Going gray

Big day today--our cabinet doors and drawer fronts arrived! To be precise, the 2nd order arrived. The first order had the green ones that we loved so much in the online pictures. But in person, the green was a really ugly, depressing shade of green--think of a dark muddy brown-green.

I was so disappointed because the pictures of the green cabinets were much brighter and lighter. So we made the decision to go gray and I love it. The kitchen definitely feels lighter and the cupboards won't overwhelm the room.

We have the plywood sub-countertops installed and 3 coats of water-based poly brushed on. This will get us through the 5-6 weeks it takes for the quartz countertops to arrive, once they are ordered.

Ivy is still super sick with The Plague, 5 days in! Still has a fever and now has started to have a deep cough. I'm trying to decide if I should take her to our family doctor to listen for pneumonia. I'm usually a "wait until it gets better" kind of parent and, short of it being pneumonia, there isn't much to do about it anyway.

I started feeling sick last night. No fever yet, but definitely feeling icky. Will I have The Plague tomorrow? I hope not!

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Ivy has been super sick the past 3 days: high fever, super achey body, a bit of a cough. She had to miss school today and I'm not optimistic that she'll be well tomorrow.

Our plumber came this morning and crimped all of the connections. In and done in less than 10 minutes! He'll be back next week to hook up the drain lines. Once the plumbing was done, that allowed us to install the rest of the base cabinets as well as the washing machine.

I also installed a shallow bookshelf that goes next to the fridge. It took a bit of head-scratching and oh, did I mention that we accidentally discovered electric lines buried shallowly in our floor when we installed an L-bracket to hold the bookshelf in place? Yeah, who would have thought there would be live wires (135 volts as measured on our voltmeter) somewhere in the floor's concrete? Obviously we had to take the L-bracket out and go with plan B that didn't involved putting a screw into the floor.

The adventures never cease.

Lots of rain today so we had to cancel Freeze Family Soccer evening yet again.

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Let there be light(s)!

Picture from 2 days ago...we're missing two under-cabinet LEDs but otherwise the cabinet lighting is all done. We poured some self-leveling cement in an area where the previous people had just stopped and left some big unfloored areas.

Otherwise we're at a standstill because we have to wait for our plumber to change the location of the water lines. We were going to do it ourselves--we even bought all the supplies, fitted everything together--but the big crimping tool that the plumbing supply store lent us wasn't working. So now we have to wait.

2 soccer games tomorrow for Ivy and Inga. I told Zari and Dio that they are in charge of helping plan and make dinner, since my mom has been cooking a lot due to me and my dad renovating so much.

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Upper cabinets!

Between breech meetings and video analysis/editing and publication editing, we managed to put up the upper cabinets! I also have several sets of doors on, after I took the photo.

We're starting to get our living room back now that the pile of boxes has been significantly reduced.

It's late so not much else to write.

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42-hr fast

I wasn't super hungry in the morning so I decided to keep fasting a bit longer until lunch. And then I enjoyed leftover chicken & bell pepper fajitas (minus the tortillas because I'd rather eat the good stuff) and dark chocolate with peanut butter for my lunch.

We have the rails almost installed--all holes drilled, a few crowns chiseled down. But they are not yet screwed in all the way as we're waiting for some of the MAP to set overnight. Tomorrow we'll shim everything in as we go and then start hanging cabinets!

Speaking of shims...I can't for the life of me find them here! I called every hardware store in central Nice, and either they didn't have them, or they had these huge plastic wedges that looked more like doorstops than shims. Even the big Leroy Merlin doesn't have wood shims that resemble anything like a shim I am used to working with (you know, a thin piece of wood that tapers down to nothing on one end and is maybe 5mm thick on the thickest end).

So we're just going to have to make our own shims!

Zari had her second first day of class--this week most of her classes start (but not all of them!). It's really confusing because classes start over a span of several weeks, not all at once. She was on Valrose campus today, which is a gorgeous space with beautiful buildings that look more like castles than university classrooms. A nice change from some of her other campuses that were built in the 1960s.

