Well, the past 5 weeks have been a special hell.
My beloved husband underwent a quad by-pass at Duke, but repeated efforts to stabilize his heart have met with no success. He will be returning home on Friday and, if having him on the brink was not enough, I have spent the past 5 weeks desperately trying to finish a major renovation that was supposed to be completed in 6 months.
At a time when people are losing their homes through no fault of their own, I find myself the distraught owner of two houses. One is a giant historical house with 4,800 sq feet, impossible to heat and cool efficiently with it's 13 foot ceilings, and packed to the gunnels with the passions and folly of generations of family heirlooms. The other a tiny little cottage that was gutted and pampered with all new green systems, throughout, but which is only 1,200 sq. feet in total.
It was our plan to do the sheet rock, mudding, painting and trim at our leisure, as we carefully selected a few choice pieces to move into this new space. But the new house is only 19 miles from the cardiologist, while the old place was 45. Too far in an emergency, particularly when the 911 emergency response is spotty at best.
So, I have been hanging sheet rock to create a new kitchen out of a naked pile of studs, applying tape and joint compound to the seams, priming and painting, hanging cabinets, moving appliances into place and generally getting a kitchen ready to welcome home a man on a newly complex diet.
I have had some help. A wonderful carpenter turned out a large deck and a nice fence for the dogs. A clever guy did a bang up job of installing the ceramic tile on the kitchen floor. And a neighbor volunteered to help me finish the large single room upstairs with sheet rock and mud.
I have spent my days driving back and forth between the hospital, the old house (to throw a few boxes in the van), and the new house to work from dawn to midnight trying to create a quiet space for a very tired and sore man.
The packing at the old house is going badly. There is so much CRAP. A crew is coming this Friday to throw stuff in boxes and load it on to trucks and drive it all down to the cottage - where there is really no place for most of it. It will all end up littering the lovely clean floor of the dream wood working shop my husband had built to fulfill a life long dream. Then a giant Yard Sale will be held...
Anyway... I just got my computer hooked up with a new ISP, and am back on line for the first time is several weeks. I just wanted to bitch, generate a tad of sympathy, and let folks know that I'm back. At least for now...