usedtobeljs | Entries tagged with shelter choices

Good thing: the contractor's portion of my renovation is done.

The space is bright, well-finished, with just the color I wanted and with lots of nice little touches. My beloved contractor even listened to stuff I'd said offhandedly -- like, three months ago, "I think I'll hang a mirror in this hallway to reflect bathroom light" -- and DID it. Even better, he fixed two little things outside, which were not part of his contract. Bless him.

Less good thing: I will have another two or three weeks before I can move into the space, because furniture I ordered won't be here til then. (I can use the amazing new bathroom, though, which will be a wow.)

Less good thing: Now it's up to me to paint three rooms and organize new flooring for key public spaces. La la la. The new space makes it imperative to freshen the old.

But let's think about a fresh space, safe and clean and bright. And let's think about the new all-glass storm door for the backdoor, where Master Danger can sit and look out at the lizards in my succulent garden. Good thing indeed.

Happy holiday weekend to all!

10-minute checkin --

1) ARGH.
2) Because I feel trapped in a circle of disquiet and dismay, I think I'll start a rewatch of all Angel episodes.
3) Not, of course, for Angel, because... [wrinkles nose]
4) Wearing boots and a denim shirt today with a pencil skirt because I can.
5) It is mid-February, and I had to turn on the air-conditioner last night. (My thought process: I am middle-aged. I should be living each day as if it were my last. I bloody well need cool air.)
6) The renovation continues. The renovation will never end.
7) Master Danger is blowing coat (shedding his undercoat) as Corgis are wont to do, and he looks like a Raggedy Dog.
8) Bertie Carvel is going to run the London Marathon to fund-raise for the Old Vic. Bless him. I need to contribute -- er, next month.
9) I am reading Harriet Walter's book on playing Shakespeare, Brutus and Other Heroines. It's v v good.
10) Hugs to all!

This week's good things:

*Lucifer was back. I love that show so much. I enjoy all the characters, who have depth and surprises and who interact so fascinatingly in different combinations. Love the great female characters in particular, and love the brother-angels to an unhealthy degree. :)

*Wore a pair of Katharine-Hepburn-stylee wide-legged silk trousers one day, which weren't particularly flattering but made me happy anyway.

*Celebrating an anniversary with Master Danger, who as a treat got to take a car ride today. (He loves 'bye bye car,' for some reason.)

*And the walls in the renovation space have FINALLY been mudded, sanded, and primed, ready for paint next week! HUZZAH.

What are you thankful for these days?

1) It's Sunday, and a short workweek ahead. I shouldn't be cheering, but I SO AM.
2) Master Danger loves the reworked backyard space, and I do too.
3) Despite having to hand-weed the nearest beds, yes, even in November.
4) Surprise flowers on a new shrub! Hooray!
5) Today's tea: Fortnum's Wellington special blend, now discontinued but stockpiled in my pantry.
6) I am contemplating decorating for Christmas, but since my house is still in disarray due to the ongoing construction (which will likely be ongoing til after the first of the year), I am undecided. What do y'all think?
7) Also, I need to paint the walls in my three living spaces. So, decoration would happen after that.
8) Am so tired, however, that yesterday I read old Amanda Quick novels all afternoon.
9) Tony Head and Emma Caulfield were retweeting each other's outrage at the (now temporarily lifted) Trump administration plan to allow elephant trophies etc to enter the US, and I had a powerful Giles/Anya moment indeed. :)
10) Anyone want to prompt me for a birthday fic (by which I mean, I write them for MY birthday)?

Cheers and light to you all.

Joys:
1. My backyard transformation is done, and it staggers me every time I look at it.
2. Master Danger now has a border fence to keep him from the property fence, and can play safely even if the neighbor dogs are out and barking. LOVE.
3. A stone wall/privacy screen in the back of the yard will be getting its own sign (once I make it): "Jim's wall," in memory of my darling dad. He would have loved the rocks in the wall so much.
4. It might rain the next two or three days, which would be helpful in making the new plants be at home. (And, er, would mean I wouldn't have to water those days.)
5. Last night, weary, I put on an old Carly Simon album and coloured a couple of images in my Vogue Goes Pop colouring book, which also reminded me that I bought the book at the V&A.
6. Two months til I'm back in London. Maybe I should book for the Balenciaga exhibit at the V&A, now that I'm thinking of it...
7. And also Rachel Whiteread and the the Impressionists in London exhibition. (Guilty secret: I don't really connect to Impressionists, but maybe this would change my mind like the Pre-Raphaelite exhibit did.)
8. F&M Russian Caravan iced tea with local honey and a slice of lemon.

To Lift Up:
I have only been to Sonoma once, but I so loved it and have been living there creatively ever since. The horrible fires across Northern California have hurt so many, and the rebuilding will be exhausting. I lift up those who fight the fires and those who will recover from them.

Hurricane Ophelia hitting Ireland as an extra-tropical system -- what the actual hell, world. I lift up those who will be battered by the gale, and hope for the best.

Still thinking about those affected by Hurricanes Harvey, Irma, and Maria....

May you all have a great start to your week!