Dio has a terrible crick in his neck and can't turn or tilt it to one side. We were able to get him in to see our kiné friend this afternoon. He's still in a lot of pain and his head is tilted to one side! Poor kid.

Ivy and Inga had orthodontist appointments today. Inga switched over to clear elastics, while Ivy went with dark blue.

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I was feeling a bit off this morning, so I thought I'd stay home and take it easy. But then I saw the kitchen walls just crying out to be sanded...and then when the sanding was done, I figured, "I might as well paint them." So by the end of the day I had 1 coat of primer and 2 coats of paint up on the nice smooth walls! Oops, how did that happen?

Dio and Zari both had soccer games today. Zari's was 2 hours away so she was gone all day.

I switched my fasting day to today instead of tomorrow just because I wasn't super hungry. I am hungry now, of course! But it's almost bedtime and I am so excited to sleep. I get extra cold and tired on fasting days.

Tomorrow's plan: install the top and bottom mounting rails and then start hanging cabinets!

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Immigrants, they get the job done!

We went to The Place Where Hopes & Dreams Go To Die (aka the Préfecture) and...amazingly...they didn't die this time! We received our long-term visas, which has been a process spanning over 10 years and several rejections. We are now officially immigrants and not just on a visitor visa. We can now work in France and don't have to go back to the Bad Place for 10 more years!!!!

Let's go back a few hours earlier, though. We were woken up at 6:40 am by the Ikea delivery people, ahead of schedule. About 3/4 of the order was delivered and our living room is taken over by bags and boxes.

Our next stop after the Préfecture was Ikea, and we were so happy (and hungry) that we celebrated by eating a hot meal at the cafeteria. I would have been fine with a 1 Euro vegetarian hot dog, but instead we splurged and got a proper meal.

Next stop: Leroy Merlin, the huge home improvement store. We popped in just to look at cabinet pulls and handles, but then we realized we needed a few more supplies for the kitchen renovation (wall smoothing compound, screws, anchors, blue tape).

We got home around 2 pm. Eric went into his office to work on his next book. My dad and I got to work applying wall smoothing compound (enduit garnissant) and we got it all done in just 2.5 hours. We were on fire!

Tomorrow we will sand the walls and prime. Well, maybe Monday, but knowing me, I'll probably work on it some over the weekend 🙂

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Let there be light! (and power)

I tested about 2/3 of the outlets and switches I had wired, and everything worked! I love that feeling. I joked, "I am so skilled. I can tell my colors apart and I can push wires into holes."

Tomorrow our kitchen arrives from Ikea (most of it--we're still waiting for most of the doors and drawer fronts). We'll be applying the skimcoating (enduit de lissage) and if we get that done by the end of the day, I will be very happy. Maybe we'll also get a few cabinet boxes assembled.

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Inga is Baron Harkonnen

We discovered that baby Inga, in her "Dude, where's my neck?" stage, is Baron Harkonnen's doppelganger.

Renovation news: although it looks largely the same as the end of yesterday, we did a ton of work--mostly wiring and plastering in several outlet boxes. Almost everything is in that can be installed prior to the cupboards.

I had some breech meetings today and worked more on some upcoming publications.

Ivy feels sick. There's been a nasty flu going around and she may be the first victim in our family.

Zari has yet another college application to finish tonight (McMaster). We are getting so good at shortening essays down to the exact word limit!

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This US-based couple bought a cheap apartment in France to give their kids a different upbringing

By Tamara Hardingham-Gill, CNN
Published 5:32 AM EDT, Thu September 7, 2023

Eric and Rixa Freeze bought and renovated two apartments in Nice, France and now split their time between the south of France and the US.

(CNN) — Splashing out an apartment in the south of France and renovating it yourself may sound like a difficult – and hugely expensive – task.

But this couple have managed to do it twice, all while on a relatively tight budget.

