Reality Check

Well, the bad news is it is very unlikely I will finish Liat's Shetland Shorty top by tomorrow night (luckily, she is a very patient and understanding person). I am less than halfway done with the upper back, then need to do both fronts and the trims around the armholes and around the front. I will try, but it's not looking good.


The good news is, Avi and I finally got around to starting a major home improvement project. Awhile ago, Liat was diagnosed as being allergic to dust mites (and I assume they truly aren't all that healthful for anyone). Since then, Avi and I decided we would take up all the wall-to-wall carpeting in our home (and there is alot of it!). We planned that we would do the work in stages, always on Wednesdays, since the larger garbage truck that picks up tree branches, broken furniture and other large objects comes around on Thursday mornings.

Yesterday morning Avi had a meeting, but I got started. We had planned to start in what we call The Office, so while he was gone I took out everything I could lift. I pulled the carpet strips off of the baseboards (that's how they do things here, she says with a shrug) and tried lifting up a corner of the carpet, to see if there were wooden strips with tacks in them holding down the carpet. Luckily for us, there weren't. The carpet and pad were merely glued onto the marble floor around the perimeter of the room.

Avi came home and cut away the carpet and padding, which I dragged out to the curb. Then I got down on my knees (on one of those cushioned gardening pads) and set to work scraping off all the dried glue and crumbs of padding. It took me a couple of hours. After awhile, I switched to sitting cross legged on the floor, to give a whole new set of muscles a reason to complain. Avi couldn't tolerate the smell of the glue thinner (it made him dizzy) but it didn't bother me a bit. Then he came in and washed the floor.


I think it looks pretty good! I worked darn hard on that room, and boy do I ever have the aching back, hips, legs, arms and shoulders to prove it!

Next time, we'll attack the stairs and the upstairs hallway. I have already dubbed this the summer of home improvement, and there are quite a few other projects on my To Do list. It will feel great to finally accomplish things we've been talking about doing for so long.

The only downside is, of course, a loss of prime knitting hours.