The Virus Diary: Moving Downstairs

When Friday rolled around again for the first time in LONG time, I said TGIF.  Why?  Because I was hoping that I (or maybe I should say we) would be able to move our lives (or at least part of them) back downstairs.  (http://bfthsboringblog.blogspot.com/2020/05/the-virus-diary-chaos-in-time-of.html)   (PLEASE) I wanted to get back to "normal."  And by "normal" I mean the new normal because normal is not normal anymore!

 Last week had been a LONG week.  I was waking up at 3:45 every morning (which is early even for me!) and not being able to get back to sleep.  (Well, in days of yore I'd get up at 4:15 so that I could get outside for a walk by 4:30-4:45).  The whole week required thoughtful planning and although I'm usually pretty good with that, I was off my game.  There were so many "little" things that I forgot until it's too late.  (Like I should have brought up lunch for ME and not just my son.)  Even getting ready for a walk took planning.  

 Just getting downstairs pre-dawn was a challenge with all the drop clothes and plastic.  I had to finish dressing in the basement:  sneakers, coat (Friday was the first day I DIDN'T need one for the walk), "turn on" the clip on lights on my sneakers (and for some reason the right sneaker one turns off sometime during my walk, but the left stays on until I turn it off when I get home), set the walking app and head out the back door.  I need to be even more mindful of the time because the painters would show up any time between 7:45 and 8:30 and I needed to have everything I needed for the day from the basement and first floor prior to that time.

 All of this is just a first world problem.  In the grand scheme of things, living and working on the 2nd floor while 3 men are working (talking and listening to music) downstairs is NOT a problem.  Dealing with the mess and dust that covers everything is NOT a problem.  It's an annoyance.  It's a nuisance.  It's nothing more than that.

 Friday meant another grocery store trip.  It was a difficult one as I didn't have access to my kitchen to put things away, but I needed food for next week so...

 I got to "my" Shoprite five minutes before opening. There was already a line and a little rain.  (Not much...but why must it rain every Friday?  Or at least it seems that way!)  I think they opened the store 2 minutes early today...or maybe my clock is running slower than theirs.  Over the past several week I've notice the store is getting better with stock.  Although you are limited to number of items (such as rice mixes and frozen vegetables), the shelves are getting fuller.  (Although frozen veggies are still thin).  Although I couldn't get Clorox or Lysol wipes, I was able to get a small container of another brand.  Because of the work that was going on in the house, I wanted to get a box or two of Swiffer refills.  Of course I had to get more snacks.  (Because snacking has become a bonafide national pastime these days).  Checking out was relatively easy; one person was wrapping up as I was able to put my items down.  I even did a pretty decent job of bagging with the help of the cashier.  (Not my "regular" cashier, who WAS back on Friday and the store HAD responded to my message during the week that she was ok and just taking a much deserved day off.)

I rushed home, making only one quick grocery drop off.  Items that had to be refrigerated or kept frozen were immediately put away.  The rest were just dropped in the basement to be put away at the end of the day, once the painting was done.

And I'm glad to say that the job WAS complete by the end of Friday, although it (like Thursday) was a LONG day.  They did not wrap up until nearly 6.    I'm also pleased to say that the house, although a mess, was completely transformed.  Four rooms were painted:  the sun parlor/music room which is a cheery yellow, the living room which is a creamy white, the dining room which is Wedgewood blue and the kitchen which is green/cream white.  Additionally, the trim it the dining room and the kitchen (along with the cabinets) were painted a dark brown to try and match the stained blackish/brown wood in the living room and sun parlor/music room.  I'd give three of the rooms an A+.  I'd give the kitchen (which was the most complicated and in my mind should have been tackled first instead of last) a B+.  The kitchen required the most work and had the most details.  Because we spend so much time in there, it is also the place where I notice all the little details that were not seen to.  However, overall, I was very pleased with how everything turned out.

But having been up all day working (and having a work day that was more stressful that usual), I was not ready to start doing all the clean-up and organizing that needed to be done to put the house back in order.  Instead, hungry and tired I suggested we grab some McD's burgers and fries, because sometimes you need fast food burgers and fries.  There isn't a McD's within the immediate community and the one that is closest to us has had some issues recently, so I did a quick search for the surrounding area and picked one that was a distance away but had a better "rating" on Google than the rest.  (Yes there are Google ratings for fast food places.)  Placed our order via app, drove out, gave our order number at the drive through and waited in the designated parking spot.  We waited a while.  Longer than usual, but not long enough to totally annoy me.  (I am TRYING to be more patient knowing that nothing is "normal" any more.  I am also failing for the most part, but I AM trying.)  Got our food, drove home and since it was nice and warm outside, we sat on the front stoop to eat.  I enjoyed a burger and fries while my son scarfed quite a few.  He was finished, but reached in for the last burger to give me and

This is NOT the first time this has happened to me.  But it happened at a different McD's.  (The one I purposely didn't go to!)  Ugh!

Tired and frustrated, I TRIED (along with my husband and to a lesser extent my son) to do some cleaning.  Our house was covered from top to bottom with a film of dust.  A film that keeps returning no matter how much I seem to sweep or dust.  We tried to organize.  We tried to clean.  We tried to get some sense of normalcy back in our home that night.

We failed.  We gave up after a couple of hours.

Saturday dawned.  We still had our coffee upstairs.  (Though we had cleaned the kitchen it wasn't quite yet ready for eating in.)  We had a lot of work ahead of us.  We cleaned the kitchen (several times).  We brought things up from the basement.  We brought things down from the second floor.  (I don't need a Stairmaster; I have stairs and should have buns of steel after all the up and down I did on Saturday)  We did more work on Sunday.  The result?  The kitchen looks good, is operational and 95% where it should be.  The dining room looks great and is 75% where it should be.  (The dining room table is currently a holding space.)  The living room looks great and is 50% of where it should be.  The sun parlor/music room looks good pain wise, but it is only about 10% of where it needs to be.  Both the living room and sun parlor/music room will not be complete until late June and that's because of deliveries from Ikea.  (Again that is another blog post...which I will not write until AFTER we get our deliveries).

For the time being we can use our whole house once again.  It's still messy, but it's getting there.  And when we are finally 100% downstairs it's going to be great.  

Living room

Kitchen

Kitchen (notice the severed head of Santa cookie jar)

Dining room

Someday I'll have to consider upstairs work.  But NOT now.  Not during a pandemic!  It must be during a time when we can move out and have a little less stress.  (Although any home renovation brings tons of stress.)  Even if I could have the work done now I don't think I would.  I need a little break from home renovation in the time of pandemic!