Projects aplenty.

Song of the day: “I come undone” by Robbie Williams. Great lyrics, impressive song, and luckily I know it completely. Also had “Unwritten” by Natasha Beddingfield, which I’ve had before.

So it was a busy couple of days, which appeared a little unreal due to Wednesday’s lack of sleep and then the consecutive nights catching up.
Well, where to start. Yesterday’s proofreading went slow, but another chapter got added at least. We went outside and in a somewhat chaotic atmosphere we managed to continue on with the closet for middle sister, and at the same time a large closet for the room (the one with the new floor) in the sibs’ communal room.

The first turned out beautifully. A light yellow, sturdy wardrobe with more than enough space for her clothes. It was a pleasure to see it standing there against the big wall in her bedroom.
With that one done, there was time to focus fully on the big closet for the communal area, and boy did it turn out to be big.
It was no easy feat either, for some reason I was still clumsy (a full night’s sleep does that to ya too, hah) on this part, and it got so bad that at one point we all just started swearing, for no other reason but to get rid of the frustration going all ‘round. We actually got to be quite inventive, and I fear that most of the valley got to enjoy it with us, but in the end we did manage to finish the first one…minus the doors, that is.

They look grand, by the way, and will look even better once the glass and wood doors are in front of it. The best thing is, we didn’t even make any errors during construction that needed fixing later on, so…yay. Total surprise, considering the…ehm…clumsiness, but I was seriously awed that we’d managed it after all.

A disappointing aspect of the day was that the publisher got back to me, informing me that they were not the right company for “Saving Nina”. Darn it. Again, no negative response. They liked it well enough, just because they were taking on “so few new authors” they decided to opt out. So that means that we’re going back to the sending out part of the entire getting traditionally published, again.

Despite the news, we have decided to look at this on the positive side. They didn’t dislike it, it is just a matter of finding the right place for the story. Time (no matter how annoying) is on our side. We still have it, and until we don’t…well, we’ll see.

So anyways, I was totally exhausted by the end of the evening, which meant that I basically konked out in my room. Heck, I could barely keep my eyes open while I fed the dogs, but it was a successful day, so I didn’t mind all that much.

Today very little got done. It was grocery shopping day nonetheless, and what with the pressure off from the proofreading, big brother and I decided to take things easy…we were going to need it too, especially with ten stores ahead of us.

We set out on schedule, went to the usual stores along with the familiar trip down to the hardware store where some paint, tools and screws had to be bought. In the end the entire endeavor takes five hours, with an extra one added to it, for unloading and setting everything away, but grocery shopping day is over and done with for at least another two weeks. Thankfully.

I’m actually looking forward to another early night, ‘cause let’s face it, I can use it. Hah.

Thud!...Zzzzzz

Song of the day: “Misfit” by Amy Studt. It’s been a while since I last heard it, but it was with the others little brother loaded a while back. Very angry girl music, of course, still cute, though.

So let’s get down to business, I only had a couple of hours of sleep last night, and a catnap this afternoon so every fiber inside me is literally screaming for shut-down…Oh no, wait. That’s the dogs. Give me a sec, I’ll kill them before I go on……………..so yeah. I’m tired; heck this afternoon I was so friggin’ tired that I couldn’t even get myself to read more than a page of “Saving Nina” so instead I headed out and started on carpentry. But I’ll get back to that late; let’s get up to date about yesterday.

The morning past as usual, really, big brother and I worked on the manuscript, did a big chapter and we were just about to start on the physical work of the day when little brother popped his head from between the balustrade of the stairs and asked if we could do their laminated floor. So, no, I hadn’t planned it in yet. I was thinking more along the lines of next week, or maybe at the beginning of the new month…but then, the younger sibs rarely come up with a project for themselves, so I figured what the heck. They’re grown up now, and if they want to have that floor put in, we’ll do it.

