The Great Flooring Project: Getting Ready for Phase 2

I am writing in the front bedroom that is much more full of stuff than it was yesterday:  the antique desk, the antique sofa that's 8 feet long, the antique sideboard, the antique radio/record player contained in the big cabinet, the 2 bookcases, the stove, the dishwasher, and a small desk chair.  I am seeing how long the battery in this new laptop lasts, because I can't get to a plug.  Later, I'll crawl under the antique desk and plug everything in--once I can turn on lights in the main part of the house to find the extension cord.

Why can't I turn on the lights in the main part of the house?  The back bedroom (where my spouse lies sleeping) has no door right now.  We took it off to get the fridge in there.

My spouse's brother was a huge help with all the moving.  I mainly wanted help moving the big behemoth of a sofa (by help, I mean I wanted someone to take my place).  Once they started moving stuff, it made sense to just keep going.  So, the great relocation is mostly complete.

After the moving, we headed to Hollywood beach to have dinner at the organic brewery.  It was surprisingly quiet at the beach, especially considering that it was the Friday of Labor Day week-end.  We got a seat outside with an ocean view.  It was delightful to try different beers and eat some pizza and fried pickles.

After dinner, we took our niece home.  She lives in the Victoria Park area of Ft. Lauderdale, and it's been awhile since I drove the back streets of that neighborhood.  I was surprised by how many high end condos had been built in an area that I didn't think of as full of vacant lots.  Once I'd have loved to live in a historic house in that neighborhood.  Now I'm grateful that we chose to live in the historic district of Hollywood, where the high end condo projects seem confined to the neighborhoods on either side of me, the beach to the east or the downtown district to the west.

Am I happy, even though we're in a flood zone and much closer to the ocean?  Yes, I still am, most of the time, even as I worry about what climate change will bring to my neighborhood.

This morning, as I made my way through the pre-dawn backyard to get to the cottage to get a package of coffee from the freezer, I took a moment to stand still.  The non-scary lightning flashed in the high clouds.  The breeze moved the palm trees.  It's not a cool morning, but it's not stifling like some mornings can be.  I took a moment to be grateful to be a woman who has a small house in a historic district near the beach, a house with a cottage, even though both structures need work to be restored to their former glory, even though I'm not sure what we'll do with the cottage once we restore it to its former glory.

So what is on our docket for today? Likely lots of painting. Now that the final repair work has been done on the spots where there were walls in the main part of the house, it's really clear that we should not wait on the painting (lots of different colors in the main part of the house). It will be easier to paint the ceiling and walls where we don't need to worry about getting paint on the floors. The floors in the main part of the house will be redone starting on Sept. 10. We also need to paint closet doors and perhaps the bedroom doors, if we really get going--and the doors of the bathrooms haven't been painted either.

But first, let me go for a walk.  Let me watch the sun rise over the Atlantic.  The laptop battery is at 38%.  Time to leave the screen and head out to the natural world.