I was awakened at one o’clock this morning to the sound of my four year old daughter vomiting onto the wood floor of the little nook at the top of the Einsel House stairs. In an instant I was out of bed, into the hall, turn on the light, and oh no – she’s obviously not finished. Scanning my environment, I shoved aside two cardboard boxes of still packed clothes and dashed into her unfinished room. I got the five gallon bucket (half full of sawdust and various scraps of wood) to her just in time for round two.
Cecilia, bless her heart, was a trooper as I fumbled through yet unpacked boxes looking for cleaning supplies, fresh blankets and pajamas. Charles got home from practice for his latest theater role (Nathan Detroit in Guys and Dolls) just in time to help by getting Celia settled on a sleeping bag on the living room floor (we don’t have couches yet) while I took a bucket of hot soapy water up to address the wood floor at the top of the stairs. Cecilia, her brother and her father all slept soundly through the rest of the night. Their mother and wife, however, was back up from about 4am to 6am due to a classic summertime thunderstorm. The lightning show through the living room's uncurtained windows was quite impressive, at times almost beautiful. At one point the power went out. I had just enough time to realize that I have no idea where our flashlights are before the lamp beside me blinked back on.
The night just past was in many ways a microcosm of the days preceding it. Within the last two weeks we've dealt with the somewhat predictable exhaustion and overwhelmed-ness of being nearly 9 months into a renovation, coupled with a refinance closing and moving into a house that is still about 20% under construction. All while passing a stomach bug from one family member to another.
Thus the lack of posts here.
It's not that the past few weeks have been all that bad, just that they've been tiring. But in the midst of it all we closed on the Einsel House's refinance, dropping our monthly payment to just under 40% of what it was on the HELOC (and locking in a fixed interest rate of 4.875%). We also spent Father's Day moving into the house. It will take awhile to get all the boxes empty, but it gives me a little thrill to get reacquainted with all the things we haven't seen in over a year - the quilt from our bed, all my kitchen dishes and baking supplies, Neil's antique dresser that I bought at auction just before we sold our previous home.
I can't promise I'll be back up to speed here at the blog immediately. At the moment I'm still rather tired (happy, but a tired happy), and it appears we are not finished with that stomach bug quite yet, either. Finally there's the small complication of not having any internet connection (or even a computer for that matter) at the Einsel House. Charles is working on getting internet at the house, and I'm sure the passage of time will restore health and energy. So please be patient and trust that I will be back when I'm able. Because I do look forward to sharing pictures of a lived-in Einsel House. : )
How'd the floor finish hold up under the onslaught?
ReplyDelete(Hope the little one and all the family are feeling much better now.)
The floor didn't hold up so well. (Of course, it probably would have fared better if it actually had some finish on it, but it's part of that 20% that is still "under construction"). The telltale stain is now covered with a rug. I had planned to paint the hall floor anyway, so I'm not too worked up about it.
ReplyDelete(And thanks for the well wishes - the little one appears to be on the mend. She ate a little for supper yesterday and slept comfortably through the night.)