Surprise - a Really Big Day!

Last Sunday I thought I'd post a short, sweet update about a bit of gardening, a really good play, D's fixing the sink drain and the stair color, and my feeling much more charitable towards him as he suffered through prep for a routine colonoscopy even though he gave me his headcold.

I was also going to report a cute Charlie story: last week he sneaked upstairs while we were preoccupied with installing the drawers in the bathroom cabinet. We didn't mind, until we belatedly remembered that the stairs had a fresh coat of paint! Luckily, it was dry enough and (surprisingly) he is light enough that he didn't leave any footprints (unlike the architect who blundered upstairs shortly after).

Then on Monday 3/15 we slept upstairs!!! I can barely remember how we got through this whirlwind. Highlights: although D's morning anesthesia and hunger were strong enough that he allowed me to drive him home from the doctor's, by 4 pm he was tying up the king-sized futon and dismantling and carrying the bed that he and a dear Italian friend had built 20 years ago. No photos of the break-down and move-up, as my hands were full with labeling all the pieces of the bed, vacuuming up king-sized dust bunnies that had somehow developed under a bed that is completely flush with the floor on all four sides. As he often does, D commandeered a friend who happened to drop by (as he often does) to help with the heavy lifting and dis/assembly. How fortunate to have a professional cabinetry friend a few doors away - I've neglected to explain that he made the bathroom cabinet and is now making the new dining room cabinet.

Seeing how rapidly things were starting to move, I realized I'd better take another day off work. Tuesday I wiped down all the bedroom walls, which were coated with fine dust from cutting the bathroom tiles. I started washing all the laundry I could find as D was threatening to disconnect the washer/dryer and move them upstairs (though their new electric sockets aren't yet live). Laundry included dozens of towels that D had insisted on keeping in the construction zone. I packed and moved the contents of the mezzanine bathroom and about half the stuff we'd been sleeping alongside in the old bedroom during construction (table linens, spare electronics, etc.) I also packed the contents of the top half of D's wardrobe cabinets so the guys could move them upstairs more easily, and moved my own clothing dressers up as well.

On Tuesday evening the bedroom closet arrived. The closet is an enigma on top of an aberration on top of a misunderstanding - that it exists in three solid dimensions is practically a miracle. First, months ago, D asked if I cared what shape the closet took. So surfed lots of closet design websites, measured the clothes and shoes we actually have, and sketched a rough scheme of poles & shelves that would fit them along the 20-foot long wall he had designated. To my surprise, he started showing that pencil sketch to his son, our cabinet-maker friend, our iron-wood friend and others. Disbelieving, I got a few quotes from manufacturers ($1400 installed on sale from Container Store, and what a nifty web site). Eventually, D settled on a friend of a friend. And then we waited. I shouldn't be surprised any more, but when the closet finally did arrive I was unprepared for the idea that installation (and some elements of completion) would be left up to our cabinet friend, and would involve another week of on-site cutting, drilling, and sawdust.

I stayed home to pack and move on Wednesday and Thursday as well, but the details are a blur. Laundry, packing and moving are pretty repetitive, so most of my prominent memories are the intense frustration of watching D. sort through thousands of LPs (he's had 20 years to do that, why now?!), watching D. watch the Fire Dept. march in the St. Patrick's parade while I packed around him, and watching D. move piles of random junk from one tabletop to another while awaiting his permission for me to pack and move the next big section of stuff. Thank goodness for the garden and the gorgeous weather - I had plenty of opportunities to measure the emergence of crocuses while blowing off steam.

Update: Monday, March 22
Charlie has been wonderfully mellow throughout, but today he is melancholy as the 2nd floor living area no longer offers anything to sleep on softer than a cardboard box.

Against my better judgment, D plans to demolish at least part of the temporary wall separating our erstwhile living area from the construction zone tomorrow - before we have moved all the kitchen equipment or emptied all the old clothes closets. It will be very exciting to see the full length of the 2nd floor again, for the first time since April 10, 2009. I've learned to stay home to keep an eye on things, and not to believe that "there won't be any dust."