Quarantine and Chill?

Live action shot from the house project.

I'm not panicking. I'm not panicking. You're panicking.

So I'm totally panicking.  Since my last post the entire world has changed dramatically.  Courthouses are closed with most hearings kicked or moving telephonic, which has resulted in a frenzy of conference calls and other logistical scrambling.  Megan is a public health researcher and an ABD PhD student, so we have WAY too much knowledge and information to feel very confident right now.  On top of all that, we commenced a second job as school teachers (and, by the way, actual teachers are heroes and deserve all the love / respect / funding on the planet).  Day-to-day life is very INTENSE these days.

Meanwhile, we continue our efforts to resuscitate a 120-year old house we are desperate to inhabit while watching a daily shifting landscape of closures and restrictions. We have a looming fear that a "shelter in place" order will come down bringing the project to a halt.  Given COVID-19 trends in New Orleans, we anticipate it's not an "if" but a "when" situation.   Being generously receptive to our anxiety, our painting contractor is putting forth a Herculean effort to see this project completed.  We've been putting in whatever efforts we can to facilitate progress, most recently spending hours in the painstaking removal of thousands of carpet staples from the staircase:

I realized my panic had grown a bit out of control yesterday after I lost my mind on a call with Lowe's.  For context, the master bedroom closets are carpeted.  Pretty small space.  Naturally we're interested in replacing and refreshing the carpet, which had been a minor punchlist item for who-knows-when.  But now in the face of imminent potential SHUT DOWN OF EVERYTHING, I commenced a carpet panic buying process.  On Monday, while at Lowe's for supplies, I requested immediate carpet replacement.  They informed me that measuring the space should come first.  Fair enough.  We arranged for measuring the next morning.  I was told I'd get a call back to finalize the order, but no call came.  So yesterday I began haunting the phones.  I finally reached someone who helpfully explained I could get any carpet  I would want in one to two weeks. 

Then an eye witness (ok, Megan) tells me I near-shouted the following line: "WE DON'T HAVE ONE OR TWO WEEKS.  IT'S ALL GETTING SHUT DOWN.  I NEED CARPET TOMORROW."

The guy at Lowe's was remarkably gracious in the face of my insanity.  He invited me into the store to pick from what they had in stock.  I raced down Jefferson Highway and moments later selected a carpet called--and I kid you not--NOTORIOUS GAUCHO.  If I ever make it in the Latin American hip hop scene, you will find me by that pseudonym. 

So carpet install is slated for Monday.  I'm hoping we are getting the top layer on the upstairs floors shortly thereafter, which would put us living in the house NEXT WEEK.  Time will tell. 

Stay safe, folks.  These are serious times, and we all benefit if folks stay at home.  High hopes we'll be staying at home from the new home very, very soon. 

Order and Progess

The distractions of carnival season coupled with the house project left me little time to tend to the blog.  However, we now have some real signs of progress.  The house has functioning electricity, no more holes in the walls, AC (although not quite heat), and even internet service!  We don't exactly have running water right now, but that's a story for another day.

For now, let's document the progress.  Megan has focused on restoring some of the historic hardware, such as these plates on some 120 year old pocket doors, which polished up nicely:

The more dramatic progress appears upstairs.  We removed some purple carpet to reveal viable hardwoods.  As of today, those are repaired, sanded, and awaiting stain: 

However, the part of the house where I feel the change the most is in Hattie's future room.  The room has been hard work by all.  Electricians struggled to remove some particular pesky wiring, resulting in more holes than in most other rooms.  The paint and patch crew then had to deal with the aftermath.  Meanwhile, we took the laboring oar in removing window treatments and an old window air conditioning unit (which was then followed by Megan dangling precariously out of the second floor window to hack apart caulk in order to close the window for the first time in probably 40 years).  The room is really coming along.

More to come . . .