I am hoping that by showing them that such suggestions can lead to nice results, they’ll show more initiative in the future, and perhaps even start coming up with their own. It’s so much fun to do, and I really want them to experience that as well.

But anyways, we worked on the floor for the majority of the afternoon and except for the corners that still need to be put in, we had exactly enough to cover the entire floor. (Oh boy am I glad we guessed right…I know, we should have measured it, but seriously, where’s the adventure in that? Hah) Three colors in a pattern: Ebony double lines thrice; the same goes for the grayish oak, with three single lines of orange-ish just to make things fun. It looks grand and it will be a pleasure to clean.

Afterwards, I spent about an hour putting in a temporary desk that will be downright beautiful once I actually manage to finish it. The remainder of the day and evening…no I’m not going to share, ‘cause it’s just too much to mention and I still wanna tell you about this dream I had during my nap…was spent with busywork that kept me busy ‘till well past midnight. This meant that I didn’t manage to get to bed until after three, and as luck will have it I lay awake in bed until well past five in the morning.

This was a total pain in the butt since I had to get up at 8:15 to pick up our visiting friend in Marbella, which is a solid hour drive to and then another back. Suffice it to say that when I got home around noon today I HAD to get to bed and snooze for an hour.

Which was when the dream happened. It was so totally outta there that I just have to tell about it.
So yeah, in the dream I was working out in the yard, at the top of the property with the sibs, when suddenly there was a commotion with some of the dogs and when we checked it out it looked as if they had caught one of the Chinchillas.
I went over, to check if the little one was savable, but when I looked, it wasn’t our Chinchilla, but a baby bear…I know, that should have tipped me off, but everything else was so real that for a while I didn’t have a clue I was dreaming. Hah.
As it turned out, the poor little thing had a hurt leg (could have fooled me when, in the dream, I saw it lying there in little more than a heap, but what the hey), so I didn’t even need to take it to the vet, or anything.
So there I was, hauling this cuddly baby bear around, when suddenly, over the mountain the big momma bear came sniffing around in search of her young. Now, in reality this would be a tricky thing, but while I was climbing towards her to hand her the cub, she was just patiently sitting there, waiting for me.
I had almost reached the momma bear when, for some reason, I glanced back and (somehow) was able to look down on the drive sweep (that should have tipped me off that it was a dream, since that is completely impossible) and saw an entire zoo of animals come meandering down the road. Now, in the dream, I explained this incredible image of tigers, giraffe’s and Gawd knows what, with the brilliant thought of them having escaped from a circus that had been passing through town (it hasn’t, mind you) but whatever the reason it made complete sense to me. Hah.
Around this time I woke up, so I had to get out of bed and head down to the house again.

So that brings us to my earlier complaint of being too darn tired to do any serious work on the manuscript. Instead, big brother and I decided to start on the physical part of the day a couple of hours earlier.

While he and grandpa started on the fencing, again, the younger sibs and I started hauling down wood and whatnot to commence with the large closet that we need to build for their stuff in the room with the new floor. We have everything we need, so for the remainder of the afternoon we’re measuring, sawing, and at the end, when big brother and mom depart to bring our visitor home putting the first one together.

One done, three more to go.
In the last bit of daylight, middle sister and I put the doors in her closets. Only the doorknobs and drawers left to put on and in and then we can move them to her room. This one worked out splendidly, so the new ones should too.

And that concludes today. I’m sure that there is a lot of stuff that I missed, but it will have to do ‘cause I need to hit the sheets.

Some detours along the way.

I’ve been very naughty again. I decided (aka, was too busy) to postpone the blog ‘till today…I mean, seriously, I girl has gotta sleep sometime, hah.

Well, I gotta think for a minute what all happened in the past three days, ‘cause right now it is early in the morning and my coffee hasn’t kicked in yet. Grrr.

Ehm, yeah, there was another rock run…a good one too, this time with the crate we made, which worked splendidly, by the way. We had it filled to the top with absolutely gorgeous flat rocks that we now have proper supply of. Yep, we might actually have enough to get that stairwell in the patio done. Yay.

