Progress

We (actually the host of workers) are making progress on the house. The tile crew which started on Saturday has grown from 2 to 4 workers, and the painter who started Monday now has a helper. And progress is being made.

The entry and the office floors are essentially done - the tile equivalent of baseboard has to be installed and the grouting completed before we can call it ¨complete¨. And the living room just has a few not-yet-done places where the workers need walk-around space. The dining room has 2 rows of tile laid, and the master bedroom has one (yes, only one) tile laid. However, the workers have been really moving along.

All the blue has been primed over (thank heaven!!!), and already the house looks larger and brighter. The dining room and the lounge have been painted in the creamy color I chose (I think it looks about the same as the color of a perfectly browned pie crust: kinda tan, kinda creamy, kinda goldish) and they look fantastic. The office and the hallway have been started on and both look brighter and fresher.

I spent some time working on the light fixture over the guest bathroom sink. It was flat-dab NASTY with dirt. The shade is made up of around 75 smooth glass rods suspended through a brass form. I took each and every rod out and washed them by hand. While they were drying, I cleaned about 14 YEARS of crud off the top of the brass form. I had to replace all of the light bulbs, not because they were burned out, but because they were so stinkin´dirty. But with new bulbs and clean glass rods and brass - and a new pull-chain, it looks really good. (I am trying to be charitable here, but if I had a full time housekeeper I would expect her to clean out light fixtures annually at the very least. And some of the fixtures I have been dealing with have never been cleaned, I´d wager.)

Oh, well. I expect to be my own housekeeper here, so I will only have myself to blame if things get that bad again.

The latest word is that our household goods will be delivered on Saturday. And we are telling the workers that Thursday is our deadline for completion of the work. That will give us some time to clean things up before unpacking boxes and bundles.

Sra. Garcia, our across the street neighbor, whose husband is our contractor and who is herself our painting contractor, brought over a plate with a couple of Panamanian chicken dishes for us to enjoy for dinner! We are truly thankful for such wonderful people in our lives.

We still have no internet or cable access at the house, and the timer on my computer here at the internet cafe is telling me that I have to close this soon.

Yesterday was one of the ¨down¨days, but today has been a happy and productive one. This is good. This is very good.