The Virus Diary: Chaos in the Time of Quaratine.

Note:  Yesterday, I updated my Facebook page with this status:  "I am trapped on the 2nd floor of my house working and watching the destruction/reconstrution of my former family home...To get away from it for a minute, I go turn on the tv to TCM and they are showing "The Diary of Ann Frank." I am not kidding...there WILL be a blog post about this."  THIS is that blog post...

When you are in the midst of a pandemic, there's bound to be a little chaos, right?  This past weekend had some challenges.  (SNOW?  In MAY?  In New Jersey??  Are you KIDDING me??) I KNEW this week was going to have some too.  This week is one of planned chaos.  (Can you plan chaos?  I think you can!)

Let me backtrack...and I mean REALLY backtrack.  The house that I live in was built in 1923 and has been in my family since 1924.  (We're getting close to that century mark.)   There are still plenty of parts of this house that if they are not original, are pretty darned close.  Moving ahead to the beginning of the year (that would be BQ:  Before quarantine), the insurance company did an assessment of our residence  (remember:  http://bfthsboringblog.blogspot.com/2020/02/thoughts-on-early-morning-visitor.html).  The result of the assessment were that a lower rate could be obtained if the garage was repainted (something I don't understand, but the garage DID need repainting).  So we got a quote from a company that had done some wonderful work at our neighbors house as well at my parents' house.  While they were here, we decided to get a quote for the first floor the house.  The price was reasonable and we decided to go forward.

But before we did, we had a consultation with a Sherwin Williams representative.  The woman came the last day my son had school; March 13th.  We had a very helpful conversation and with her help we picked out colors.

And then came the quarantine

The work on the garage was easily enough done. 

It was mid-March.  The weather was warm  (or warmish; hey it was warmer than it was this morning when I woke up!).  The crew of 3 were outside and we were inside.  There was plenty of social distance.  There were rainy days when they could not work, but the job which was started on the 16th was finished by the 21st.  (And this with some days of bad weather where the team was not able to work.)  They did a great job.  I was ready to have the inside of the house done.

But then the two week quarantine extended and I wasn't so sure about it.  The weather got cold.  We had snow.  We delayed until after Easter. Somehow we finally managed to come up with the first week in May.  My husband started carefully moving items from our sun parlor/music room to our basement. (We have a LOT of music and music memorabilia.)  On Sunday, May 3rd, I moved practically everything in the dining room (glassware, special dishes, liquor) to the basement.  But we hadn't heard from the painter, so we weren't 100% what was going to happen.

Monday the 4th came and went without the painter.  Hubby called and was told that they got hung up on another job; they would start the following Monday.  So what did we do on Mother's Day?  Ok, let me be honest, guess what mostly my husband did on Mother's Day?  We have 4 rooms on the first floor.  We had a LOT of stuff (not including furniture) in those rooms.  There was art on the walls.  There were shelving units.  Let's not forget the little stuff, like taking the coffee maker from the kitchen and putting it in our bedroom.  (Not unlike a hotel room...now when do we get maid service?) 

The painters arrived bright and early on Monday and since then we have been confined to the 2nd floor.  This is not to say that they aren't doing a great job (and being as safe as possible).  As the saying goes, you have to break a few eggs to make an omelet.  (Of course I am ALLERGIC to eggs, so...)  They covered all the furniture and moved it to the center of the respective room.  However, the rooms are small, so with everything in the center of the room in the kitchen, there is barely enough room to squeeze over to the refrigerator (which is not actually IN the kitchen, but on a landing space that leads to the basement).  Getting to cabinets to get a glass or plate is sort of doable, but drawers for utensils are pretty much out of play. 

Monday night, my husband recommended that I make a bunch of sandwiches for my son for lunch, which turned out to be a brilliant idea.  In the morning, before the painters arrived, I could run downstairs, get him a sandwich, along with some applesauce and maybe some chips an have lunch for him.  I should have done the same for myself!  When I wrote this I immediately thought of the iced tea that is sitting in the fridge that I should have brought up earlier, but didn't.  At that point I was literally trapped  on the 2nd floor because unlike Monday and Tuesday, where I could get downstairs and out the front door (even if it was difficult), I now had this   Yes, that's the ONLY way to get downstairs and out of the house.  (I'm not quite ready to try and crawl out a window and jump to the ground below.)  This actually makes sense as it will keep some of the dust and stuff from coming upstairs.  (Of course plenty of it  has already been tracked up.)  It's making breathing a little easier...and when the painters took a lunch break outside, I could see that they were covered in white dust.  Almost as if they had bathed in talcum powder.  (No photos, but it was quite a surreal scene!)

Speaking of which, none of this would have been so bad if May actually felt like May.  Having work done in the house is never ideal.  Under normal circumstances, it would just be my husband who would be inconvenience, as he stays at home.  It would have been lesser so for my son (who would be at school for most of the day) and me (who would be in an office.)  The idea of being upstairs working/schooling while they are downstairs, scrapping, plaster, painting etc. is inconvenient.  However, I thought in the month of May we could open up all the windows and get some fresh air.  I have opened the windows, and as a result we are freezing.  It was in the upper 30s (yes, you read that right) when I got up this morning.  While it WILL get warmer during the day (and by Friday we will suddenly have summer), most of the mornings this week have been cold.  So I crack the windows open a little, put on several sweaters and deal with it!  As the day gets warmer, I open the windows wider.  By the end of the day, as they have wrapped everything up, I prop open the front and back doors and let the air in.  Monday was great for a breeze, which is what we needed when "chemical odor" in the house was overwhelming.  However, doing that plummeted the temperature in the house.  Let's just say that we all took HOT baths/showers that night and piled the blankets on high.  

There is also the noise factor.  I once again have to praise the painters.  They, for the most part, have been very mindful.  (It's also been a bit amusing when they had some music on and one of them was singing along!)  Some of the work they do is noisy; it can't be helped.  Sanding down a wall is NOT a quiet task. (It's also a dusty task!  There is a film on EVERYTHING...including us!)  It also doesn't help that the house next door (yes, that would be the house that I grew up in) is still undergoing massive renovation which is incredibly noisy much of the time (When I wrote that sentence, the new owner was pounding out three small windows that were nearly 100 years old...you want to talk NOISY!).  It's even noisier since I have the windows open to get some air which is really cold...(Am I going around in circles here?)

Of course, there is light at the end of the tunnel.  The job should be finished by Friday (fingers crossed).  I know the house will look beautiful when they are done.  (And will look even better once we get the furniture we want to order from Ikea, but they won't deliver and keep directing us to pick up in the store...in California or maybe Florida!  But that's a whole other potential blog post!)  Furthermore, I am lucky that I can (sort of) afford to  have this work done AND have it done DURING a pandemic.  Finally, it makes for a great story to tell at cocktail parties.  (There will be cocktail parties again, won't there?)

Stay tuned...when the story is wrapped up, you know I'll be here with another post.

In the meantime...as always...Stay Safe and Stay Well.