French apartment renovations, Day 260: Ouch my head

5,505 steps

I got a headache in the afternoon and I've been nonfunctional this evening. Lucky Eric has never had one in his entire life. He will never know the feeling of having a knife stabbing through ones eyeballs or temples.

Anyway I am not going to post a video today. But we got a good amount of work done. In the morning I chaperoned Inga's class to the municipal swimming pool. They had to do a test to see how comfortable they were in the water, in advance of having class swimming lessons.

We framed the big window(s) on the mezzanine and took out the boarded-over transom window. It's crazy how off-square the openings are! From one side to the other, it is off level by almost 2"!

We realized we needed to put drywall in the upstairs hallway room (closet with the potential to be a WC in the future). So I misspoke when I said we had put the last pieces of drywall up. We did some, then we ran out of MAP. Eric got some at the local brico store at the end of the afternoon, but by then we were out of time to work on it.

I went to a parents' meeting with Inga's teacher. He's great, and they have so many amazing things planned for this school year, including horseback riding, bike riding lessons, and "ecole de mer" (marine school). In May, the whole class will go to Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat for a week and stay in these dorms at the "ecole de mer," where they'll learn all about the ocean, do various water activities, etc. I've heard from other parents that it's an amazing program.

What else? School seemed to go well for everyone. Zari's school issued her a tablet so now she doesn't have to keep borrowing my computer. Her English teacher has a very strong French accent (very typical) and makes mistakes typical of a French speaker. France is not known for producing strong English speakers, unlike other European countries such as Germany, the Netherlands, and many of the Scandinavian countries.

Ok, gotta go lie down very still and turn any bright lights off. Ciao!

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French apartment renovations, Day 259: Square and level

We decided to reframe our window openings to make them square and level. Over the centuries, the original openings had gone askew. So now we have two neat, clean rough openings and a wall that is now 4 cm deeper, filled in with insulated drywall.

We are going to do the same in that bigger opening (the one with the diamond metal grate and the transom window). But that one was really weird, because the wall narrows from one side to the other. So we ripped custom lumber to fit the opening as it both narrowed and tilted. The pieces are all cut to fit, treated against woodworm, and ready to install tomorrow.



After a full work day (with a lunch break and mini soccer practice between Eric and the two younger girls), we had a crazy busy evening as well. I brought Ivy to the park. Eric took Inga and Dio shopping for swimsuits and soccer cleats. Then I had to hurry home and make dinner and then supervise the kids' piano lessons. Meanwhile Eric had to go to a meeting for the coaches in our soccer club. He's still not back yet (9:30 pm).

Meanwhile Zari is crying on the couch because she's stressed and worried about the first impressions she's making and feeling like she doesn't deserve anything (her grades, her place here as a privileged person in a developed country). "I feel like the weight of the world is on my shoulders and I have an obligation to not be big, not take up space. I feel like I have to shrink into myself to let others have more room. I feel like awareness comes with a price, and the price is I have to not be assertive."

Change of subject: Zari's hair was huge today

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French apartment renovations, Days 257-258: 11 kids, 2 trains, & Tende...and a baby

I was gone all day yesterday at Tende. Even though the forecast was gloomy (rain all afternoon), we decided to brave the weather and hope for the best. We ended up with a good crowd: 11 children and 4 adults.

It turned into a gorgeous day, mostly or partly sunny for much of the afternoon. We had a few drops of rain at the end, but nothing to even warrant taking out our umbrellas.

After a 2hr 20min train ride, we arrived and immediately headed to the river. One of the adults has gone several times before and has a favorite spot, to we followed him about 1 km out of town.

This village was heavily hit by tempête Alex, a huge winter storm last year that wiped out roads, bridges, and houses. Even where we were playing, you could see large areas carved out by the flooding.

I really, really wanted to do a hike with the kids. But when we arrived at Tende, I looked up more information about the hike. It turns out to be fairly dangerous and is intended to be done with climbing equipment. So I had to cancel that plan!

