French apartment renovations, Day 483: 44!

16,401 steps

I had grand plans to take some fun "44" pictures with the kids, but the day ended up being busier than I had anticipated. I went with Inga in the morning to find a frame for her wolf crosstitch. She's giving it to her friend for her birthday today.

Inga has a huge list of fun things happening over the next 24 hours: her friend's birthday party at the Bois des Lutins (outdoor adventure/theme park), then a sleepover, then an Escape Game tomorrow morning. Her other birthday gifts were 3 fun plants: a sensitive plant, a goldfish plant, and some beautiful blue flowers just for fun.

Eric took Zari to buy some large art paper; a family has asked her to draw a portrait of them, so she has a huge project ahead of her.

So that took us to mid-day. After lunch, Eric took Ivy and Dio to the skatepark and Zari stayed behind to help me. Honestly, I had so much fun working with her! I taught her how to use the jackhammer and she took off a big section of the front wall plaster. I worked on smaller projects: labeling all of the circuits, applying epoxy to a rotted part of the beam, installing the last tiny bits of subfloor in the kitchen.

 We ended the afternoon looking at light fixtures online. Then, on a whim, I asked Zari if she'd like to come to one of my favorite furniture consignment stores. We found a treasure trove of items!

Zari spotted a beautiful wool rug in the same blue tones as the big rug in Le Catamaran. It fits upstairs on the mezzanine. I spied a big wooden porthole mirror/window that pivots open. I can use it as the WC mirror or even to create a small operable window into the WC (replacing the mirror with frosted glass down the road). I also found a big porthole window salvaged off of a boat. It's enormously heavy so we left it at the store and will come back tomorrow to pick it up. This will go somewhere in Le Catamaran...we'll find a place for it!

Anyway, that little flea market trip was super fun--probably more fun than any presents would have been. I got the rug deep cleaned and installed in Le Catamaran this evening.

Eric cooked a veal mushroom dish and bought a delicious strawberry cake for my birthday cake. 

Then we watched the movie Work It. It was surprisingly good. We all got a kick out of the actor who plays Kid Flash doing a totally different role.