Eric Freeze, originally from Canada, and his wife Rixa, from the US, spent several summers in the region as part of a study abroad program when they were in their 20s, and always felt a strong attachment to Nice.

But the pair, who married in 1998, began seriously looking into purchasing a property in the city after having their four children, Zari, 16, Dio, 14, Inga, 12, and Ivy, 10.

In 2014, they asked a realtor to look for a suitable property for the whole family in Old Nice, a historic neighborhood filled with tenements, churches, and squares.

Read the rest of the article here: https://www.cnn.com/travel/us-based-family-apartment-nice-france-kids/index.html

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French apartment renovations, Day 697: T minus 29

Just 29 hours left until we will be locking up our apartment door and heading on a long voyage home. First top: family reunion in Canada. Next stop: family reunion in Nevada. Finally: back home, 2 days before school starts!

We did some deep-cleaning in the afternoon (fridge, pantry, kitchen drawers), watched two episodes of The Good Place, and met with some friends for a short swim. Dio, Inga, and I went a ways out. The water was extremely clear today.

As we came back to shore, we saw everyone standing on the beach, looking at the water but not going in. "We saw a jellyfish!" Ivy said. "It's light pink and hard to see." I was a bit skeptical at first, but soon after we saw two of them! An intrepid couple next to us took a plastic bag and caught both of them.

Inga didn't see anything while we were swimming so maybe we just had back luck to have two right in a row exactly where we were stationed.

Ivy has a friend sleeping over tonight. We're going to be suuuper tired on our departure day so what's a bit more sleep lost, right? We all watched a movie about some red water monster. What's it called?...oh yeah, The Sea Beast.

I was getting to know the controls on my camera today and snapped a quick picture of Dio as I was working on the settings. Il est beau, mon fils!

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French apartment renovations, Day 695: Revisiting The Bad Place for nothing

The house still looks like a tornado went through it because the more we pack and clean, the messier it gets...until suddenly it looks great. We're definitely not at the "looking great" part yet.

All of us went running today--me before everyone else woke up, and the rest of the pack a bit later in the morning. Dio is now faster than Eric--and that's no small feat! Dio has an effortless stride that is insanely fast. I think he'd be amazing at cross country if he ever wanted to switch sports.

I am ashamed to admit it, but I had a convocation at the Prefecture so I went there today to pick up my own visa. When I go there on a surprisingly uncrowded tram, a man came up to me and asked when the Prefrecture would be open. I told him it's normally at 1 pm. And then...I had this sinking feeling...it's Bastille Day. Of course! They are closed closed, not "lunchtime" closed.

(To my credit, I wasn't the only one who'd made the same mistake. The man I talked to had even looked up the hours on the website and it didn't say anything about being closed today.)

So back home I went. Gah.

We packed and cleaned and then watched A Quite Place. Eric had already seen it, so he went swimming.

I gave a Grand Rounds presentation to Aurora Sinai Medical Center in Milwaukee. Eric took the kids out, plus another kid we were babysitting, so I could have a quiet house for 2 hours.

Dinner was escargot (snails), broccoli, and what we call "breakfast burritos" (scramble an egg, throw a tortilla, wrap, or flat bread on top before it's cooked, flip over and put whatever other yummy things you like inside or on top).

We made the 3 youngest kids go back upstairs tonight to sleep. They've been down here for 2 nights, but that means very late bedtimes.

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French apartment renovations, Day 694: The Bad Place

Imagine this...

You and your four children are "convoqués" (summoned) to go to La Préfecture, aka The Place Hopes and Dreams Go To Die, aka the regional administrative center that takes care of everything from visas to driver's licenses to immigration. This summons to pick up DCEM cards that allow the children to re-enter France if they leave the country.

On the way there, the tram stops en route. You hear an announcement that there has been an accident and that the tram will be delayed. This is repeated several times. Each time the announcement comes back on, more people get off. One of the announcements says that there was an accident with a scooter (probably an electric scooter) and that EMS is on the way.