It's the hike to the Chapelle Saint-Sauveur overlooking Tende. Part of it goes over a suspended bridge, which you can see in my video if you look closely. Or for fun, you can watch this drone video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PsEhzmr0xt0

We spent the entire day at the river, and the kids still didn't want to leave. It was amazing. Just hours and hours of playing in the stream, throwing rocks into the water, building a little fort, wandering around the countryside, peeing in the bushes. You know, good old-fashioned fun.



We got back to Nice around 8:20 pm. I was totally wiped out. Kaput. Then of course I slept terribly last night so was even more wiped out this morning. But that's okay. I took it easy and had a little nap.

This afternoon, I went and visited the family who had their baby almost 2 weeks ago. It was fun to see their little boy and see how he has grown. They were really interested in elimination communication, which I did with all 4 kids. I showed them how I did it and their baby even did a pee for me right away!

Then I took the bus home since we had a picnic on the beach for dinner. We ate with the family that we house/dog sat for two weeks ago. The dad was telling us all of these stories about the family he works for as a private chef. He had just come back from a 7-star resort Turkey, invited by the family so he could learn fancy culinary techniques such as putting real gold on food...because apparently that's what rich people do. I didn't even know 7-star resorts existed!

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French apartment renovations, Day 256: A whirlwind day

5,592 steps

Wow, one of those days where we wonder how we fit everything in. First thing in the morning we gave away a huge pile of wood beadboard paneling--probably 300 planks--that we had salvaged off of the walls of the Communist apartment. We held on to them for a while, but finally realized that we weren't going to use them.

At the same time, our plumber arrived to make a few final connections so we could install the rest of the drywall. He's so awesome. Every time he comes, we remark to each other how much we like him. He is friendly, optimistic, flexible, and more than happy to work around our (slow) renovation schedule.

And then...we got ALL of the remaning drywall up in the apartment. Every last bit. I filled in big gaps with MAP and then taped and mudded all of the new joints/angles/corners.

Zari had her first day of school. She met her "professeur principal" and got a tour of the school. It's a massive complex.

Inga and Ivy came home for lunch today; they eat at the school cantine twice a week.

Eric had a meeting with someone in Saint-Paul-de-Vence regarding a James Baldwin conference. Then he had to hurry back home for a Zoom meeting about a textbook he's writing. Then he had to hurry to the grocery store to go shopping since we were running low on food and many basic supplies.

Meanwhile I got Zari off to soccer. 15 minutes before she was supposed to leave, she realized that her soccer clothes from the day before were still in the dirty laundry pile. We did a rapid 15-minute cycle and then dried her socks with the hair dryer. She put on her damp shorts and her one remaining clean soccer shirt. We got the socks dried in 4 minutes total and were out the door with enough time to buy her a tram ticket and get her on her way.

I was planning a big trip tomorrow to Tende, a village up in the Alps near the Italian border. After the big floods last year, the train from Nice to Tende was made free (2 hrs 20 minutes each way, and really beautiful scenery). We have a huge group of families plannning on going.

However, I just checked the forecast and it shows rain all day starting at 11 am, which is about when we would be arriving. So we might need to cancel and go another weekend. Boo...I really wanted to go! I won't make a final decision until tomorrow morning. And maybe we'll just go for the train ride and back 🙂

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French apartment renovations, Day 255: La rentrée!

Ready or not, school has started up again today. Ivy and Inga came back very happy with their teachers. Dio just had orientation today and has his first day of classes tomorrow.

Zari has her orientation meeting tomorrow. She's currently going through her drawer of clothes trying to find something to wear. "This is too tight. This one is too loose. This one is too short."

She's mostly a soccer jersey or plan t-shirt kind of person, but I sense that she's wanting to expand her clothing styles. However, she also does not like clothes shopping (like me!) so I'm not sure how to actually find her clothes.

Zari was very pleased with her hair. After we took pictures, I braided the rest of the loose hair into a fourth braid. She had soccer practice today and wanted it all contained.

