Wednesday, June 19, 2013

Out of house and home

Sunday, Superman and his brother spent 4.5 hours cleaning the edges of the rooms - removing nails, carpet fibers, and wood pieces, scraping paint, removing the door stops - preparing them for the sander. We rented a sander from Home Depot and had it ready for the guy to sand Monday.

Monday I headed to the Stain Store, and they loaded me up with stuff to do the floors. The owner told me then that I needed a diamond bladed sander to get rid of the painted part of my concrete. As I walked out the door, the last thing he said was, "If you have any questions, don't hesitate to call."

Then I headed across 281 to the granite showroom to pick out my slab. That was difficult. I think I would have been just as happy having someone else pick it out. The nuances were difficult to determine. The lighting was different for each slab. One was deep in the building with only the high overhead light, one was in the center of the room with half daylight and overhead light, and the third was by the doors with daylight. Very difficult. I went with the first one I saw.

After my doctor appointment Monday, I stopped by the house to see if the sander was ready to return (hoping) and to drop off the stain products. I could barely see them in the cloud of concrete dust that filled the house. In 3.5 hours, he barely scratched the surface. The unevenness of the concrete was causing a huge problem. The sander hit the high spots, but it couldn't get to the valleys. The difference in height is minute, but the sander couldn't maneuver into the low spots. I had a question, so I called the Stain Store, and the guy told me exactly what to rent at Home Depot. Off to Home Depot I went. This one was much more expensive than the first, and I left both for them to use.

After work I swept and swept and swept. There were 2 of us sweeping and one sanding. The dust cloud continued swirling through the house. Even though we discussed that I couldn't stay there once this started, I hadn't made plans. I figured I could just sleep on the couch in the ladies room at work if necessary.

About 7:30, I decided it was time to get out of there, so I grabbed some clothes and necessities and hauled buns to the fitness center at work to take a shower. I was pretty disgusting. I had 10 minutes until they closed. There was hardly any water pressure in the shower, but it was water, and it was free. I had packed a bottle of shampoo that was almost empty and a tube of face wash that was empty. I decided to use the supplied shampoo, but it didn't seem to even penetrate the concrete dust in my hair. Then I struggled with the empty bottle of shampoo and managed to get enough in my hair to do the trick. I only had 10 minutes, and I spent 5 trying to get shampoo on my hair! Even though I was still sort of wet, I threw on some clothes, towel dried my hair, ran a comb through it, and headed out, scaring the employee who thought he was alone.

Alright! I was clean and ready to get to the office to work on the newsletter, blog, and sleep. DANG! There was an employee still at work at 8:15! I know she's a night owl, so I figured she'd probably stay until 10 or so - no problem. At 11:15, when she started unpacking boxes to move back into her office, I gave up and headed home. Why? I don't know. I just didn't want to discuss anything with her. Why? Who knows. I could have stayed at my daughter's house, but it's so far away. I called a friend who lives on the other side of Bandera Rd., but she's in Florida visiting family. Hmm, my options were dwindling.

I parked my car in my driveway, cracked the windows a bit, locked the doors, and got comfortable with my "packed and ready for an adventure" diaper bag as my pillow. I was parked right next to the POD, so I wasn't visible to anyone on the street, and it was pretty quiet. I actually slept very well. A couple of times, a body part went to sleep, but I'd adjust and go right back to sleep. Then at 3:30, a dog started barking. I woke up and headed back to the office. DANG! She's still there! What the heck! Was she living there and sleeping in the ladies room? I went into my office and kept the light off. I sat there working on my computer (in the dark) until I got the feeling that she left, so I checked, and her car was gone. Actually, I think she left right after I got there. We must have just missed each other. I bedded down on the couch in the ladies room with the diaper bag as a pillow and fell asleep. It's funny, the diaper bag wasn't as soft as it was in my car. Go figure.

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