A work in progress

The floors are sanded and look really nice. Now, we just need to thoroughly wipe down every square inch of wall, floor, ceiling, radiator, molding etc... as there is a super fine layer of dust over everything in the place now. Also the ugly fake brick thing in the last video series is now removed and in the back bedroom in pieces. What we discovered behind it is quite interesting. We found a bricked up old fireplace and an Edinburgh press and lots of holes in the plastering. So we have lots to do in this room still! Yikes. But the good news is that the wall paper is coming off fairly easily. So lets hope that it stays that way. Anyhow, here's a peak at the new floors and our mess of a wall. Also there's a clip of our garden. I just ordered my compost bin and it should arrive in the next few weeks! I can't wait to take out the row of plants between our plot and our neighbors (don't worry we'll salvage the azalea and other nice plants) and put a row of super fertile compost in there to grow some veggies. I'm already envisioning a lovely wall of peas and squash on a trellis. But that will be next spring.

Flat update

Well, I have seen the sanded floors and they look really nice. The only problem is when the removed the ugly faux brick thingy, it revealed a old fireplace which was bricked up. So, now we have some exposed wall timbers and bricks.... But, it also revealed a hidden Edinburgh press. That's a built in shelf that most older flats in Edinburgh have. It's really nice, but it was plastered over, so now it's exposed from waist level down. We'll have to brake through or cut out the top portion of the wall there to make use of it. But that will mean totally redoing the plastering or drywall on that whole wall to make it even.... urg! I'm sure that will be a good £1k or so! We didn't anticipate that, but in the end it will be a lot nicer. I'll call some people on Monday and have another week of quotes and workmen over at the flat. Urg! Oh well, the upside is that I didn't get the job I interviewed for, so there's no worry about finding a day care or juggling my time.

OUR NEW FLAT!!!!!

We got the keys to our new flat on Friday! Yippie!!! Here are tons of videos showing you around it. The carpet is pretty god awful, so we're having it taken out and sanding the pine floors underneath. It'll be rustic by American standards, but that's just the way most flat here look - gaps between the floorboards. Anyhow, I'll post an after video when it's done.
This week has been a little stressful. Simon flew out to New Orleans for a week long conference (yeah, I know, it's a hard hard life!) on Monday. I had three contractors come over on Monday to give me quotes on the sanding, then I ran over to a job interview which I subsequently bombed... I was way too nervous and I've gotten so used to being around kids I had forgotten all of my three syllable plus words! I think I sounded like a moron, so I think Marius will likely be enjoying more mommy time in the immediate future. But I digress... Today I ripped up the ugly red flowered hallway carpet, had two plumbers come and give me estimates on replacing a lead lined cold water cistern, and dropped off our 30 days notice on our rented flat. Tomorrow I need to go let the sanders into the flat and jet over to New Town to drop off some more paperwork for the rented apartment and some paperwork for our home insurance.
The upside to all of this running around and driving back and forth across town is that I am now not nearly so afraid of driving through the heart of the city like I used to be. I finally feel like I know my way around a bit. I still get a little worried if there's no car in front of me to follow when I get to a 5 or 6 way intersection. But I'm a lot more confident in the car now!
Enjoy our flat! PS, all the plant stuff and furniture in the stairwell were left my the little old lady who we bought the flat from! Wasn't that nice of her?

Wonderfully Warm Weather

Oh my God!!!! It has been so nice this week. For the first time since I moved here in July, I experienced what it feels like to be warm! We've had spectacular weather and it should hold up until the weekend. It was 70 degrees yesterday, and today is around 65. I've been walking around in sandals and a skirt today and loving it. When Marius wakes up, we'll take a walk over to the playground so he can enjoy the warmth a bit outside. We went to the beach on Monday (a bank holiday here, meaning it's just a random holiday with no name or meaning) and Marius loved it. Here are some pictures of our afternoon there. It was still a bit cold though when the wind came up, but nice enough to dip your toes in the water at least. Marius ate a few handfuls of sand though! Gross! But it really didn't seem to bother him at all. It seemed to pass through his digestive tract just fine though, so perhaps he is needing some minerals like quartz and mica to keep him strong and healthy.

Garden of Cosmic Speculation

Yesterday we went to an AMAZING garden. It's name is the Garden of Cosmic Speculation, and that is so appropriate. Apparently it isn't open to the public at all, but they decided to have a one day open viewing. It was so cool. Simon fell in love with it, so we may have to move to the country one day and recreate some of what we saw... The shapes and forms used in this garden are so simple yet elegant and unique. It's just like nothing we have ever seen and on such a grand scale it just blows you away. So, here are some of the very cool things we say yesterday.
Oh, and Spring has finally arrived here in Scotland!!!! It's 63 degrees this morning, so we're going to go to the beach and put Marius's feet into the water! It's a bank holiday today, although we're not sure why... So Simon doesn't feel too bad about taking a half day to head coastward with us. It should be fun.
Happy Cinco de Mayo!

Chicken Pox Quarentine

We're in quarantine at the moment. Marius and I went over to a friend's house on Friday to see if we could get Marius to catch her daughter's chicken pox. My thinking was this... His reaction to the virus will only get worse with time, and his ability to scratch will only get better with time. Day care makes you take 10 days off before a poxed kid can come back, so better have it over with now, than when Simon's on a field trip to Spain (which we was just doing last week... the lucky dog!) and I have some big deadline at work. That is if I EVER manage to find a job. But that's another story. But back to the quarantine. Apparently it takes anywhere from 10 to 24 days to incubate before you see the symptoms. So, we need to wait 3 weeks to even see if he'll get chicken pox or not! I didn't really think through that part so much.... So now we can't go to any of our play groups, and I'm a bit nervous about taking him into stores or anything, as you never know who shouldn't be exposed to the virus. Needless to say, I'm going to be a little bummed if I wait 3 weeks and he doesn't catch it! Oh well.
So, I promised my mom I'd post a video of Marius walking, and I have been terrible about doing it. Here it finally is. Marius's left foot seems to be pointing out when we walks, but it is getting a little better. I think I might take him to the Dr. if it doesn't go away, but now that we're in quarantine... It'll have to wait, as they get really mad if you take a chicken poxed kid into a waiting room with a bunch of sick people!