You consider walking the rest of the way, but it's still 40 minutes on foot on a non-pedestrian-friendly route.

Finally the tram starts again.

You arrive at the Préfecture and there is a massive line--nothing new, but still depressing every time. Your children are tired and bored and bonus, they also feel sick and a bit nauseated! Yay!

After an hour and a half of shuffling up to the front of the line, you finally reach the guichet. You hand all of the required papers over to the woman on the other side of the bulletproof glass. You've carefully triple-checked that you have everything on the convocation (appointment papers). You do.

The woman asks, "Where are the old DCEM cards?"

"I didn't bring them because they expired several years ago and it didn't say to bring them. It says right here on the list what to bring and that wasn't on the list."

"But you should have known that you have to bring the old ones."

(Note: unlike your convocation for renewing your own visa, which DOES clearly state to bring the old ones, the kids' convocation never states that anywhere.)

You realize it's fruitless to keep pointing this out because after all, Guichet Lady has all the power. But the problem is that you must pick up these papers today because it's the last day they can be picked up before you leave.

She tells you that you can come back this afternoon with the required documents. of course, this means that you have to cancel at least one, maybe two, medical apppointments that your children have.

You leave the clerk's window and agree to let your children pick a few treats from the vending machines. You put in the coins, choose the number, and the spiral things untwist...and then get stuck. Your snack is stuck hanging over the edge but not quite falling down. You try rattling the machine. You try insering more money and choosing the same snack to nudge it down...but the machine now says "out of order." You try another snack: "out of order." You manage to get some other snacks and drinks but punch in the wrong number for one of the drinks and your oldest child is disappointed.

You ride the tram all the way back home--of course there are no seats available when you get on, even though it's the first stop on the line.

You eat a quick lunch, manage to sneak in one of the kid's medical appointments where you hear about all of the side effects of a proposed medication: dry skin, dry eyes, fragile skin, joint pain, cholesterol problems, depression, suicidal ideation. You and your child nope out on that medication.

You drive all the way back to the Préfecture (yes, you take the car this time becuase you'd rather spend 1 Euro on parking than 12 Euros on tram tickets). You get the darn cards--which ironically are just printed pieces of paper now that you can download and print from your government account...so WHY are we going all the way there to pick them up in person?

You and your children agree: This is definitely The Bad Place.

