More boring house stuff

[hrj]

Yes, I know the house progress posts are boring. I'll get back to exciting philosophical stuff soon. Oh, like, maybe in February. The contractor has started work. I don't have a delivery time for the door yet, but I assume (hope) that it'll happen today. The chimney sweep is scheduled to clean the flue. This may happen after the floor is laid, depends on what the flooring people get back to me with in the way of a date. I've gotten no nibbles on my attempt to give away the old couches so I've decided to hold onto them for the nonce (which means I don't have to shell out for a new couch within the next month -- which is nice -- although it means I have to set the couches out in the back yard while the flooring is being done -- which will involve large blue tarps). I got the official insurance contract application yesterday and will be sending it in with all the annotated corrections and additions after taking a couple more pictures of the stove pipe. (They are peculiarly fascinated with details of the wood stove installation -- which was a complicated questionaire to answer given that the wood stove is currently sitting in the back yard.)

* Week of 11/13: dry rot around back door fixed, door replaced.

* Weekend of 11/18 - weekend of 11/26: visit to Maine and Darkovercon. Work on handwork for xrian's 12th night outfit. Work on biostatistics term project.

* Week of 11/27: possibly get floor laid? Possibly get heater guy in to figure out why the gas heater has a working pilot and working thermostat but fails to combine the two into resulting heat.

* Weekend of 12/2: clean and re-black woodburning stove. Frantically finish biostatistics term project.

* Week of 12/4: possibly get floor laid (if not previously)?

* 12/5: chimneysweep. Also present term project for biostatistics class. Corrected from 12/6

Updated: 12/6-7 -- Floor installed.

* Post-chimneysweep & post-floor: re-install woodburning stove. (My contractor says he can put together a crew to help with this -- I figure I can get them to help me stack the cabinets in the kitchen nook at the same time. I've had no luck snagging innocent bystanders for this job.)

* Weekend of 12/9: purchase, assemble, and install IKEA shelving units for entertainment/sewing center. Move stored items out of spare bedroom and arrange appropriately in living room.

* Post-shelving installation: Cut, set up, and trim Christmas tree. (The volunteer redwood next to the sidewalk is this year's victim. It's a bit tall and straggly, so I expect to do a bit of freehand shaping before setting it up.)

* Week of 12/11: (or thereabouts) Move freestanding bookcases in dining room into corner to leave room for table. (The new built-in bookcases for the living room will be put off until After 12th Night.)

* 12/13: Biostatistics final exam.

* Weekend of 12/16: Shop for and acquire dining room chairs. Review other needs for holiday entertainment. Do Christmas shopping. Put together grocery shopping list for the holiday week. Ensure house is clean. Turn fabric into living room drapes?

* Week of 12/18: Frantically get back to sewing for 12th night.

* Weekend of 12/23: Be descended upon by family.


It is a sign of my particular neurosis that I am already packed for my trip, despite not leaving until Saturday morning. Early Saturday morning. Very early Saturday morning. In fact, I may decide it isn't worth going to bed Friday night. So who am I going to be seeing at Darkovercon next week?

Comments

[mbumby.livejournal.com]

(Not boring. Just not usually anything I have to say on the topic of house-reshaping.)

Bwa?

[semy-of-pearls.livejournal.com]

DarkoverCon? As in Marion et al? I didn't know they still ran one.

Re: Bwa?

[hrj.livejournal.com]

Yeah -- still going strong in the Baltimore/DC area. Judy Gerjuoy's still running it (long distance from Finland these days). Not a lot of emphasis on Darkover any more -- to some extent Katherine Kurtz has shifted into the role of "grande dame in residence" for the convention -- but the theme still revolves around female authors writing strong female characters.

[msmemory.livejournal.com]

Darkovercon: I wish, but my health isn't up to two six- or seven-hour car trips this year. Maybe next year.

[wulfsdottir.livejournal.com]

I wouldn't say they're boring. I enjoy having a chance to get to know you outside of the narrow overlap of the scahrlds listserv, which I might not have if you didn't post about the mundane details of living.

Besides, if you hadn't posted this, then I couldn't have mentally gone ninety degrees off topic at "Week of 12/4: possibly get floor laid..."

[hrj.livejournal.com]

Hey, maybe at least the floor can get ... never mind.

[wulfsdottir.livejournal.com]

Precisely.

not boring

[(Anonymous)]

to someone who had an architect working on preliminary plans in October of 2004, bought land in December 2004, acquired contractors who met with the architect's approval in February 2006, and started excavation in July 2006! (But building materials were so much cheaper eighteen months ago, you say?) I take comfort from fellow sufferers. Thank you for including all the painful details. Watching you move furniture from room to room to room gives me hope that I may manage to move out of two houses at once (one of them occupied by my parents for 46 years) without completely collapsing.

Mary Anne in Kentucky