Another Boring Report

It's a gorgeous day outside--crisp and sunny--but Simon and I are once again inside grading papers. The end, for me, is in sight. This week my students will take finals, which I'll likely spend next weekend grading. I'd wanted to go to Atlanta to see my nephew, who's growing up fast and without his auntie, but it looks like I'll be here preparing for our move.

We visited the house yesterday, and one of the most exciting changes had just begun: the floors are being refinished! The baseboards have gone up, and they are huge and beautiful--like the ones that were original to the home. In the master bathroom, the sink cabinet is in, and the ceeiling-stain problems have been fixed (the wood ceilings were releasing some kind of oil that bled through the paint). This week, the countertops go in, the kitchen will be painted, and our IKEA upper cabinets will get hung (I spent last weekend assembling them.) It looks as though we are still "on" for moving in June 1st, although we have heard bad things about the final step of getting an inspector to issue and occupancy certificate.

Anyways, here are some pictures of this week's progress:

This the family room, which will open onto the back porch. Half of the floor has been sanded.

This picture shows the beautiful wood grain. The width of the wood and its grain suggests it is heart pine. We've asked for a matte finish, as I can't stand super-shine.

The crew opened the shutters on one of the front windows, which allowed spectacular light to come in. We also discovered that we have a fully "interactable" house with stationary screens on the bottom half of the windows that allows us to open them in order to catch a breeze. (Simon's testing them out in what will become the study, below.)

Here's more of our master bathroom. The sink cabinet and sink are from IKEA. The baseboards have yet to be primed in this room, but you can see that the window has been sanded and prepped for painting. You can also see the very basic white floor tile that we chose. I love it.

I couldn't stand to post a master bathroom picture without adding another of our shower! Next week the glass guy will come to put up the partial enclosure.

Oh--and here is a view from the front room (which will be the dining room just off the kitchen.) The green house across the street is the inspiration for our kitchen-colors. They haven't gone up yet, but when they do, I'll post.

The grass at the end of the street is the levee, and when you walk up that hill, you see this:

All the house stuff has offered a sound excuse for our not attending Jazz Fest this year. It's the first year, I think, that I've not gone since I moved here in 1997. Today has been the hardest day to be away from it, what with the weather and all, but at $50 per ticket, plus food and booze, we just decided the $150 would be better spent on the house this year. I almost always value experience over things, but I've been so tired from the long and difficult semester that I didn't agonize over this one, in the least. We decided to buy the Jazz Fest poster--a wonderful image of Irma Thomas in a pant suit next to a live oak tree--so we'll have a souvenir from the only fest we've not attended.

In addition to the house progress, there are other happy things to report. I won the Excellence in Teaching Freshman Composition award this week, for one. I discovered a singer whose song, Cobrastyle, I've been dancing to, and the end of the semester really is just around the corner.

Still, I have been feeling the residual effects of this long semester, and I am just so dang tired. Yesterday I asked Simon if we could go out to buy a pair of pants that will fit my now size-6 waist, but when the only pair I liked was $150, we decided I could just "belt it" and work on fattening up over the summer. So my plan is to sleep, work on furnishing the house, and eat a lot of backyard BBQ. I will not be able to participate in the Greater New Orleans Writing Project, as I'd hoped to, since it would've meant a month of 14-hour days, but I'm too tired to feel bad about it.

I'm afraid this is a boring post, and I'm really very aware that I've not posted much of interest lately. Of course, my mom finds it all interesting, so here's to you, Mom!