More of the same kind of work in the Communist apartment: sanding, mudding, taping, filling in gaps with MAP...we are in drywall purgatory.

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French apartment renovations, Day 254: Back to school braids

4,651 steps

We now have 3 Viking warriors in our household, complete with complex French braids and serious attitude. This is Ivy's. Pictures of the rest coming tomorrow.

For those of you who weighed in on our window question, here is a video with more context, including interior & exterior views of the apartment.

Today's renovation work was more filling in gaps and cracks with MAP (me), more hooking up electrical outlets (Eric), more sanding (me), more cleaning and tidying (Dio and Inga).



Zari and Dio had soccer practice today. While Dio and Eric were gone, I had a Zoom meeting this evening, complete with kids bringing me in written notes in an effort not to disturb me.

Here is our conversation via notes, complete with their funny spellings.

Kids: "Zari is being extreamly mean!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

Kids: "Zari wants us to come get ice-cream with her but we do not want to!"

Kids: "She is still refusing to go if we do not come! Can you just write to her that she has to go and NOT force us to go?"

Kids: "Write here -->" (they give me a scrap of paper and a pen)

Me: "I don't care either way"

(I hear sounds of arguing for a while)

Kids: "Never mind, Zari went to buy ice-cream."

She came back with dark chocolate, mint chocolate, raspberry sorbet, and vanilla. Good choices.

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French apartment renovations, Day 253: Shopping for la rentrée

8,467 steps

School starts in 2 days, so that means a big shopping trip for school supplies. Inga came with me this afternoon and was my list reader/checker. I'm really glad she was there, because it was difficult enough coordinating multiple lists and keeping track of what we had and what we still needed.

We worked in the morning. I filled more of the cracks next to the beams while Eric hooked up electrical outlets. We also took the plywood off two more windows. We have light! (Well, some light...this apartment will always be a bit dim since the windows in the back apartment only open into an interior staircase/courtyard, not truly to the exterior).

I made Boeuf Bourguignon, which the kids adore. It's a beef stew cooked in red wine with mushrooms, carrots, onions, bay leaves, & thyme. Sometimes I follow a recipe but tonight I just made it with what I had on hand. For dessert, Dio volunteered to go to the grocery store for Magnum bars.

I gave Dio a haircut this evening while Eric put Ivy and Inga to bed. We're going to wake everyone up early to get them ready for school the following day.

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French apartment renovations, Day 252: Crowdsourcing

5,870 steps and a lot of MAP

I need your input on what to do with one of our windows! See the photo. You can see a large window on top (with the diagonal iron grate), a small amount of wall (all broken up), and a transom window on the bottom. Structurally the whole area is inside of a big wooden frame that we'll leave in place, and any of the 3 options are feasible.

We have 3 options for this area:

Option 1: Keep all of the existing openings and keep the iron grate in place. Put a window in the top opening, fix the broken wall, and put a fixed pane of glass or glass blocks where the transom window is.
Pros: very secure--no one can break in!
Cons: Have to fix the wall, might be more expensive as it involves ordering 2 windows, uglier with the iron grate

Option 2: Take out the iron grate. Combine the large window & the broken wall and put one big window in there. Put a fixed window in the transom window.
Pros: the window that opens won't go all the way to the floor (leaving room for a very tiny, low piece of furniture
Cons: Still have to order 2 windows, less secure, probably need to install a railing

Option 3: Take out the iron grate. Make the ENTIRE area into one big opening and install a floor-to-ceiling window.
Pros: maximum light, probably less expensive, aesthetically pleasing
Cons: less secure, can't put any furniture in front of the window, will need to install some sort of railing to prevent people from falling out

It's been a while since I posted a video of our renovations. A lot looks the same but believe me, we have done a lot of work!

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French apartment renovations, Day 251: The party and the afterparty

15,208 steps

Amazing weather: highs around 26 C (79 F), sunny, clear, and calm. I did my usual walk to Cimiez and back. Sometimes the kids come with me, but today I was alone. I don't mind--I get to listen to podcasts.

