siriosa 2000

undoing 3d tetris
it's a delicate business.

back in march, before the floors could be refinished, all the furniture from the living room and dining room had to go away. i packed it into the front bedroom, a much-abused space. after cara died, i put all the things i couldn't bear to deal with in there. it became "the room that dare not speak its name."

when i got back from europe the first time, i was clear that the lifestyle i preferred was going to require roommates, so i steeled myself, and with the help of very kind friends, cleared the room out and readied it for occupancy. it deserved a name, and i chose gertrude. (the back bedroom is called alice. you do the math.)

so here's what gertrude looked like in march. note that two armchairs are stacked on each other, the computer desk is upside down on the flatfile, the bookcases are 3-deep (with stools on!) and boxes completely block the front window. what is completely hidden from view is the desk, which has an end table, a box fan, a sewing machine, and two chests of plastic drawers on wheels under it. on top of it are a coffee table, a sofa table, and a narrow table that fits in the entryway.


and here's a picture i took today. i'd like you to note that actual light is peeking in through the front window, and there is visible floor. bookcases are down to one-deep, tables have been distributed, flatfile reassembled elsewhere, and computer desk moved to garage, where it awaits a taker on craigslist. also: some empty shelves! and the graphic novels are organized by title.


yeah, it's miles to go before i sleep, but it's definitely progress.

livable space, at long last.
been a long, hard road, but: purty, ain't it?

from the entryway:


the action figures in their lighted cabinet, and a reading chair:


both comfy chairs, and a bookcase (note flying monkey on top):


and back around to the entryway (bowl filled with spinning tops):


bookcase on west wall of dining room (collection of wands on top):


the file cabinet which will go away when it's emptied. someday.


flatfile/altar, music cabinet, bench:


bench and other bookcase, with antique "record albums":


this concludes our tour. the gift shop is on the left, on your way out.

things going away.
floor space magically appearing in gertrude.

in the morning we're going to take the unnetworkable laser printer (which has been languishing for a couple of years at least) and a space heater (which has been living in the bathroom, but we never use it) to the local women's shelter. someone from freecycle is going to come by and grab a bag of random books off the front porch. the hated light fixture and some miscellaneous hardware is going to urban ore.

i've posted a computer desk, a shredder, and a bookcase to craigslist. i've had a nibble for the shredder, but i see i'll have to lower the price on the desk. the bookcase was just photographed and posted this evening.

here in the material world, everything goes away eventually. it's nice to be in favor of reality, for a change.

found the goddesses.
wrapped in bubble wrap in the bottom drawer of a file cabinet.

whew.

i've emptied a couple dozen boxes, placed cds in the music bookcase, stuffed files back in the file cabinet, and filled the white bookcases a little more. also, moved the music thingie into the dining room. and put the goddesses back on the altar.

i should be ready to take pictures Real Soon Now.

curtains are up.
the ones in the front of the house, anyway.

finally finished painting the brackets, and waxed the curtain rod, and washed the (terribly old and faded, alas) curtains, and put them up, so that b.h.e. no longer has to watch tv in a fishbowl.

spent some time in gertrude, devising a plan for freeing the music cabinet (turntable, tuner, tape deck, cd player, amp) from its entanglements.

where shall i put my collection of magic wands? they used to live on the mantel, and the mantel is no more. i dare not put them on the altar, because virginia will certainly knock them over and try to eat them: it is her way. i think the space at the top of the white bookcases is not quite tall enough for them.

and still: no goddesses have appeared. i'm sure they're in one of the twoscore boxes still lurking undisturbed in gertrude.

bought a bench today.
i was looking at the dining room last night, and suddenly i knew there needed to be a bench under the window.

craigslist threw up a perfectly lovely one. i picked it up today.


the cats are very fond of it. it has a purple throw over it now.

in other news, i finally put the second coat on the stupid brackets. need to wax the curtain rod, so curtains will slide easily. there's always something, isn't there?

forgot to mention:
all that furniture schlepping i did last night?

in flipflops and a caftan. and gloves and bandanna.

i'd say i've lost my mind, but i seem to recall doing similar things 30 and 40 years ago.

i have no sense of proportion.
i moved a big bookcase tonight. it's taller than the doorways. there wasn't enough room in the hallway to angle it into the dining room. and i couldn't take it apart. my screwdriver was stripping the screws.

so i cleared a path to the front door and pushed it on its side on the felt slider pads as far as the front door. laid towels over the threshold, front porch, and first step, and lifted it over them. then i angled it into the living room, reinstated the slider pads, and pushed it into the dining room.

then i moved it over so it wouldn't smash my nice light fixture when i righted it. put the shelves back in, and moved four shelves' worth of antique record albums into it.

also: put most of a coat of paint on the damn curtain brackets. b.h.e. would like curtains in the front windows, please, and it's not an unreasonable request.

there's more and more space in gertrude. i moved the vases back to their accustomed place on the bottom shelf of one of the white bookcases. put the exta cookbooks in the big honking bookcase.

