closely by the Meeting From Hell Heck preparation
☛ Painting and furniture moving and re-moving
☛ Another tribe of workmen disrupting the routine of the household (one more tribe to go and then we've exhausted our redecorating resources—and then some)
☛ Some numbskull deciding to push forward with the 2nd draft of her novel during all this, after only about a week off from the 1st draft

There are far worse things that could have happened to me during this time, so it gets a Heck designation rather than Hell, but it did leave me rather exhausted. After the meeting on Tuesday I collapsed in a heap. Oh, I still came into work Weds-Fri, but I wasn't exactly at my best, just dragging through. I gave up trying to write anything some time the week before, am still on vacation from writing (need to refill the well), and I gave myself permission to be a complete vegetable this weekend.

I was looking forward, with the perversity of a true ghost afficionado, to the six hour event Most Haunted Live which went off 9 p.m. Friday night from the Winchester Mystery House in San Jose. I'd just had my new DVR box from my cable company installed on Tuesday (with a return visit on Friday since they didn't do it right on Tuesday) and I'd already successfully recorded three episodes of Ghost Hunters, one hour of the medium Lisa Williams, and had the WE Tv line up of supernatural programs on Saturday night to look forward to (Rescue Mediums is a hoot, followed by John Edward). Because it's the time of year it is, there were other ghostly things to be had on Discovery and whatever the hell channel runs Ghostly Encounters (Sundays). (October always brings enough ghostly programming to choke even a devotee like myself.)

So I figured I could at least make it through midnight on the Most Haunted live event (I usually make it at least that late on Fridays), then watch the rest at my leisure, plus have all those other trashy programs to watch when I felt like it. Dudes, I was sound asleep in my chair by about 10:15. I must have been out at least twenty minutes, because on reviewing the Most Haunted recording the next day there's a big chunk in there that I had absolutely no recall of. I decided not to try to make it to 12, went to bed and slept very soundly.

It had been a very long time since I'd completely vegged out on a Saturday—I literally can't remember the last time I did that. But I did last Saturday, and it felt wonderful. I spent hours with the cat on my lap watching ghostly programming until I started to wonder about my psyche and this fascination with seeing dead people. (I still wonder, frankly, and have no solidly convincing answer for myself.) I didn't even read during that time, just sat there gawp-mouthed.

Sunday was more productive, but then I felt more rested. And now L.A. is surrounded by flame, dozens of wildfires, and a thick coating of ash on my car when I went out this morning (and yes, that means we're also breathing that crud). Dead trees, dead houses, a dead church, dead animals, and at least one dead person. We're haunted every year at this time with flame, and heroic firemen make heroic stands to save people and homes. And still we learn nothing from it. And still we rebuild in the same places and push on with our lives.

It makes me wonder about our collective psyches. I have no answers for that, either, that aren't knee-jerk and simplistic.

Because I know it's just fascinating and you are all just aching to see pictures...

( Three before pictures. )

I will post the after pictures sometime...after. The walls are in the process of getting painted this week so my hall and bathroom, anyway, will be looking mighty fine.

128,750 / 130,000 (99.0%)

I wrote 7 pages today but had to stop because my brain went numb. Chapter 29 is done, chapter 30 is started--and really, maybe half a chapter, two-thirds, and that's it, baby.

Our long national nightmare is almost over.

Oh, wait, that's something else...

Don't know if I'll finish this weekend. We're ripping up carpets in the hall to reveal the lovely hardwood floors beneath and getting things ready for the painter on Monday. But at least I don't have to paint. Praise be!

I took a day off from the novel yesterday to write Zombies! and to play around with the new novel. The contemporary fantasy one, the one with the working title of Red Demon (which is a seriously misleading title), the one about Leah and David meeting in a grief group, and about David's killer in-law problem.

All of that was fun, fun, fun and apparently cranked up the creative juices because I got 1250 words written at lunch today. I did some scrunching and rearranging, but my net gain was still 1000 words. I finished chapter 22 on Tuesday, so this was pure chapter 23 work. Chapter 22 got ahead of itself and once I realized that was why it was being such a large pain in the arse, I was able to chop away the offending matter and finish it up. Fortunately, I'll be able to use most of the stuff I cut i later.

In other fun news: My bathroom remodel is coming along nicely. They got the floor in yesterday and I love it. Two inch white tiles with one inch black spacers so it looks like one of those classic black and white floor patterns from the 1920s. The shower is mostly done, too—large black and white tiles, mostly white with black highlights. I'm going to do the wood trim and cabinets in white, but I want some color on the walls. Something rich and earthy. Maybe a dark gold. There won't be all that much wall to paint gold as most of one wall is mirrored, but the gold will continue out into the hall linking my sitting room with my bedroom. The roommate was having a little trouble accepting the concept, but I think I've brought her around. She liked the tile once she saw it laid, so she's cutting me a little slack on the gold.

I could have lived with the ratty old falling apart bathroom for quite some time more (my old apartment gave me a high tolerance for sleaze), but the roommate's shower was literally starting to fall through the floor, so that had to be done. In for an inch, in for a mile, I guess. It's so nice to have a nice new environment. Or it will be, once I can shower in there again.

Min likes it, too. She thinks it's nice of me to pick out a tile design that matches her. She is, however, freaked by all the noise and chaos. "I want it to be done now," she says. Me, too, Baby Min. Me, too.


Random quote of the day:


"Art is long and life is short, and success is very far off....And when it is accomplished—behold!—all the truth of life is there: a moment of vision, a sigh, a smile—and the return to an eternal rest."

—Joseph Conrad

(Thank you, Tara, wherever you are.)