We watched one episode of The Flash after lunch. Then it was time for a birthday party for one of Ivy's friends. As many birthday parties are over here, this was for families, not just the group of friends. We spent a few hours together at the chateau, then continued the party into the evening at the beach. I had to leave for a Zoom meeting, but Ivy and Inga stayed for another hour.

This is the seaglass art that Ivy designed for her friend. She arranged it and I glued it.

Oh, last night a bit after 10 pm we heard some loud noises outside. What was it? Fireworks!! The city of Nice had decided to reschedule the Bastille Day fireworks for last night. That explains why the Promonade des Anglais had been closed off all day yesterday. We ran out to the beach with Zari and Dio to see the rest of it.

We took more pictures of Zari's hair. She's getting serious about trying to sell it (again) but this time I think we'll actually get it listed!

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French apartment renovations, Day 250: I have no idea what I'm doing

9,833 steps

I am mystified about how to parent teenagers. Little kids are so easy! Feed them when they're hungry, get them to bed when they're tired, cuddle them when they're sad. That covers most of the bases. But adolescents? I am so lost.

So for example, when my *cough* unnamed son acts like he's being sent to his own execution when Eric takes the kids to a friendly soccer match this morning, what should I do? Or if this hypothetical child is spending all sorts of time on an internet server and wants to be a moderator (keep in mind, he's only supposed to be online 30 minutes per day and only after he does his practicing) and I tell him I'd prefer him not to because he doesn't have time to moderate other people's internet activites, and he gets so glum you think his favorite pet had died.

What is a parent to do? I am not equipped to deal with this!

While the others were playing soccer, I did MORE taping and mudding. Yay. In the afternoon Ivy and I did seaglass art. We ran out of epoxy adhesive and the huge supermarket was completely out--I've never seen that before. We tried another adhesive and I'm hoping it will hold.

School starts at the end of next week. This is the longest summer break the kids have had since 2014. Every summer since then, they have only had a month because they were finishing school in France (early July) and starting in the States (early to mid August).

The little Pekinese dog we are watching, Baya, is acting off. She's been hiding in the smallest crevices she can wedge herself into. She's not been eating much. She vomited once yesterday. And she has been scratching herself a lot, to the point that she has red, inflamed bald spots (this last thing was happening when we first got her). Poor little dog. I've been messaging her owner so she's aware of what's going on. I don't think it's serious enough to go to the vet, but something is definitely off.

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French apartment renovations, Days 246-248: It's vuh-cation

Ivy still prounounces "vacation" as "vuh-cation." One of her favorite expressions, when trying to convince us to do something we normally wouldn't do (like stay up late), is: "Come on! It's vacation!"

I enjoyed taking a few days off from journaling. We were up in the back country behind Nice, not really that far away but it felt like a different world. No cars, no people, just the occasional dog barking in the distance and the regional train passing a few times a day.

Mostly we enjoyed our friend's home: playing ping pong, jumping on the trampoline, playing with their Staffordshire Terrier Rusty, lounging in hammocks, going on walks to pick figs and blackberries.



We took an excursion to a nearby mountain river. Normally the water is a clear turquoise, but we went the day after a big rain storm. Alas, it was completely muddy so we couldn't swim and jump into the pools of water like we normally would. (We swam, but very tentatively since we couldn't see more than a few centimeters deep!)



We headed back to Nice mid-day today. On our way home, we picked up an old armoire door with a beveled mirror. It was the perfect size for the shallow closet we're building around our circuit breaker. Just a new coat of paint and a custom-built frame, and we'll have a beautiful and functional way to hide the electricity! And only 35 Euros...

Eric, Zari, and I put in a good afternoon's work. They were installing drywall around the sewer stack, while I standed and mudded. I'm already on the 3rd bucket and still have so much more left to do.

We're watching Baya again for a few more days.