(A photo from when we thought we were still in The Medium Place)

~~~

Fortunately, we escaped The Bad Place ended once we got back home a second time. Everyone but Zari went swimming. The wind and waves picked up just as we arrived, so the kids were loving it. Also no jellyfish.

Eric and I had another consultation with a different immigration lawyer who told us 100% opposite of what the first one said. Now we are doubly confused because aren't these supposed to be the experts? But they are saying contradicting things.

Zari had another MRI of her knee, just local this time instead of in Monaco.

Bastille Day fireworks went off tonight--since the terrorist attack, they have been held on the 13th instead of the 14th. Eric and Zari hopped out to see them once they had started. The rest of us saw a teeny bit by leaning our heads outside the window and looking over the rooftops.

(Also a photo of the 3 kids who are now sleeping in the living room)

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French apartment renovations, Day 693: Plum tart

A grand pleasure of the summer is when plums come ripe and we can make plum tarts.

It's very simple--take your crust of choice, put about 2 Tbsp of corn starch on the bottom, then lay out plums (halved and pitted, flesh side up) on the tart. Sprinkle with a few Tbsp of raw sugar and bake at 200 C / 400 F for about 40 minutes. You can sprinkle a bit more raw sugar on afterwards to taste. We all like it very tart with just a hint of crunchy raw sugar.

Eric and I had a few errands to run in the morning: first, pay the piano refinisher a deposit; next, find a new latch mechanism for Le Chateau because the one we had was sticking; third, buy groceries. We told the kids to exercise while we were gone.

After lunch I worked on putting up the wood plaques that will go behind the light fixtures. We also did some more packing and organizing.

Zari came down with a fever this afternoon and spent hours sleeping on the couch.

It's super hot up in the attic bedroom. Close to 11 pm, the kids all came down and said they were all too hot to sleep. I mean, I don't blame them--it's probably over 32 C (90 F) in their bedroom!

We brought down pillows and sheets and mattresses so they could sleep in the living room. Inga is on the day bed, Dio is on a twin mattress on the floor, and Ivy is on the sleeper sofa. I think we might have to use this arrangement for the rest of our stay.

Zari's room is on the main level so it's not quite as hot as the attic bedroom.

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French apartment renovations, Day 692: A refreshing 26.5 C!

Another morning waking up at 6 am. It would be ok if I were going to bed at 10 pm...but I'm not! I took advantage of the early wakeup to head to the tramway ticket office. There's only one physical office in all of Nice, and they've just changed their rules and pricing, which means that lines are very long. We now all have tram cards with our names and photos.

We went the kids out again in the morning. They went to the coulee verte and did some soccer juggling but also did a lot of sitting and talking.

I did lots of putzy stuff in Le Chateau: installed the toe kicks under the kitchen cabinets, drilled the holes in all 12 of the wood plaques that will go behind the light fixtures, mounted a few of the plaques onto the electrical boxes. Ivy and Inga were my "helpers" in the afternoon.

Zari and Dio helped Eric clean more of the walls and do lots of paint touch-ups.

Eric and I had a quick swim late in the afternoon. Ahhh...I'm going to miss being able to walk to the beach.

Our AC guy finally came and got 1 of the 4 units working, the one in our living room. We are at a very comfortable 26.5 C (80 F) instead of 30-32 C! Even that little bit makes an immense difference, I have to admit. During dinner, Zari said, "I'm too cold! Turn the temperature up a little!"

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French apartment renovations, Day 691: Too tired, too hot

15,295 steps

I've been sleeping poorly, waking up between 4am-6am this past week. I don't know if it's the heat or the noise or something else. But it's annoying.

I made myself stay in bed until 8 am and then I stumbled out and forced myself to go running. This was not a day that I particularly enjoyed it--sooooo hot--but at least I got myself moving. I jumped into the sea at the end of the run and had fun watching a man and his dog throwing a small ball far out onto the water and then both swimming after it.

I miss having a dog. Every day of their existince is sheer joy at simple things. Maybe if we settle in one place, we could get one. But for now, we simply can't.

Another heat wave today, high of 32 C. I ddin't get to cool off in the late afternoon like I usually do. I don't like too much air conditioning and I hate being cold in the summer...but I have to admit, just a touch would be heavenly right now!

We sent the kids out in the morning to play soccer or do whatevery else they wanted outside. Eric went for a run and then for a swim. I had several household items to buy at Carrefour TNL.

We did more deep cleaning in the afternoon, scrubbing down walls with Magic Erasers. We watched several more episodes of The Good Place.

Eric went spearfishing in the afternoon and came home with a giant dorade!

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French apartment renovations, Day 690: Jellyfish bonanza

What would we do without our late afternoon swims? It gives us a short relief from the heat. Once we're back home, the sun is low enough that we can open our shutters and start ventilating the house again. When it's over 30 C, we have to close up the house in the morning. It's just too hot to keep the windows open all day.

