A room with no view...

"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times......"                              ~Charles Dickens~

  It has been a rough couple of weeks here at Chez Herd.  So many things happening all at once.... The good news is that we have made a huge dent in our (so far) five year house remodel. We have replaced all the interesting brown particle board paneling with fresh drywall in the entire upstairs AND plotted out the area for a new bathroom! Yes-it looks as if we are finally going to have a second bathroom put in. We have lived for so very long with only one.  One bathroom for six people-a few of which think that clogging the toilet is "all in a days work".... One bathroom that is at least fifty miles from the bedrooms-or at least it feels that way at three in the morning.. when one of the herd needs to use it and is too afraid to make the treacherous journey alone. Oh.. there is NOTHING quite like being startled awake by a face hovering two inches from yours and the words "My belly doesn't feel good" to get your legs moving in the middle of the night!   Sadly, because of the distance, I don't think that we have ever made it in time in all the years we have lived here...sigh...I'm thinking that it might be time to replace the carpet on the stairs.

  Our house was built before the popularity of indoor plumbing (or as I like to call it-The" Porcelain  Age") So, I'm guessing that the original owners of my house, not used to the luxury of an indoor "privy" had no idea of where to put a bathroom in. So either they were just used to the inconvenience of  "going" outdoors-or they were masochists-because they stuck it in the most inconvenient of places. The kitchen.  Yes, If I chose to, I could cook dinner and greet guests at the door all from the comfort of my shower...and NOTHING screams ambiance more than a soaking wet  naked child walking into the kitchen while you are cooking dinner..It can be quite the conversation starter.
" Why are you wet?"
"I'm not wet"
"You're soaking wet!!..and you're naked!! where are your clothes!!
"My clothes are wet."
"I kind of figured that..why are they wet?"
"I fell"
"What do you mean you fell??!!"
"I dropped my headband."
"What do you mean?"
"I dropped it in and I had to get it out"
" Where did you drop........oh."
  Although I don't expect conversations like the above to cease anytime soon...it will be nice to have them someplace other than in the kitchen.  So you have to understand my unbridled joy over this upcoming addition to our home.(yes, I probably need to get out more)

  Surprisingly, the herd doesn't seem to be affected by all of this chaos. They have been pretty excited to come home every day and see what work has been done.   There was a time not too long ago, when I couldn't even hang pictures on the wall without a total freak out(with torn pictures and shattered frames)-when any change to the home environment  involved intense negotiation- so this is huge progress .HUGE. No, the only really big issue that we are having during all this construction..is the misplacing of things. Or rather, MY misplacing of things.

  We have two of the nicest gentlemen (friends of ours) doing the work..every day they have hung Sheetrock..mudded the walls and sanded off plaster.  In fact, there is so much plaster dust that when you walk by, you wind up looking like an extra from the movie Scarface. The house is a total and absolute mess. So what do I do?  I worry that these friends of ours will think I'm a total failure at cleaning...so every day, before they arrive, I scurry to hide the piles of dirty laundry and other crap from sight.   Heaven forbid they think I keep an untidy house!  The problem is...well, I keep misplacing things...like ALL of Omar's socks..our teaspoons...and fourteen chocolate chip cookies.  I know-it's weird...but there you have it. And no...the cookies weren't eaten...they were tucked away in a bag on the top of the fridge...the socks were in the laundry and the spoons in the drawer.Where they are..well, your guess is as good as mine..My hope is that there is a crazed person wandering my neighborhood..wearing thirty pairs of socks..playing the spoons and eating cookies.  My fear is that I stuck them somewhere like in one of the workers toolboxes and my secret will be found out...and the workmen will think that I am a crappy housekeeper! Oh the shame!  The shame!
sigh...I'm getting carried away...plaster dust can do that...

   I am cautiously optimistic that we may actually get a second bathroom in before Christmas-THIS year! We have been keeping very steady in this round of remodel..and I think we just might get it done...think...and hope. I'll let you know how it goes..And please, if you should see a strange person wandering around wearing thirty pairs of socks, playing the spoons and eating cookies...please send them my way.  Winter is coming and Omar needs his socks.