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Feb. 21st, 2003 06:52 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
the_rckMy mother and sister arrived about 6:30pm on Monday, while Scott was in the shower (of course). We got Mom set up in the spare bedroom and Laura in the basement, and I took them through the house (They've both visited before, but this is the first time in a long time). Not too surprisingly, they spotted enough things that needed fixing to keep them busy for the next six months. None of those are going to get done. Even the bathroom isn't going to get completely done.
I think Mom hadn't grasped the full scope of what the bathroom needs. Her conclusion was that the shower/tub (the important part of the job) can't be done until summer. This disappoints me but doesn't entirely surprise me. It probably means it won't get done. Basically, if it's not done before the baby arrives, it's unlikely to happen any time in the next couple of years because working on the shower/tub requires working in the room that will be the baby's. My mother claims that babies can deal fine with noise, but I'm not so sure about pounding, dust, and paint. (Or my own sanity under the circumstances.)
At any rate, they've pulled out the light fixture and medicine cabinet and ripped up the hall closet. That closet takes a bite out of the bathroom so that the sink has to overlap the tub if the toilet's going to fit between the sink and the wall. Mom can't fix the crowding because she can't move the toilet plumbing. She keeps asking if I'm sure that I want her to do anything at all as we find more problems. The bathroom door's too narrow for us ever to be able to remove the tub let alone bring in a replacement. We're trying to replace the sink with a pedestal model, but Mom's not sure there's any way to attach the new sink to the wall (everything's made of wallboard which is basically layered, compressed cardboard. Not very sturdy).
They have removed the maroon plastic tiles and purchased wallpaper to cover where they were. Scott's currently working on getting the last of the glue that held the tiles in place off the wall. They've also purchased a flooring remnant to put in. If we ever move the toilet, the flooring will need replacing again, but the remnant only cost $17, so I don't think it's a big deal if we don't keep it long.
My temper's been wearing thinner and thinner. I'm feeling desperate for space, for something enjoyable to do. I had to cancel my Wednesday Amber game and skip anime watching on Thursday. My Saturday White Wolf game will also be a casualty of the visit since they're staying an extra day to make up for the one they lost to the storm.
I can't retreat to our bedroom because there's no way to get out again once the work's in progress, and the usable toilet's in the basement. I also can't help with the work. I can't bend, can't lift, can't carry, and my manual dexterity is worse than non-existent. I've been trying to stay away so that I don't get in the way and don't freak out over how things are or aren't progressing.
I've been running fairly low on sleep, too, due to the noise, the presence of people I'm not used to having around and the lack of access to my bed. I tried to nap in the bed in the basement yesterday, but a drain problem ended that. I couldn't tell what was going on, but I knew that something smelled terrible. As it turns out, Mom had just removed the sink and had discovered that part of the problem with it is that the drain pipe runs uphill for a few inches. Massive amounts of disgusting (and smelly!) glop had accumulated right where the pipe enters the wall.
Thursday evening was especially difficult because I wasn't feeling very well. I reached the sort of mood in which nothing was quite right and I couldn't figure out what would be better. Scott kept trying which was sweet but doomed.
Of course, Scott's work schedule isn't helping. We still don't know when he'll next get a day off, but it might not happen for a couple of weeks. His company's trying to use temps to rotate their permanent employees so that the permanent people can have a day off, but the way they're doing it, there are no guarantees. All employees have to go in anyway; it's just possible that one or two will be sent home if things aren't too busy.
I have gotten some writing done, not a lot, but a bit. I'm declaring the rough draft of part 9 officially done even though some sections may need to be swapped so that they make more sense. Thursday afternoon actually ended up being fairly productive; I got about four pages of new material written.
The mail program on my laptop is misbehaving. It crashes every time I try to address a message or to click send when I'm replying to a message (the latter group of messages will go out as soon as I restart the program). So far, the only solution Scott's been able to turn up requires a complete reinstall of OS X. I'm understandably not too pleased with this. It seems pretty silly to me that there's no other way to reinstall the mail program. We did do a virus check that came up clean, ran Disk First Aid, and checked and repaired the permissions. Nothing's helped yet.
On Tuesday, Mom took us all out for dinner at Amadeus, an Eastern European restaurant. My meal was excellent in as much as I didn't taste the green peppers at the time. Sadly, my digestive system spotted them anyway and protested loudly all night. Green pepper indigestion has a rather distinctive... flavor. Mom and Laura split a bottle of wine, and they got a couple of desserts that Scott and I had part of (We'd both intended to skip dessert, but Amadeus' desserts are always extremely tempting).
My sister has taken the opportunity to catch up with a guy we both knew in elementary school. He has the distinction of being the first guy ever to ask her out. He bought her an ice cream cone but wouldn't let her come into the store with him when he went to get it. He was also one of the kids my mother babysat (as was his younger sister). He was memorable because he was incredibly phobic of dogs-- He always wanted the windows and doors closed, and on the playground, he'd sit at the top of the slide and refuse to move, that being the one place he was sure the dogs couldn't get to. He'd make his sister stay with him.
