Dandelyon's Worlds

So, life has been busy. I’ll try to post about October later, but for the moment, I thought I’d natter about this week. Or at least one part of this week, that being house stuff.

I’ve been waiting for the weather to be dry enough and calm enough (in terms of wind) to get my roof repaired. The first snow of the season made it Very Clear that I needed to get part of the wall repaired too. This is not good for my budget, but the repairs will indeed be good for my house, even if it will have something of a patchwork look—I don’t have enough of the old siding to cover the repairs, so they’re putting new siding on the walls they are repairing. I’m not sure when we can do the rest of the house; I’ll have to consult the budget and it seems likely that the weather wouldn’t cooperate for redoing the whole thing anyway.

While I was waiting, and writing at the kitchen table (sometimes a change of scenery is good for the writing), I got tired of looking at a kitchen window where the top has persistently refused to be closeable—you know, the old double-hung windows, designed so you can open the top for air flow in the summer? I’d hoped a little stubborn insistence and careful application of brute force on my part would let me close it up for the winter but no. Someone in this house’s past had painted it in place, down more than an inch on one side and less than an inch on the other. Yes, they painted it not-shut crooked.

So I’ve been taking the window apart and repairing plaster and trying to get that corner of the kitchen ready for paint, and also doing stuff like painting bits of wood in my kitchen so repairs outside will have paint that doesn’t slough off because it froze instead of sealing to the wood. And today I have the old mailbox inside, for sanding and painting, so it can be re-hung over the new siding without looking rusty and disgusting.

I guess it’s like editing a story—the bones are good, but there are bits that have to go, and bits that just need fixing up. And it always seems to take more time and futzing than you expected. It’s also good to have friends who can help. A friend came by today to show me how to wiggle the wood to get that top window, which I’d finally gotten to move, out of the casing altogether so we can re-do the glazing compound and be assured the glass won’t fall out some cold, windy day.

Also, thank goodness for storm windows. I get to do all this and stay warm in the kitchen.

So, have you had home-repair, decorating, or organizing challenges lately?

An unemployed friend has been staying in a place that has been getting, well, less and less comfortable. I don't know the people he's staying with, but I do know that sometimes perfectly nice, reasonable people are mutually much happier not trying to live in the same house, and this could be one of those situations.

On the other hand, I have chronic illnesses (including allergies that make house-upkeep problematic), a demanding full-time job, am trying to keep up with a writing career, and My Angel has not been well for some time. It has occurred to me that another person around to share some of chores (and, for that matter, another person in the house in case My Angel falls again and needs help when I'm not home) would not be a bad thing.

But maybe sometime suddenly became "as soon as possible", so I spent much of the weekend cleaning--first working on the TV room where Angel fell, and which has had too much dust and chaos for some time, and then once the friend showed up, working to clear and clean a room for him. I didn't get as much done as I wanted to and did end up stuffed up and headachy most of the weekend, but overall, I think we got at least the minimum needed so we can have a place for his bed and desk next weekend, including getting a much-needed layer of paint on a couple of walls.

We poured LOTS of dust down the toilet, trapped safely in soapy water. Of course, I also breathed in LOTS of allergens.

Writing time, though--not so much. I needed to pour water over myself and nap after he left.

Here's hoping that in the long run, this leads to more time for writing and less time immersed in dust and soapy water.