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There were no children injured during the niece visitation of last week.
Michael and the four-year old niece built a darn nice birdhouse with mahogany trim and built-in birdbath in the back.
The floors are completely done and shiny and beautiful.
The living room is set up, complete with area rug to save the dog’s sanity.
We figured out how to do the built-in bench seat and table in the kitchen.
Most shockingly, the house is clean and relatively free of dust, scraps, sawdust, and tools.
And we don’t have pictures of any of it because the camera is currently dead.
We’re going to tinker with it tonight. Think nice camera thoughts and maybe we’ll have some pictures tomorrow.
Somehow, in between calming the floor-panicked dog, digging out from massive snowstorms, surviving hurricane-like nor’easters, and trying to reduce the death-potential of our house for the small children who are about to come visit, we have managed to lay most of the flooring. Downstairs? Done. Upstairs hall? Done. Small bedroom? Almost done. Second bedroom? Stop being so pushy! We’re getting there!
Pictures to follow, probably after we’ve finished cleaning our disgusting pit of a house for the aforementioned small children. Anyone else want to bring their toddlers to visit? We’ll lower the blade on the table saw and put away the toxic chemicals… No?
Good thing because we keep finding discarded razor knife blades all over the place. We’re sure to miss one or two.
(If you hear sirens headed towards our house next week, just ignore it. Everything is fine! Really!)
(Oh, and good news: our basement didn’t flood from the storm, which really was as big and bad as the news reports said. I think every other basement within a 200-mile radius had at least a couple of inches in it, but ours is completely dry. It looks like we may have done at least one thing right on this place.)
We had a nice post written about our finished downstairs floors, with a focus on how shortsighted we were to finish those floors just in time for Maine’s infamous Mud Season, when it all became pretty irrelevant. Because today we took a big step backwards out of Mud Season and into Winter. You see, we woke up this morning to this:
That’s 15 inches of snow right there. Yessuh.* 15 inches. In April.
We love this state.
Sure, there’s lots of places in the world that have flowers coming up, grass turning green, and little girls trying on their Easter dresses. But where else are they waking up to 15 inches of snow? (Okay, the Lake Erie people got hit too, but don’t they always?)
Spring snow is better than winter snow, because with spring snow you know it’s going to melt pretty quickly. If we got this much snow in February, we’d know that it would stay put a month or two and that’s just depressing. This will probably be gone in a week. Plus, it was unexpected since the forecast was for 2-4 inches. This is bonus snow (not to mention a bonus snow day).
This was also bonus snow for the dog. We’re sure many of you have been wondering whether Nori the Neurotic Dog ever adjusted to the new floors, and the answer is no. She has not. This is how she looks most of the time:
Hunched over on the stairs, afraid to come any closer.
But today:
There she is, leaping for joy. Please note the juxtaposition here. Wood floors turn her into a quivering mass, but chest deep snow that freezes her belly and threatens to suffocate her is FUN.
Pretty much the only thing around here that didn’t have fun today is this sad little spruce tree.
It looks like it’s not really enjoying the bonus snow.
*That’s “Yes, sir” in Maine dialect. Say it aloud for full effect, with the emphasis on the “suh.” It also helps if you are wearing a hunter orange cap and suspenders with a plaid shirt while saying it.
