But otherwise been having great days, clearance-wise. The guys from Heartwood, an eco-joinery up the road, got very excited over all the wormy chestnut panels from my mother's old apartment in Gramercy Park which had graced the attic here since 1970. The cobwebs looked fake there were so many. Heartwood came, they saw, they came back within the hour with a truck. My kind of people.
Four sets of louvered doors ready for Habitat Restore or something, furniture or building supplies for ex-addicts or ex-prisoners, can't remember. A run has already been made to them once with ugly accordion doors. They will take all the wooden furniture I don't want too, presently being collected in a room off the LR.
Speaking of which, old yellow dog pee carpets in both rooms off the LR are now up and reveal beautiful polished wood floors which have not seen daylight since 1970. Carpet also removed from laundry room. Crappy black runners also removed from all kitchen/utility areas, including the cement like black lines the glue or tape has left on the parquet, which comes off beautifully--you may wish to make a note of this-- with a superb product from The Big Y called 'Goo Gone'. And with less elbow grease than one might imagine. Mostly.
Bonnie has cleared and scrubbed the laundry/cleaning room top to bottom and we have thrown away 3 irons that don't work, a dust buster and a washboard which I can't believe anyone here ever used, maybe you a scrub collies against it or something.
Okay now here's the best news: Ken.
Ken arrived on Thursday with Peg's friend Laurie from Cincinnati. Laurie is the younger sister of a girl I went to high school with and who reconnected with Peg at a Radio & TV convention years ago. Laurie is an artist, a miniaturist to be precise, and makes things. Ken is her cousin who lost his wife to cancer in April. he was a tennis pro and ran horse farm , which the bank repossessed. He's just tagging along, figuring out what too do with his life.
But, meanwhile, while he's thinking, he's cleared the dog porch; cleared the dog pen--pulled ferns, weeded and so on (he brought his own secateurs-clippers which he wears in a pouch on his belt); removed the milkweed forest in the lower garden; is presently clearing the stone steps to the lower garden and removing a foot of pachysandra which had overgrown everything; removed the yellow carpets; brought stuff down from the attic; taken two loads to Goodwill and one to Habitat Restore; removed unwanted hardware from doors, walls; 100 other things; plus made hummus from scratch and laughed at videos of Peg's old shows.
And Laurie's no slouch either, finding homes for stuff I am fresh out of ideas about--the mask of Agamemnon Peg bought in Mycenae, an etching of Hemingway a friend in Russia made, a piece of the Parthenon (and there's Greece getting all huffy with England about the Marbles, little dreaming all they had to do was call Peg)-- and she is putting a lot of it in Ken's car, I see, to take back to Ohio, to I presume make something miniature out of. Peg's costume jewelery for instance, her earrings will be going onto a picture frame for me, two frames, one for Laurie, one for me. Will let you know if successful. She's awfully good though, so have high hopes.
They are staying at least a week, maybe two.
How good is this.
Plus I had to go out last night, dinner up the road at two elderly ladies' place (not a couple, don't think, friends), and was only going to be polite, that's it, and expecting some nasty casserole but no, a fabulous Indian dinner--seems one of them had grown up in Goa, daughter of a missionary, and then went on to found the neo-natal preemie clinic at Bellevue. The other was married to someone who ran the Equity Library Theatre for years. Becket. Who knew. Surprises abound.
I've not had a good weep yet but can feel it coming.
Got to go look at Ken's handiwork now and bring him a cold drink, bow down and kiss his feet. Least I can do.
No comments:
Post a Comment