We spent the night at Maurice’s daughter’s apartment as they were going to sand our floors. We were gone all of the next day too so they could stain the floors expecting to be able to stay in our apartment that night.

 In the meantime, I was with a friend working on a project (more on that later) and we went out into the really suddenly cold afternoon to check out a few used furniture shops. We found, to our dismay, that one we both used to like to go to, was closed. Without much hope, we found another little shop and went in. I was looking for a small dining room table, one of those where you can fold down the ends so not as much room is taken, and didn’t find any. I was quite taken with a really lovely bookcase but what caught my eye was two chairs, with soft tapestry material in tones of gold and tawny green. They were probably from the 60’s and probably hadn’t been redone since then because you could see where part of the backs had faded from the sun and they were in a type of Louis XIII style, the store owner said, and I just liked them. We have been looking at new chairs but not only were they all really expensive, but brown leather seems to be the style right now and I wanted soft and comfy. The price was right-and it included delivery which warms my heart as we have no elevator in our building and I didn’t want to have to carry them up myself-and I got Maurice to the shop to check them out and now they are ours, to be delivered on Wednesday.

 So, I stopped to pick up some delicious Italian food to go from a shop near my friend and arrived home to find that, yes, the floor was done but that two bookcases, the kitchen table and two chairs, our couch and various other things were piled in our kitchen so they could work on the floor. I couldn’t even get to the microwave or refrigerator. I stuck the food out on the window sill as it is in the 30’s. Tomorrow they are supposed to cover the floors with plastic so they can paint and when that is done, they will then varnish the floors which I guess means another night elsewhere. I opened our closet and can’t enter it as it is full of buckets and all sorts of things they use to work and I know that all of our clothing is probably covered with dust. The bathroom has several filthy pieces of wood in it leaning against the wall. Maurice wanted to go back to his daughter’s for the night but I just couldn’t face the metro trip back carrying my back pack again.

The Empty living room-the floors aren’t this dark

 We were sitting there in our dusty bedroom-they didn’t seal the door-when Maurice’s son called. He was going to IKEA. He has a car and it is difficult to get there without one as it is in the suburbs. It was 8 PM and I was beat but we went anyway. I saw several chairs much cheaper than what we paid for our two but without that patina and graciousness of something really well designed. We ordered a wall unit for our TV and also to hold books, etc. and it will be delivered. I really wanted a rug to put in our new living room. At this point it was getting close to closing time-IKEA actually stays open until 10PM two nights a week here, a miracle, and Maurice was antsy to go check out and wouldn’t stay to help me pick out a rug. He didn’t want to get one then but I knew if we didn’t get something then that it would be ages, if ever, before I got the chance to buy one. Anyway, I found a nice blue one, not what I really wanted but I was out of energy. I thought there was a sign saying it was 99 Euros, about the average price of the rugs there, and Maurice’s son helped me drag it to the counter. After we checked out Maurice said, “Do you how much that rug cost?” Well, it was 299 Euros! We had one of those fun little arguments, of course, by the checkout counter. I told him to go back and get a refund but we didn’t, so now I do have my rug and I hope I really like it once it is spread out.

This is my kitchen

 So now I am hoping the guys will spread the plastic and empty our kitchen so we can at least make coffee or open the refrigerator. The end is in sight and they seem to really be moving right along. They aren’t disappearing for days at a time as they did on our last renovation and I’m thinking that maybe this group won’t be declaring bankruptcy either.