Clock ticking, a distant truck in the early darkness. The sound of chewing, the click of spoon and bowl. And, recently, the hissy whoosh of steam billowing out of an open radiator pipe. Oops.
Other than that, the sanding went quite well. Karl helped for hours; Rose came over and put in some time, in spite of having pressing things to do at home. The dining room is done, the front hallway done except for some edge sanding. The big sander must be returned this morning, so we were pressed to finish as much as possible for this rental’s worth. I’m pleased.
Three radiators were removed, and will stay off until the floors are urethaned. This means I have no heat in a lot of the downstairs. I made sure to ask K. if the knobs were off so that I could run the heat if need be, and he double checked. But when it finally came up this morning there was a great sound, and a factory’s worth of steam billowed up from this one pipe. It was rather pretty, but this house had so many moisture problems over the summer, I didn’t want to be cleaning up a drippy wall, besides which the floor can’t get wet. So I reluctantly turned the heat off. I don’t know what the forecast is, but it was nice yesterday. Maybe I can get away without heat until the stove is in.
Such adventures.
I’ll try to get organized around final-cleaning and putting down the first coat tonight, after grocery shopping. At least the dining room. I’ll have to stay next door for a couple of nights. When it comes to doing the front hall, I could set up my airbed in the little sitting room and just live in the ell until that’s dry. I can still get to the living room through the sitting room; I just won’t go upstairs. It’ll be like camping. Except stinkier.
Man, my feet are cold right now.
The other brilliant thought I had was to prime and paint the areas behind the radiators before putting them back. That means I have to pick up some paint. But that’ll encourage me to finish painting the dining room, too. Then replace the quarter-round molding along the floor, and guess what?? I’ll have one finished room. Unbelievable.
Lunchtime
One sander returned, paint acquired, some work done at the job. I may have fried a circuit board by putting too much power through it. In spite of that oops, I am happy today. K. closed off the radiator pipe – it was wide open, he said. No more steam locomotive. Belinda is back to help with the busy production schedule. All is well; I am content, and I will try to get the first coat of urethane on the dining room floor tonight.
Healer, Musician, Bookmaker, Poet 
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