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French apartment renovations, Days 244-45: When two days become one

Countless hip squeezes & sacrum counterpressure

Is today today or is it yesterday? Since I didn't go to bed at all last night, I'm not sure! I got a call on Sunday afternoon from a friend. "Rixa, I'm in labor and I'm having my baby right now. I need your help. Please can you come?" 3 minutes later I was out the door with only my purse, phone, chapstick, gum, and glasses.

We had talked several months ago about me coming to her birth if she wanted me there. I didn't know details about the labor I was walking into, other than it was a planned home birth.

I arrived 15 minutes later via Uber and learned that she had decided not to use a midwife and instead brought in a doula to attend her unassisted birth. Okay, well then. Freebirth it is.

Super long birth story short...it was an epic labor with all sorts of weird and difficult things, many of which we didn't know until after the birth. 34 hours of active labor, even longer time from ROM, 21 hours of nonstop back labor (aka nonstop pain way worse than contractions), 2 straight nights of no sleep for the birth team, 18 hours of not being able to empty her bladder, 10+ hours of pushing.

Thanks to a tenacious birth team, a rebozo, an eternally optimistic and encouraging papa, an exhausted but motivated mama, and lots and lots of time, we got the baby out. I don't usually say "we" because the mama gives birth, not the partner or the midwife or the doula. But this birth truly involved everyone's maximum cooperation in a way I've never witnessed before. I say without any hesitation that this birth could not have happened without all of us there.

I was only there for the last 19 hours and *only* missed one full night of sleep.

For those of you birth people, you'll be interested to know that baby was not just a military presentation, but significantly asynclitic. After the baby came out and I saw his head, I thought "THAT EXPLAINS SO MUCH!"

This was the weirdest, most unreadable labor I had ever attended and I kept wondering if I was just particularly inept at figuring out what was going on. Nope.

I got home today a bit after 11 am. I bought myself a pain au chocolat as a treat for all that hard work. I enjoyed the warm buttery flaky pastry on my way home.

I passed out for an hour and a half nap after lunch. That gave me enough reserves to make it through the rest of today. Today was special: we were packing for vacation! It's a short vacation (technically we are dog/house sitting for some friends in the back country). We left Nice mid-afternoon.

We had considered driving back to Nice each day to work on the Communist apartment. But then we decided to just stay here and enjoy 3 days of family time with no other obligations.

The kids jumped on the trampoline, picked cherry tomatoes and wild blackberries, played ping pong, learned to play guitar, and ran around outside. I made Thai coconut soup for dinner and chocolate tart for dessert. It is definitely time for bed!

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French apartment renovations, Day 243: Coco Beach!

19,309 steps

After a terrible night sleep and waking up long before sunrise--what is up with that!?--I had to scrap my plans to work on the communist apartment. By time 9 am rolled around, I had been awake for several hours and taken Baya on a long walk with Inga. I could hardly function. Eric persuaded/ordered me to bed and came up to snuggle and nap with me.

I got up at 10 am feeling much improved. It's so frustrating when my body just won't cooperate with my plans! Ah well...it is Saturday, I suppose. I can take a day off.

After lunch we walked over to Coco Beach, on the other side of the port. Just for fun, we took the free shuttle boat across the port. Ironically, it took longer to wait in line than just walking around on foot!

A great afternoon. The kids were resistant to going to Coco Beach because of inertia, but of course as soon as we got there they had an amazing time and didn't want to leave.



Eric caught 2 fish and we had a third first from yesterday. That became dinner tonight, along with spaghetti and pesto.

We watched a few episodes of The Flash. This will keep us entertained for a while, given how many episodes there are. The kids are loving it.

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French apartment renovations, Day 242: More of the same

3,863 steps

How come sanding and mudding drywall doesn't translate into my fitness tracker? I'm even moving my arms back and forth!

Zari had soccer practice again. Inga spent much of the day with a friend. Just more of the usual: installing drywall, sanding, taping, and mudding. The older sister of one of Ivy's friends came to learn how to do mudding and taping. I felt myself searching for the right vocabulary words for "mud pan" and "countersunk" and "feather" (as in feathered edges). Not things that you learn at university!



