Outside the yellow of September is creeping in. Summer's plantings torn out to be composted for Spring soil and plans made for mums, straw, vines, sunflowers, gourds and fat orange pumpkins soon. Bulbs are ordered to be nestled in before winter for the Spring Resurrection.
The fireflies are gone...and the frogs in a nearby pond silent.
The Hummingbirds are packing up their little travel cases and will soon be outta here.
My morning songbirds are gone and crows cawing wildly and Canadian geese overhead have taken their place.
The Summer foods being replaced by soups and stews.
Roasted meats and veggies.
Baking to take the chiily edge off the house (apartment) in the dawn 50 degree temps.
Yes...all is wonderful in my world...
Well...it WAS. Until Tuesday night.
A knock on the door in the evening.
"There is a water leak in the walls between your apartments"
"No...you can't see it but it has been going to for quite some time."
The crux of the matter is that it finally burst through the soggy deteriorating moldy sheet-rock in my next door neighbor's apartment and flooded her bathroom and kitchen.
He and a crew of 5 and our other maintenance man would be back at 9 AM.
OMFG...
At this point he must see the utter shock on my face and crouches down like talking to a traumatized child-
"We will need to tear out all affected walls, tubs, cabinets, wall tile..."
Yeah...I'm hyperventilating.
No sleep THAT night.
(...but I did have the presence of mind to get a good bath and wash my hair...)
Up EARLY on Wednesday...six cups of coffee later...I'm oscillating and they arrive...
Sofi says
"Fuck THIS..."
and slides like butter beneath the sofa...where she stays until they leave.
If I were smaller, I would join her.
John saves my life, and talks me down, as the dismantling begins.
The workers are like a fireline of ants.
Sawing sections of drywall...to be passed down and dumpstered.
Doing a temporary patch of the pipe (they will remove all the old brittle dark gray pipes and run new flexible line on Tuesday after the holiday).
Carrying the old tub away.
...goodbye old friend...
Poking and prodding at cabinets which will also have to be replaced.
We talk two or three times during the process. Most of it is a blur...I am stressed to beyond the point of being frazzled. I am actually shaking. His voice is soft and soothing like calming an overly skittish horse. There are no words for how much I appreciate his comfort.
Sofi is no help.
"Told ya to get beneath the couch, Mom!"
By 3 PM they are finished for the day.
Three walls are gone.
All the wall tiling is gone.
The bathtub is gone.
Big blue blowers are drying what is left...and lower cabinet doors are open and drying to see what can be salvaged of them..if anything.
The water pressure has been lowered to a stream as thin as a Number 2 pencil to prevent blowing the patched line.
GrubHub brings dinner.
Sofi re-emerges.
"OMG... Mom....they have stolen the bathroom!!!"
She is wide eyed and exploring the devastation...bewildered.
So am I.
I slowly realize I'm a CAT.
Not a PROBLEM...just an INCONVENIENCE becomes my Mantra.
To their credit...they are very neat for an entire troupe of construction guys. Everything has been shop-vac'ed and cleaned up. No saws-all crumbs or mess left sitting.
Only the missing walls, bare wall joists and fluffy insulation, hole in the concrete floor and drainpipes and blasting of the blowers, belie the fact that all is NOT well.
On Friday the drywall guy returns bright and early with sheet after sheet of the stuff.
By Friday afternoon I have some semblance of walls again.
Unpainted, untiled, utility gray...but covering the bare joists.
A timeline is established.
The crew will be back early Tuesday to run the lines...remove the rest of the pipes...install a new tub...then he will be back later in the week to finish the walls and tile out.
...breathe...
So yeah...that has been my week.
The bright side is new pipes (...the old ones were literally 30+ years old...)
new walls, new tub, new wall tile...probably new cabinets.
Rita, my neighbor, voices much the same.
Right now it is kind of like camping in your house. Spit baths morning and night at the basin.
Tops and Tails.
I may spend next weekend submersed in my new bathtub with bubbles.
Anyway...
Getting excited about Fall Decorating...and have dragged the Autumn boxes out...and ready to stow the Summer stuff.
NPB is now CLOSED for the Season.
Used off my fresh herbs for dinner for the last time this season...I'll cut and dry the rest tomorrow.
How I LOVE cooking with fresh herbs!
Finally, new movies are released...
This Week's Film:
And it is delightful.
Robert Di Nero, Christopher Walken, Cheech Marin (sans Tommy Chong) and it is exactly what I needed after this week.
Wonderful comedy about a boy who declares war on his Grandpa after he is moved into his daughter's house...more specifically into HIS bedroom.
Great cast.
Funny film.
Try it, you'll like it!
Have a great Holiday Weekend!
~Sofi