Just when you think it can’t get any worse, it does.
Early one morning we moved all of the pictures, knicknacks, and other movable objects our of the living room, dining room, kitchen, and all of the bathrooms (there are 4) so that the painter could wield his magic brush. Well, to be brief, everything that we removed to all places that we could get them to were already bathed in a layer of dust that rendered all of them white. But, last night and this morning, one by one, we brought items back into the living room and dining room and dusted and washed and shone and repositioned them where they had come from. And then I made a very very bad mistake. I went upstairs.
We had moved books from the bookshelves in the hall into the back bedroom as well as some pictures we had hung on the walls. Also, the lamp from my office was there as well as other objects. We left the floor mostly free. Today, that room looked as if some evil gang had come into it and spread everything around to destroy it. The electrical equipment was scattered, a wire that had been attached to the phonograph was cut, the phone plug pulled out of the wall and missing, and numerous books, papers, framed pictures, and other easily damaged items were out on our screened porch. The room next to it was no better. It was as if someone very angry had decided to do as much damage as possible to someone’s home without setting fire to it.
Now this all worries me because the gentle, calm, painter is not an Israeli and although he might rationalize his actions by saying we didn’t move all of that stuff and he was in a hurry, to my eyes, it looked like “in a hurry” is not the full story.
In any case, I do not have the stomach to go upstairs for another couple of days. I am not overestimating when I say that I have more than a week’s worth of work to do in order to get the upstairs looking anything like home. The downstairs is still a work in progress, but I am hoping that in a couple of hours, it will look ready for shabbat.
So here is the moral of the story: do everything you need to do to a house before you move in and when it starts looking like it really needs improvements, call a real estate agent and find a new home. Take it from me. Moving was never this hard.

Oh no! What a nightmare. I hope nothing is damaged and that the massive job of cleaning up is the worst of it. Any idea when they will be done with everything?
I told you not to do it. Did you listen to me? I don’t think so. Anyway, your new mantra has to be “this too shall pass”. It will be beautiful when it is finished. You just didn’t realize that it would be a full time job.
Shabbat Shalom and love to all, Gail
OK, OK, Gail. You did warn me. And maybe in another month if I ever get the upstairs cleaned up, I might feel happy. At least in the upstairs apartment, I can see progress and there’s nothing to move around. And in answer to Kirby, I have no idea when this will be finished. I am hoping- before Ephraim’s Bar Mitzvah.