Onward

Crazy weekend, we did so much and then looked back and said « what did we actually do ? » because it didnt look like much. Seb started on the living room and he did a lot of electricity and plumbing jobs so that’s probably why it isn’t looking like much because it’s all stuff you dont see. I did more painting, hallway detailing and started the little washroom and the stairwell.

On Sunday I escaped to do a little thrifting and make a donation of three bags of toys at the same time. I bought the mirror I’ve had my eye on for about three months, finally had the motivation to ask about the price and was surprised when the guy said ten euros ! It’s a really heavy mirror too, 1930’s revival (probably mid eighties production). I also got an old metal alarm clock but like the mirror it’s a reproduction. I’d been looking for one for a while though and they’re hard to find, (especially for one euro !). Later in the day we went out to get some plumbing parts for the house at the diy store and I found some some chairs for the terrace. We actually have two terraces, one big off the kitchen and a small one off the living room each getting diferent sun at different times of the day. We kept having to steal chairs from the one terrace to use on the other and it was getting annoying to keep hauling them around. I think Seb is tired of giving me his speech of « you shouldn’t buy that because we’re leaving you know …» It doesn’t work because I have this nesting vibe that I can’t turn off even if we’re moving halfway around the world.

The mason started building our bedroom extension on Saturday and we were really impressed to see how much he got done. The bedroom will be enormous ! It threw me ino a funk though and I had a hard time on Saturday night, pms meltdown or something, because seeing that bedroom being built made me really frustrated. I’ve been waiting so long to have it and now it will be for someone else, boo-hoo poor me huh . I got over it on Sunday and I guess the shopping helped. A little retail therapy can work wonders. Like I said before though, not having a home yet in China is giving me nothing to focus on but this house and that makes it hard because this house will be gone soon , cue viscious circle.

I think I was also frustrated because of the rental negotiations we've been going through lately. We offered our house to rent to a young English couple recently we found through a friend of a friend and we agreed to entertain the idea of letting them have the place for nine months to a year, in other words a meublée (although really let’s face it I’m only leaving three things in the house so it’s only a meublée on paper). But, they were stalling,-- mainly on the price, which was kind of annoying because the price we proposed was way below market, friendly negotiation and all that. The house is all new on the inside and includes a gardener two times a month so the price was more than fair. Anyway it all reached a stalemate because of the price and I began to rethink the word of mouth type thing like you know « hey I have a friend with a dumpy house you can probably rent in France for a few hundred euros… » When I flat out asked the friend’s budget I went white because it was obvious all the talks were a waste of time. They're more likely to find a 30 sq meter studio for their price if they’re lucky. People have all these romantic notions of bohemian Paris I guess. Five hundred euros doesn’t get much even in the ‘burbs.

So I just looked at the new bedroom the other day and got all deflated because it’s going to be such a great house and hopefully we’ll find good tenants but these just weren’t the ones. The agent is going to start showing the house in late September and I’m hoping it will rent fast and to someone serious and careful. I keep thinking of my neighbor, the Kool-Aid* mom to the ados, and the day I went to her house to pick up little S. When she answered the door there was a gooey nutella sandwich glued to the door. She chuckled, rolled her eyes and left it there, « oh those boys ! » and all I can think of is my door …my pretty new door. Nooo !