One (Renovation) Step At A Time

Progress on the home renovations onion has been slow, but it has been made.  Consider that so far this year, we have:

• Renovated the laundry room,
• Negotiated the financing to tackle redoing the master bath and the kitchen, and
• Arranged for new closet systems to be installed

To that list we can now add, re-carpeted the entire upstairs: last week we completed that effort with the installation of new carpet throughout the upper floor, and even in the study--the only carpets not done were the entire basement level, which can certainly wait another decade as far as I'm concerned.  

But now that the carpets are done upstairs, we can proceed with the installation of the new closet system, which will be done on August 15.  That will mean some more demo and repainting work beforehand, but things that I should certainly be able to knock out beforehand.

We are, after all, making progress on our plans for the year.  And I am also proud of the fact that (as best we can tell) Fergie has not yet "christened" the new carpets, although she certainly does enjoy snuffling in them for all the wonderful new smells.  And it is a wonderful change to have springy carpeting underfoot, as opposed to what we had had for at least the last nine years (and who knows how long before that).

Over our Vermont week I hope we can come to consensus on the contractor for the master bath, which we've agreed will be the first project.  Then perhaps we can begin setting that up, and make that happen within this year.

Isabella, 2011 - 2013

Tonight we lost one of our two pet gerbils, Isabella, who had been Sarah's.  We got them at the end of March 2011, hardly as newborns, and knowing that the average gerbil lives to be two to three years old, it's not surprising that we're now facing the loss of our first one.  But that doesn't make it any easier on Sarah tonight.

Isabella was the "fun one," the social one, the one who would run over to the cage bars first to sniff us and see if we brought any pumpkin seeds.  She also, quite frankly, became the plump one, despite being the one more likely to be found on the wheel than her sister Gerb.  We tried to spread the treats around, but somehow Bella seemed to be able to wrangle more than enough food.

Bella was the one who, on being put into her plastic gerbil ball, would run and run and run all over the floor while the kids changed their cages; Gerb would be more content to just wait patiently.  She would try to climb out of the box, or the cage, or wherever, and when we opened the cage door to let them come out and explore, Bella was always the first one to venture out.  She was the first gerbil to trust me enough to come out into my hands and let me pick her up and carry her around.

Sarah loved her gerbil, and is taking it quite hard, blaming herself for not caring for them enough.  With a new dog in the house, it's understandable that the old gerbils would have gotten less attention over the past few months, but they were never truly abandoned.

We found a box that had been the presentation box for a fountain pen, and made a bed of aspen chips for her, and nestled her in there, covering her head with some extra chips.  David dug a nice deep hole out back, next to the azaleas, in the same area as where we buried Fishy Fish some four or five years ago, and laid her to rest.  Jacob Franklin, who was visiting, made an impromptu cross from a twig, and so tonight Isabella sleeps a much longer rest, while Sarah will hardly sleep at all.  Rest in peace, little gerbil, and thanks for the memories.