French apartment renovations, Day 325: On the mend

10,391 steps

I finally feel better, rather than worse! It's a miracle! I can actually walk more than 10 steps without feeling like I'm going to fall over. Still a bit weak but improving throughout the day.

I helped my dad with several projects in the morning. We were going to tile the shower today, until we realized we were missing parts of the self-leveling kit. Time for another trip to the home improvement store.

Instead we organized our workspace and hung most of our miscellaneous hand tools on hooks or nails, rather than having them be all piled up in a constant jumble. We also planed down two doors, checked their fit, and sanded the planed edges down.

Eric had a tenure review for a colleague, so he was tied up until mid-afternoon. And then we had the *joy* of going to Leroy Merlin. My dad came along for the cultural experience. He certainly will appreciate how calm, empty, and relaxing home improvement stores are in the States, compared to here in France.

It turned into a fairly big trip: we bought wood for the bookshelves, lots of assorted hardware, wood and parts for my DIY birth simulator, doorknobs, epoxy grout. We tried to buy two big pieces of wood for the staircase, but the outdoor lumberyard was literally empty, except for a tiny handful of very damaged pieces.

It was like the zombie apocalypse had descended, but only on Aisle 11 in the wood section. So bizarre. If you were wanting to build anything out of wood or OSB, turn around and go back home. Don't even try.

I called up the sawmill that is making our web joists and asked if they had the dimensions we were looking for. Yes, they did! So they'll add it in to our order and we'll get it in a week or 2.

I was feeling well enought that, on top of braving Leroy Merlin, I prepared dinner AND walked Dio to his soccer carpool spot AND stopped by a store on the way home AND went on a walk to the beach after dinner with Ivy, Inga, and my dad. Most of the beach is rocky, but the girls found the volleyball area and played in the leftover sand. My dad loves watching the waves; he's lived in landlocked places most of his life. He often goes out on walks by himself to enjoy the ocean.

When we were walking down the stairs at the beach, three big fat rats jumped out of the trashcans and scuttled past us. It was a Ratatouille moment.