Of course, he's now beyond all of that, hasn't had trouble with the dog phobia in decades. He's got a five year old daughter and another child on the way. He works for the U and as a musician.
I think Mom hadn't grasped the full scope of what the bathroom needs. Her conclusion was that the shower/tub (the important part of the job) can't be done until summer. This disappoints me but doesn't entirely surprise me. It probably means it won't get done. Basically, if it's not done before the baby arrives, it's unlikely to happen any time in the next couple of years because working on the shower/tub requires working in the room that will be the baby's. My mother claims that babies can deal fine with noise, but I'm not so sure about pounding, dust, and paint. (Or my own sanity under the circumstances.)
At any rate, they've pulled out the light fixture and medicine cabinet and ripped up the hall closet. That closet takes a bite out of the bathroom so that the sink has to overlap the tub if the toilet's going to fit between the sink and the wall. Mom can't fix the crowding because she can't move the toilet plumbing. She keeps asking if I'm sure that I want her to do anything at all as we find more problems. The bathroom door's too narrow for us ever to be able to remove the tub let alone bring in a replacement. We're trying to replace the sink with a pedestal model, but Mom's not sure there's any way to attach the new sink to the wall (everything's made of wallboard which is basically layered, compressed cardboard. Not very sturdy).
They have removed the maroon plastic tiles and purchased wallpaper to cover where they were. Scott's currently working on getting the last of the glue that held the tiles in place off the wall. They've also purchased a flooring remnant to put in. If we ever move the toilet, the flooring will need replacing again, but the remnant only cost $17, so I don't think it's a big deal if we don't keep it long.
My temper's been wearing thinner and thinner. I'm feeling desperate for space, for something enjoyable to do. I had to cancel my Wednesday Amber game and skip anime watching on Thursday. My Saturday White Wolf game will also be a casualty of the visit since they're staying an extra day to make up for the one they lost to the storm.
I can't retreat to our bedroom because there's no way to get out again once the work's in progress, and the usable toilet's in the basement. I also can't help with the work. I can't bend, can't lift, can't carry, and my manual dexterity is worse than non-existent. I've been trying to stay away so that I don't get in the way and don't freak out over how things are or aren't progressing.
I've been running fairly low on sleep, too, due to the noise, the presence of people I'm not used to having around and the lack of access to my bed. I tried to nap in the bed in the basement yesterday, but a drain problem ended that. I couldn't tell what was going on, but I knew that something smelled terrible. As it turns out, Mom had just removed the sink and had discovered that part of the problem with it is that the drain pipe runs uphill for a few inches. Massive amounts of disgusting (and smelly!) glop had accumulated right where the pipe enters the wall.
Thursday evening was especially difficult because I wasn't feeling very well. I reached the sort of mood in which nothing was quite right and I couldn't figure out what would be better. Scott kept trying which was sweet but doomed.
Of course, Scott's work schedule isn't helping. We still don't know when he'll next get a day off, but it might not happen for a couple of weeks. His company's trying to use temps to rotate their permanent employees so that the permanent people can have a day off, but the way they're doing it, there are no guarantees. All employees have to go in anyway; it's just possible that one or two will be sent home if things aren't too busy.
I have gotten some writing done, not a lot, but a bit. I'm declaring the rough draft of part 9 officially done even though some sections may need to be swapped so that they make more sense. Thursday afternoon actually ended up being fairly productive; I got about four pages of new material written.
The mail program on my laptop is misbehaving. It crashes every time I try to address a message or to click send when I'm replying to a message (the latter group of messages will go out as soon as I restart the program). So far, the only solution Scott's been able to turn up requires a complete reinstall of OS X. I'm understandably not too pleased with this. It seems pretty silly to me that there's no other way to reinstall the mail program. We did do a virus check that came up clean, ran Disk First Aid, and checked and repaired the permissions. Nothing's helped yet.
On Tuesday, Mom took us all out for dinner at Amadeus, an Eastern European restaurant. My meal was excellent in as much as I didn't taste the green peppers at the time. Sadly, my digestive system spotted them anyway and protested loudly all night. Green pepper indigestion has a rather distinctive... flavor. Mom and Laura split a bottle of wine, and they got a couple of desserts that Scott and I had part of (We'd both intended to skip dessert, but Amadeus' desserts are always extremely tempting).
My sister has taken the opportunity to catch up with a guy we both knew in elementary school. He has the distinction of being the first guy ever to ask her out. He bought her an ice cream cone but wouldn't let her come into the store with him when he went to get it. He was also one of the kids my mother babysat (as was his younger sister). He was memorable because he was incredibly phobic of dogs-- He always wanted the windows and doors closed, and on the playground, he'd sit at the top of the slide and refuse to move, that being the one place he was sure the dogs couldn't get to. He'd make his sister stay with him.
Of course, he's now beyond all of that, hasn't had trouble with the dog phobia in decades. He's got a five year old daughter and another child on the way. He works for the U and as a musician.
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Date: 2003-02-21 06:50 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-02-21 12:01 pm (UTC)