Middle sister’s closet is almost completely done, with a little luck I’ll be able to put in the hinges today, and then we can put it in her room for real, and see how it worked out. It does look beautiful, even in pieces right there on top the terrace, but we’ll see.

The puppies are having a grand time coming down and mingling with the pack every day. Little chubby mutts, they’re literally all over the place if we let them.

Okay, let’s see what else there was.
Ah yes, the day before yesterday we decided on a slight detour in the projects to head on up to our tenant’s cabin, and put in the coconut weave, carpet. Winter is closing in nonetheless, and she gets cold fast. Luckily, the carpet was a perfect fit, and after we had finished up painting most of the walls, we put it in without much trouble.

A batch of cork oaks came in too, yesterday. About a dozen of them and we intend to plant on the bottom terrace of the property in the next few days. They’re small yet, but with a little luck, they’ll grow into sturdy trees in the near future.
Also a few more flowery things, like mums and geraniums, which went in the ground during the last few minutes of daylight just last night.

Another change in the normal routine was going down to the old bus, parked on the side terrace of the property (the one we moved to Spain with and which was remodeled into a comfortable apartment) so we could affect some changes for our tenant’s caretaker.
Since she has the two extra dogs and so very little time it was decided that we would put in a new queen-size bed and shift her furniture around a bit.

It took a couple of hours, but by the time we were done, she had a nice double bed and more space than she had before. While we were there, I decided to fix the left of her armchair too, before she sagged through it, and since we were at work anyway, we made a proper enclosure for solar panel controls too.
Hopefully she’ll manage to rearrange her schedule a bit and clean up in there, ‘cause it was a mess…but then, I’m having the same problem. Hah. My cabin’s a mess too, and I should take a few hours at some point to do a proper cleaning.

Little brother is, at the moment busy in his very first Mr. Fix-It mood. Ah, we’ll make a proper carpenter out of him yet. It’s the first time in years that he is showing an interest in it, and I find it rather pleasant to leave the “detail” tasks to him. Good practice for him, and less time-consuming for me.

The sisters and mom are busy painting all over the place, which is another time consuming task that is being dealt with.

Now, last night, the Quick Step laminated floor for the sibs’ rec room came in, by the way. A caoba and ebony mix that should make for an interesting floor once we get to it, and which had the sibs literally light up with pleasure when we brought in the sample. It is definitely going to take some time, but once it’s in, it is going to look pretty darn awesome, I’m sure. I do love seeing them excited about such things, so it’ll be worth the effort in the end.

The dogs are still having a blast following us all over the place, of course, which is very good for their health. Even the fat Labradors are getting their shape back, and we haven’t had a Vet emergency in a couple of months now…knock on wood, cross my fingers, and my toes and everything else. Hmmm.

Ah yes, we managed to go for a run the day before yesterday, which was downright grand. I didn’t end up with sore muscles, and could keep up the pace without an indication that my fitness had suffered from the past few months without this particular exercise.

We also found more wood supplies for future projects. The old stable is starting to look like a proper wood-store now, so that fencing around the top side of the property is slowly becoming a top priority. Ah yes, lots to do and so little time. Hah. I wouldn’t have it any other way. I like nothing more than drop on my bed at night and pass out for a few hours. There is very little in this world that annoys me more than lying awake in bed, thinking, and thinking, and thinking. Aaargh.

Oh, almost forgot: We came upon a slight technical error in the manuscript yesterday…the stupid thing snuck past through three intense edits, dammit. It took us an entire session to figure out a way to correct it, but we ended up successful, I think (hope) we’ll see today when we go through it. We’ll need to add a few more details later on in the read-through, so the change will make sense, but once that is done, it should be right as rain.

Well, that certainly concludes the past three days. Good thing, ‘cause big brother is impatiently waiting for me to start work on the manuscript. Slave driver! Hah.