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Wednesday, April 21, 2021

A cup of tea, a cup of coffee: a progress report


 Good morning.  My sister Mary Ellen is visiting this week, cheerfully and helpfully living with me in what is basically a reconstruction site.


Here we are working inside on various projects, she with her coffee, I with my tea, while Alexis and his helper saw through roots to dig in the trees around back.


Meanwhile, we await the painter and whoever else shows up...electrician, maybe the plumber, maybe the carpenter, though the last two mentioned their return visits might be later in the week.  It's life around here, always with a full driveway of trucks.


But you will be glad to hear we now have a kitchen sink, faucet, and, best of all, water running!  So far we had mostly been picnicking, washing up whatever isn't disposable in the bathroom sink. The backsplash man, Ben, is on vacation this week, but we can dream...

 Don't feel too sorry for us, though.  On Monday afternoon, my brother Charles and sister-in-law Susan drove up from Cary with my nephew Chet, who has been cooking for me for a few weeks now while all this renovation is going on.


Though he hasn't been a professional cook, his interest in making delicious recipes, finding and trying new foods and spices, has been a great boon for me and Mary Ellen, too.  In fact, when he arrived with his box of this week's specials, the wild mushroom and walnut pate and the beet hummus didn't make it into the frig before crackers came out and people began to dig in.  "Wow!" and "Amazing!" were the sounds between eating.

Both Chet and I are enjoying the adventure of his cooking.  Along with the above treats were roasted cauliflower, a kale, cranberry and nut salad, a delicate white Sable fish with a tahini sauce on the side (we decided the fish was just right without the sauce; the tahini made its own way on the table as a salad dressing or dip), turmeric and carrot rice, and a light cheese flan with carmelized topping that Mary Ellen, Joseph and I were equally possessive of.  Last week, the hit of the menu was butternut squash enchiladas, which, I am almost ashamed to tell you, I did not share with anyone.


But about the house progress:

1) the ceilings are smooth and bright now, and the walls of all the rooms except the kitchen are painted; today, Keith is continuing trimwork.


2) the kitchen countertops, which went in last week, thanks to Josh and his crew, were missing a sink, because, opening the box, we found it cracked...ugh.  Of course, no running water.  (We now know all the things you need a kitchen sink for.)  But as of yesterday afternoon, plumbing is in and only the dishwasher has yet to be further tinkered with.


3) carpentry by the master Chuck has produced beautiful beginnings to a new pantry, a new cabinet with pull-out drawers and a lovely butcherblock top made of the remnants of another job.




4) the porch is almost its old self...rocking chairs usable, extraneous furniture down to a few bookshelves...just in time to enjoy our fine spring weather.


5) a bonus came when the old kitchen counter was removed.  As Daniel and Jose were about to carry it away, it suddenly occurred to me that I could use part of it as a new cabinet top in the living room; I asked, and it was done then and there.  (See photo above:  the glass enclosure to its right, by the way, my brother Charles designed and put in when the first reno took place seven years ago.)

6) outdoors, yard paths are completed, and my next project will be a slightly expanded patio, as soon as  I figure out which material will best support a table and chairs...it isn't gravel and flagstone, I guess, and no concrete, please.

Next, come a lot of small electrical fixes, including a doorbell that, I hope, will work...I'm getting deafer by the day...a new outdoor faucet to water more easily the ever-expanding front garden, the kitchen painted and floor put in, and the porch and landing repainted and stained.

So...so far, so good.  There has been only one day, ironically April 15, when things suddenly began to deconstruct ...that cracked sink, the internet company's interference (for no reason), a major leak requiring no running water at all for a day, and several other snafus.  But the next day we went back to repairing the setbacks and on the progress went.

I'm going out to check on the tree planting now.  My irises are opened, the herb garden is flourishing, and Joseph's lettuce is shouldering up into real leaves.




Be well, all.  Enjoy spring and all its fixings.





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