Inch Eleven: Sixes and Sevens

Our house is all at sixes and sevens.

Ben, Alise, and Ramona arrive on Saturday.

Until late Tuesday night, the living room and study were bare to the sub-flooring. The furniture is out in the hallway and jimmied into other rooms. We are replacing the original carpet (which just turned 50 this spring) and the new carpet got laid on Tuesday. Jeff, the installer, was there when I left for work that morning and there when I came home late from legal clinic at 9:00 p.m. The carpet is in, but most of the furniture is still out in the hall.

Ben, Alise, and Ramona arrive on Saturday.

In addition to taking out the carpet, Warren also painted both rooms this past week with the paint we bought two years ago for that very purpose. We bought it so long ago that we'd forgotten the colors. Fortunately, we still liked them. And fortunately, they go well with the new carpet.

Ben, Alise, and Ramona arrive on Saturday.

All of the first floor windows are bare. The ancient drapes hit the trash. Armed with a screwdriver and a pair of pliers, I took down the vertical blinds in the kitchen as well.

Ben, Alise, and Ramona arrive on Saturday.

All of the walls are bare and the paintings and pictures are stacked in the bedroom that Ben, Alise, and Ramona will be using. In fact, lots of things are stacked in the bedroom that Ben, Alise, and Ramona are using. The artwork is dusty and needs to be wiped down well before going back on the walls. Well, to be honest, everything in the house needs to be wiped down well. We have decided not to put the artwork back up until the week after next.

Ben, Alise, and Ramona arrive on Saturday.

There were boxes stacked in the other spare bedroom to be taken up to the attic. Those boxes went up on Sunday and the box of blocks and the box of marble blocks came down. I still need to wipe the dust off of those boxes. Now there are other boxes jamming the second bedroom and we will deal with those later. Like in June. The large case of resonators is now under our bed.

Ben, Alise, and Ramona arrive on Saturday.

In emptying the study and living room, I was forcefully reminded of just how much stuff we live with every day. Most of it is Warren's stuff, including some furniture going back three and four generations. But some of it is my stuff too. Seeing and moving so much of our stuff makes me want to get rid of more stuff. Even the china—the set my uncle sent back from post-war Japan to his younger sisters, my mom and my aunt Ginger—is stuff. Right now the china is taking up a third of the kitchen table.

Ben, Alise, and Ramona arrive on Saturday.

It is early in the week still and my punch list to get me to Saturday is deceptively short. I know, though, that each item represents an expenditure of time and effort. After all, there's all that stuff.

Ben, Alise, and Ramona arrive on Saturday.

It will get done. And there will be new stuff come Saturday: toys and books and a stroller and the stuff of a young family.

Because Ben, Alise, and Ramona arrive on Saturday.