French apartment renovations, Day 289: Shells on the walls

This morning I picked up the two shell lights we had ordered. I had to modify that back parts to make holes that lined up with the outlet boxes. Then I installed them on the living room walls, with some help from Inga.

I had a minor moment of panic when I flipped the light switch and nothing happened. Turns out the light bulb was burned out. Phew.

Ivy and Inga went thrift shopping with me to look for things that could work for their Halloween/Carnaval costumes. We found Inga a nice pair of brown leather boots, which she can use for "real" life as well.

After our usual soccer afternoon, Comrade came over to give us the estimate for our windows and to take some final measurements. He can get us a wholesale discount because he's a contractor. Sweet! We have one other window company coming to do an estimate tomorrow, and then we'll make our final order.

Comrade seemed impressed with all the progress we've made. We chatted for a while about authors and intersesting books. He remarked that we're kind of the inverse of each other. "Here you two are, PhDs and intellecturals, doing renovations. And I renovate buildings for work but am very active in intellectual activities on the side."

The newer lime mortar is much lighter today. I'm guessing it will be indistinguisable after a few more days of drying.

We FINALLY heard back from the AC guys, after leaving 4 different messages (remember, because they installed the drain lines improperly in our staircase area, we haven't been able to run our washing machine for almost 2 weeks).

Today I checked the drains with a laser level, and part of it goes back UP by a few millimeters over a 1-meter span, rather than going down the required 1+ cm per meter. No wonder it's been backing up and then overflowing through a connection that *should* have been watertight. We're ready for them to finish the AC installation in the Communist apartments so they will call us on Monday to set up a time next week.

I think I have photos or videos from the last few days but I'm too tired to look for them. Later.

To do tomorrow:
- clean the floors & get everything prepped for installing the hardwood flooring
- slice the big leftover beams into 4 lengths and pray that it works!