Eric took Ivy and Inga out on a swim with fins, masks, and snorkels. They spotted several jellyfish, which spooked Ivy enough that she didn't want to be far out any more. I had the foresight to bring a net, so Ivy and I looked for jellyfish close to shore. No luck.

Eric and Inga came back to borrow the net, and they came home with a load full!



I had a 2-hour webinar this evening, translated into Italian, about breech birth. It was really fun and I hope it leads to more breech re-skilling in Italy.

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French apartment renovations, Day 698: Canicule (heat wave)

It's HOT!! A high of 91.4 F today (33 C). It doesn't cool off that much at night, either, especially in an apartment without cross-ventilation. It's almost 11 pm and it's still 29 C! Our two front windows are the only ones that open directly to the exterior. All of the bedroom and bathroom windows open into stairwells that are open-air in some form but are 5-6 stories tall with the open part at the very top.

We sent the girls outside this morning with instructions not to come back until lunchtime. Eric and I tackled the two storage closets in the common area of our apartment building. Over the years, they had become filled with all sorts of stuff, much of which doesn't currently belong to anyone living her! So we cleaned it all out, asked our neighbor what was theirs, and got rid of the rest. We decluttered by about 75% (including a recently dead rat, ugh).

We had a lovely jellyfish-free swim this afternoon with everyone but Dio. He was gone all day at a friend's birthday party, and he got hours of swimming in.

I made a "what is in the cupboard?" meal--risotto with onions, zucchini, ground pork, parmesan, and sushi rice instead of arborio rice. It worked well.

We have a renter for Le Chateau--she just moved in today! She's doing an internship in Moncao and might stay for just a few months, but the option is open for her to stay until we come back in December. I did a few little things for the apartment (putting up a curtain rod and a towel hook, getting her AC temporarily running until the AC technician comes back on Tuesday).

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French apartment renovations, Day 697: Deep cleaning, jellyfish stinging, school ending

Eric is finally done with the writer's retreat! He helped one of the attendees get onto the tram this morning but otherwise his duties finished last night. He found a really cool pair of sunglasses a few days ago (at the bottom of the sea, of course) and gave them to one of the attendees. They were very bold and looked amazing on her. And they retail for something like $150!

He went for a morning swim and got the worst jellyfish sting of his life. He saw a lot of them while swimming and thought he could avoid them all...but no!

The kids helped me deep clean our bedroom. The reward was more episodes of The Good Place.

Ivy had her last day of school. Now it's "vuh-cation," as she pronounces it.

I finished painting these wood plaques that will go behind most of our light fixtures. I needed some sort of interface because they are all old enough that they don't fit onto modern electrical boxes.

The wood ones are going to be for underneath the piano legs. I'm not a fan of the pine look, so I think I will paint them black to match the piano.

Zari took a big step today--she listed her hair for sale! She has at least 36" (92 cm) of hair plus enough left over to still put into a ponytail. I think it's an excellent idea to turn her dead protein into a college fund!

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French apartment renovations, Day 696: Clean teeth

Four of us got our teeth checked at the dentist. Inga had a "micro cavity" that was just starting on one of the smooth surfaces of her teeth--an unusual thing because they usually form in cracks. She got it filled to prevent it from enlarging. Otherwise all is good. Dio won't need braces. Ivy will for sure in a few more years. Inga...maybe. Eric was gone all day helping with the James Baldwin writer's group. He gave a presentation in Le Chateau with the group of writers, then they spent the day in St. Paul de Vence. They even got a brief tour of the property where James Baldwin used to live (now a luxury apartment complex...sad).

While Ivy was at school, I had the other kids deep clean Zari's room and bathroom. Then they got to watch a few episodes of The Good Place.

I took everyone but Dio to the beach after school. I saw a jellyfish when I was a way off shore, and the girls saw one near the shore right as they were getting out. A few minutes later, a little girl who had been playing nearby started shrieking. We were already up on the Promenade des Anglais and it was LOUD!!! Poor girl. Getting stung is no fun. The ones here aren't dangerous; they just hurt a lot. I've only been stung once and it's a cross between an electric shock and a really bad burn that hits all at once.

Dinner was spicy crab sushi.

I worked on sanding, priming, and painting wood plaques that will go behind most of our light fixtures, plus 3 plaques that will be stained and varnished to go underneath the piano legs.

Good news--my visa was renewed and is ready to pick up. And the kid's DCEM cards (necessary for re-entering the country) are also ready to pick up. The original pickup date for the kids' cards was July 27, which is 9 days after we leave! I wrote to the Prefecture asking for an earlier date and explaining our situation (we are leaving for a family reunion to Canada, etc) and they actually did something nice and accommodated our request!

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