still haven't found my goddesses. i suppose i could start opening boxes.

moved the white bookcases back into the dining room.
that was my goal for the day, and i accomplished it about 11 pm.

there's now a good chunk of space in gertrude. you can walk up to a lot of stuff. the closet's still blocked by a congress of small furniture, and every horizontal surface has many many things on it. but it's progress.

b.h.e. and i are negotiating the redisposition of decor. she wants a peaceful, uncluttered, zen-like atmosphere. i'm all about the glitter and the tinsel. i asked her if she hated my faux-ceramic light-up virgin mary, and she consented to having it on top of the china cabinet. i don't think she'll be as amenable to the reintroduction of my various ren-faire diadems, garlands, and tinself pipecleaner crowns.

the demon winged mermaid from indonesia got put back up, though.

i'll take more pictures when gertrude is emptied and most of the stuff is where it's going to go.

more pictures!
because it'll never be this empty again.

this is the dining room, before the furniture started going back in.

note the beautifully painted door, and the furniture returned to the living room (like the swallows to capistrano).

more living room furniture peeping through. the china cabinet has been stocked with action figures. they're behind glass, because the cats are sure they're prey.

and the new ceiling fixture i got at urban ore. it is emphatically not orange, whatever the color may appear. it's more iridescent, mostly clear, with green and purple casts to it. the camera got confused by the tungsten light duking it out with the natural daylight also coming in.

finally, the wall where the flatfile/altar goes. best housemate evar helped me excavate it sunday afternoon, and it's now set up. all i have to do is remember what i did with all the goddess images. in a box? in a drawer?

tomorrow (today, after sleep) i'll pull the white bookcases out of gertrude, and start restocking them.

also accomplished on sunday: mowed the driveway and moved the computer desk into the garage. also laundry. changed my sheets and installed the foam mattress topper. and had a very long, lovely bath.

the tarp is gone!
long live the tarp.

it was pretty late in the day when i took these pictures. none of them has the color right. the walls are milk-colored (4%, homogenized), and the trim is "french vanilla," which is an ice cream color, but there's a greenish cast to it.

now we can begin excavating gertrude.

painting is complete.
jon came over and fixed the part where the paint came up with the tape, and i've repainted that.

then, of course, i took it into my head to paint my curtain rod the same color as the trim. but tomorrow, as god is my witness, i will take the tarp up. and start moving furniture back in.

i also washed the windows in the living room. and poured paint into little cans, so if touch-ups need to happen, it's easy. i painted the lids, so it's even easier.

and i washed the switchplates i'd removed in the living room. one had about 3 layers of ugly paint on it, and i idly chipped it off. underneath was a wonderful old-timey artifact. fine grooves, curlecues, all like that. you know: design. probably original with the house. there's still horrible white paint on the outlet part in the wall. dunno how o/c i wanna get about it. something about sticking screwdrivers in or near sockets.

anyway: i am well pleased. tomorrow after major furniture moving, i will do some serious laundry. before the coverall learns how to talk.

principal painting is complete.
now to remove the tape.

the windows are the fiddly-est. store the leftover paint. pull up the tarp. move the furniture. i'm sure there will be touch-ups required: the paint under one window seemed not to want to stick. but: all the really hard work is in the rearview mirror.

huzzah!

windowsills primed, moulding first coated.
now i'm waiting for the primer to dry so i can give the windows their first coat.

which means i can do second coat tomorrow. and be done with painting.

things left to do: remove tape. run a razorblade along the edges of the tape on the vinyl windows, because the tape does not remove cleanly from vinyl. (for all i know, the windows came with the caveat that they can't be painted, and i just spaced it out.) consolidate remains of 5-gallon can with the remains of the 1 gallon can: stir, strain, cap tightly. label can. decant remaining trim paint into a smaller container.

buy a couple of pint tins for the two paints, to keep in house. remove the rest of the paint to the garage.

take up tarp. clean up remains of tape at edges, and any paint that may've seeped through. vacuum. sand scratches in floor and reapply finish. put up curtain hardware. replace switchplates. (consider getting new, or at least thoroughly scrub the old ones.)

put a thick towel under the middle of sofa and push back into place. lever china cabinet onto felt sliders and move into position. put felt feet on lawyer bookcases and reposition.

begin bringing the contents of gertrude back into the light.

somehow, i simply didn't have the strength today.
i taped a few feet of moulding.

i removed a few yards of tape from the windows and baseboards. my body could not be induced to get into the coverall again (and i can't say i blame her, either). maybe tomorrow. hells, maybe it'll take a week before i can get the tape up and slap the paint on.

it's not so much the climbing up the ladder. it's the picking it up and moving it. i just didn't feel up to it.

instead, i paid bills, went through a pile of paper i'd been meaning to get to. oh, and i napped, which made lilbit happy. maybe i'll have more oomph tomorrow.