In Self-Imposed Exile

Greetings from Camp! Yes, I have abandoned both sanity and my sweet little house, and am currently adrift, living out of a suitcase at J's house. It's quite... odd. I note that houses are much quieter without three dogs or a cat. This house has but a single small dog, who is not nearly as social/needy as my own.

Why the exile? Well.... they're bringing down the ceilings at my house. Once upon a time, many years ago and long before it was mine, the house had a roof leak. We think. The owners, being inclined and probably required to be super-frugal, installed (ugly) 12x12 acoustic tiles to cover the hypothesized water-stains. And being super-frugal, they did it themselves (crookedly). Years later, Belle buys said house and is again required by reality and frugality to accept and live with the sagging, now dirty & dingy tile ceilings. This despite the noticeable sag in said ceilings, indicating that the tiles had separated from any/all support.

Now that I can repair it, I'm doing so. So the repair team went up into the attic to check, and they say the dining room's ceiling has pulled away from the lath/framing by about 6".  I'd have said maybe 4", but no one would deny that it's significant and obvious to anyone who looks up. To repair this, the existing lath/plaster has to come down, a major mess-maker. And it will take 5 work days. Five very messy days, so I've left for the duration. Dogs and cat have gone to the kennel, birds and I are encamped at J's.

At the end of that time, I will have clear, clean, flawless ceilings. I have selected a serene sky blue for the new paint, which will be lovely. The walls are a deep, intense yellow - the new ceiling and its blue should visually recede and make both rooms seem lighter & larger.

Getting said rooms ready for the work was interesting. I had to take everything I could out of both rooms - not just 'soft' stuff, but all the pictures & as much of the furniture as I could. Mostly empty, the rooms both look much larger and actually echoed. All the work I've done in the past couple of months on my hardwood floors really shone - they looked really good. Glorious, actually.

Camp is not bad. Great company, excellent food, good bed. Living out of a suitcase... meh. Miss my dogs. The birds love it here, which they demonstrated by spending most of the evening night one out of their cage, and a significant part of that on a friendly shoulder.

On a decidedly more exciting note, I have begun to make decisions for my Egypt trip. This is exciting and very fun. At the moment, it's nearly three weeks long, timed for December 2012.

On a less fun note, I've still not begun my conference paper for April 1. Yargh.