Dirt: Literally

We are currently under construction.

I mean, literally. 

The floor in the room above me is being ripped up with crowbars as we speak.

Yesterday, I came home from a relaxing afternoon by the pool to the fact that the stairs to my bedroom and bathroom did not exist. 

So...I proceeded to wear my bathing suit the rest of the day. 

Nice.

If only...

Today, we have stairs and they don't squeak anymore.

Bonus.

As my husband was ripping up the floors upstairs to level them before we put hardwood down, he found a treasure. Not a signed copy of the Declaration of Independence, but...wait for it...a 1959 copy of Readers Digest. I am pretty excited.

The biggest thing that I have found in our renovation is, dirt. Lots and lots of dirt. And nails. And staples. And dirt. Foulness. Insulation from the 1950's, sawdust, drywall dust and just plain dirt coat just about every surface in my house.

 So, I am sweeping and wiping and sweeping some more, as the guys walk through with their hands full of boards and nails. 

When it's done, it's gonna be great.

And dirty.

 

Gratituesday: Lala liberry!

I have always love the library.

The over abundance of books. The sheer number of choices. 

The silence that signifies that reading is serious business.

Libraries are not so silent anymore. Ours actually smells like a mix of old books, new carpet and homeless men's body odor. There is actually a place to download books.

But, that is also what I love about libraries. They are alive, not just buildings of old relics, but truly alive and living places.

We have been meeting with my youngest's math tutor on Mondays this summer at one of the smaller branches of our local library. The building is an example of 1960's architecture at it's finest. It is round. Inside it is all wood and really is quite cozy. And loud. 

Really cool? Or really weird?

But like all of the branches of our library, it is well stock and manned by truly knowledgeable and really  nice librarians. There appear to be a lot of children's programs going on during the day, hence the noise. Lots of tutoring and reading going on as well. 

I have been checking books out weekly. So have my daughters. In the past two weeks alone, we have checked out 10 novels and one non-fiction (mine). All but one book has been read. Amazing. 

Now, I know e-books are the way of near future and books will be gone. 

But I don't want them to be. There is something about holding a book, smelling a book, feeling the paper and dogearing  your stopping point, that is all part of the experience of reading. I love that you can walk into a library and just walk along the stacks and find a book  you might have not been interested in and check it out and read it (or not). There is no commitment that money and the guilt of having paid twenty bucks for it might bring. I have read so many books this way. Books that changed me just a little and books that entertained me a lot.

I love libraries. I wish I could have been Carrie from Sex & The City and gotten married in the New York Library (I would have gone through with it). 

via

 

Instead, I take my children in the summer and we soak up the smells and the weirdos and the semi-silence. We check out loads of books and read most of them. We hope they last forever.

I am grateful for libraries and that the city that I live in values them as well.

Food: Eating whilst stressed.

                                                                 Oh. My. Word. 

We have torn our house to  bits. 

Actually, on my encouragement, my husband tore our house to bits.

As if!

When we moved into our house in 2001, we ripped up carpet and had new stuff installed. 

That was a long time, two toddlers, 5 cats and 6 dogs ago.

Carpet is supposed to last 5 years before it gets toxic and funky.

I scrubbed spots out of that carpet for 10 years. I believe all our animals and kids at one time or another released a bodily fluid in that room.

It looked good, but was stinky and  the stains were reappearing at an alarming rate. Time to go!

So, out it went. 

Now we have staple infested subflooring. And three steps with beautiful parquet that our carpet installers apparently thought we did not like to see, ever. 

wish they looked like this!

LINK

We also have started the process of replacing our 90 year old windows with something a little more energy efficicient than a piece of swiss cheese.

That opens up a new can of worms, of course as new windows are a little differently sized than old ones. So, my house looks like a bomb went off and I am in the middle of second thoughts about projects.

At least my kitchen is intact...for  now.

This week I will have painters, floor guys, friends with experience and of course, us working in my house. And it is my sweet husband's birthday... Happy Birthday week, Sweetie!

Casa Swann " At least there is food" menu

• Swim meet pizza

• grilled chicken legs , roasted zuchinni, black eyed pea salad

• Steve's birthday dinner at his mama's house (peach, basil and greens salad and dessert by me)

• Swim meet (burgers and tots at 4:30)

• grilled chicken and veggie flat bread sandwiches