1. I am super joyful to have lived through the past week of quotidian upsets and nightmares.
2. Work on my backyard project has begun, and a rock-and-succulent courtyard is in my future. WHEE.
3. Tea with a dear friend this afternoon, and a walk around Small Town, with purchases at a new kitchen shop as well.
4. A new candle (purchased at another downtown shop), bringing Spicy Cinnamon and a hint of autumn to a freaking hideously humid week.
5. Starting to go through what passes for my linen closet and choosing old blankets to donate to the local homeless shelter.
6. 200 words on my writing project yesterday.

Master Danger smiles at you all, and I send hopes of more than six reasons to be joyful!

Construction update: M and his son, who is learning the business in hopes of taking over, started tearing out yesterday. (For those of us who've watched Fixer Upper: this is not Demo Day, but Demo Week.)

In advance of that, I toiled Sunday in the unseasonably steamy heat for several hours, trying to go through accumulated crap that I had thrown in the attached garage space and forgotten about. It is remarkably depressing to realize how much shit -- a word I choose deliberately -- was piled up out there, gathering dust and mold. The job was made worse because I still had all the empty boxes from the stuff I'd shipped from my dad's house. I ran out of garbage bins and sacks early on, but bless M, he is throwing the rest of the discards into his dump trailer.

Currently Master Danger is reluctantly accepting the stuff I'm keeping in "his" room (luggage, Christmas decorations, paintings, chair, exercise stuff, stepladder, etc etc). The disorder makes me unbelievably itchy, but we persevere.

The good thing is that M and his son have already made amazing progress, and I am hoping (fingers crossed) that the job might be done before Christmas. Last night, before a last round of discards, I walked through the space opened up and imagined the new rooms to be created from the tearing out. New world in an old house.

What would you like to discard today?

Just got back from a morning walk. (I have started a workout plan created by my friend and trainer Fr, in anticipation of a walking-tour vacation next July, hurrah.) It is still Hot Soup here in the subtropics, but the light has changed, and soon, soon the dewpoint will drop to livable levels.

(I hope.)

While the weather should be changing in good ways soon, my house and backyard are about to undergo Major Updates. I foresee two and a half to three months of craziness with the house, while my contractor redoes the 1960s addition and makes it a) a rationally designed space, and b) one better suited to Aging in Place. Example: currently there are two steps down from my kitchen to the utility room/hallway; these steps lead directly, as in less than a foot of clearance, into my washing machine. To the right of the steps is a giant Nixon-era (LITERALLY) water heater. It's a cramped and slightly dangerous arrangement, and I will be so glad when it goes away. I am NOT looking forward to the construction noise and mess, but the end result should be great.

Also, I adore M the contractor, who did my other bathroom renovation, and he will do a good job for me.

The other change is that my backyard, which is sort of a mess (except with excellent treework!), is getting a proper design. D my landscape designer is doing some practical things I requested, like a Corgi-size border fence keeping Master Danger away from the proper fence, but he also, like, somehow intuited the kind of Provencal stone courtyard image that I keep pinning, and is giving me a courtyard space of gravel, flagstones, and succulents, which I'll be able to see from my kitchen window. YAY YAY YAY. There will also be some "lawn" for the young master and loads of native plants, including pollinators.

I'll keep you posted on how Master Danger does with all these changes. :)

What change are you looking forward to?

This Sunday afternoon I have a fair amount of work (although I'll need a nap first), but first, hello! I come to the blog to confess my guilt.

I have been so good about budgeting in these last few weeks before the England trip. I mean, other than the extra money for car maintenance, Master Danger's more expensive than usual trip to the vet, and the unanticipated need to pay for a refill of allergy drops (which are not on insurance and thus v.v. expensive), I have been doing okay. To be fair, I also had some breathing room because my landscape plan for the front-yard had seemingly been set aside for the year due to irrigation issues and thus I had a nice cushion in my budget....

And then, lo! The landscape designer emailed and said "Hey we have a workaround for the watering problem, want us to go ahead with the job?" I was torn, but the power of oakleaf hydrangeas compelled me, and I said Sure. [Note: the job has not been scheduled yet and may still be set aside, but as of now I can't spend that budgeted money.]

And then, lo! A work event where I was to share expenses with colleagues has lost so many contributing attendees so dramatically that I might have to pay for most of it myself!

And then, lo! While reeling from the wrecked budget, I saw a pair of trousers on one of my favorite shopping sites that I desperately want. They are unusual and classic at the same time; I can imagine at least five outfits with them and items of clothing I already have; I super-hard-core long for these trousers. They are also, and I say Alas, budget-busters at the best of times.

I haven't ordered them, but...my fingers are twitching.

I comfort myself with a quote by Vanessa Friedman, linked by fashion blogger Disneyrollergirl, which suggests "immediate gratification leads to a lot of extraneous stuff."

Okay, it's not really comforting, because I have given my heart away, and also I'm feeling guilty. Alas. For distraction I will think on P Cap, lovely with a haircut and in his holey sweater, in last night's episode of Doctor Who.

Cheers and hugs to those who are longing for something today.