We’ve been in a Residence Inn for the past 6 days. It was supposed to be 5 days, but our stay got unceremoniously extended. The floor guys have been in our house, furiously sanding and polishing our wood floors. My in-laws are coming into town tomorrow; I wanted the floors finished, and the house tidied up before they got here.
Well, one out of two ain’t bad.
Actually, make that zero out of two: the living room floor hasn’t been done yet at all, because that’s where all the furniture in the house has been stored for the past week. Since we are late getting back into the house, I’m not going to have a chance to really clean it before my in-laws arrive. Yay.
(Note to self: when getting floors done again, either get prefinished wood or pay movers to move all the furniture out of the house so the floor guys have enough room to maneuver.)
The Residence Inn wasn’t bad — we had the “penthouse suite,” which had a loft bedroom upstairs for us, a murphy bed out of the wall for the kids (and if they were older, there was a sofa bed as well), plus two bathrooms. Free breakfast buffet every day; evening “light meal” buffet Mondays through Thursdays. Plus a pool and a hot tub that we visited every day, without fail. It’s a pretty good deal.
But I wanted to be home. We packed up this morning and I drove directly to the house to deposit all of the cold food from the hotel into our refrigerator. I opened the back door and went, “Ugh.” Deep smell of chemicals throughout the house. I don’t know what I’m going to have to do to get rid of it. I hope it’s safe to have the kids in the house tonight, because that’s where they’re going to be.
Once we’re back in the house, I have non-stop laundry to do for a few days, plus trying to clean at least the kitchen, the guest room, and the guest bathroom. (I’ll get to the other rooms later.) And there are 20 or 30 boxes just of ephemera that we’ve picked up here and there around the house, not including the boxes of books from the living room shelves. It’s going to take quite a while to get to a point of stasis.
I think it’s worth it. At the moment, however, it feels like a gigantic mess and mistake.
I’ll post pictures once the furniture is all back where it belongs.
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The street in front of our house is blocked off due to repaving! So somehow I have to get all of our bags and assorted detritus into the house from a block or so away!
Well, I guess that will keep down the amount of extraneous material in the house.
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There’s a guy smoking right by the entrance to the cafe. The wind outside is blowing in. The guy might as well be sitting right next to me.
Aha! This is why they have designated outdoor smoking zones in some cities, like Palo Alto. It all becomes clear.