Normally we take weekends off from the Communist apartment. But since we'll be on a mini dog-sitting vacation for 3 days next week, I am going to put in a half day of work tomorrow. We have a bit more drywall to put up on the kitchen ceiling and around the sewer pipes in the corner. Eric will work on that while I do the mudding.

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French apartment renovations, Day 241: No loo to go to

7,761 steps

We currently have no working toilet in our apartment for the next 24 hours. But that's ok--it was on purpose. We had to apply some rubber sealant to the main sewer stack and it needs to stay dry for 24 hours. We temporarily hooked up a toilet in the communist apartment. We haven't sorted out the water supply, so it's the old-fashioned "dump & flush" method with a bucket of water.

My hair is full of drywall dust, my fingers and nails have bits of rubber sealant in the cracks, and I have waterproofing membrane on my legs.

It's been a day.

I sanded drywall mud much of the morning and remembered why I HATE drywall mudding and taping. It's fine the first day, but when you keep doing it day after day and get covered in chalky dust and keep finding more seams that need taping, or the 2nd coat of mid, or 3rd coat, you just want to scream. Or do what I did: sit on the scaffolding, staring blankly at the wall, for a good 20 minutes.

We tried to keep the kids busy with small mudding or sanding jobs and helping Eric hang the first big sheet of drywall on the underneath of the mezzanine (kitchen ceiling, essentially).

No one wanted to go swimming this evening except Eric, so he went alone. I was exhausted and started falling asleep as soon as I sat down on the couch.

Ivy and I took Baya for a walk this evening. This dog needs to get in shape! Fine, she's a little frou-frou dog, but that's not an excuse for not being able to walk more than a few minutes without sounding like she is going to pass out. Apparently each time we dog sit her, she comes home to her owner totally exhausted and sleeps like the dead for a day or two.

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French apartment renovations, Day 240: Braving the wilds of Leroy Merlin

We're watching a dog (actually two dogs, but not simulaneously) for the next 12 days. Baya is here for several days, then we go up into the back country to watch another friend's dog, then we come back to Nice and watch Baya again.

I went running first thing in the morning, taking advantage of the slightly cooler temperatures. Eric took Dio and Inga to play soccer (just a friendly pickup game) while Zari was at her Cavigal practice. Ivy and I worked on her piano and then she built a huge canopy bed in Minecraft.

After lunch, Eric and I made another big trip to Leroy Merlin. This time, we returned hundreds of Euros of extra items--what a great feeling! Then we bought hundreds of kilograms of sand, paint, and drywall mud plus more tools, supplies, and light fixtures. So we probably broke even 🙂

Ivy spent the afternoon at the library doing crafts with a few of her friends.

Quick swim after our shopping trip. I made the kids go, and they had so much fun once they were there. Why is it so hard to convince them to go???

Dinner was split pea soup. Comfort food from my childhood. I cook it with some sort of pork sausage, carrots, onions, celery (if I have it), thyme, and bay leaves. 

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French apartment renovations, Day 239: More of the same

5,341 steps

Another long work day in the communist apartment. I used the entire 25 kg bucket of sheetrock mud in 2 days! We need to make another trip to the big home improvement store for more mud, sand (for doing the lime mortar), masking tape, tuck pointing trowels, and a few other miscellaneous items. Maybe tomorrow.

While I was taping and mudding, Zari and Ivy sanded down the screws that had been mudded over with the first coat. Dio helped Eric frame the little right-angle wall that will cover up the main sewer stack/plumbing lines/electrical lines. Eric also installed drywall on the upstairs hallway ceiling and on the back of the shower wall. Inga painted the 2nd coat of waterproofing membrane until we ran out of paint.



Zari had soccer practice start up again this morning. The kids helped much of the afternoon on and off. They have this habit of disappearing and wandering back upstairs when we're not paying attention!

At the end of the work day, I could only convince Inga and Ivy to come swimming. I gave Zari and Dio a choice: come swimming, or stay at home and clean (fold laundry, clean the dining table, sweep, & vacuum). They chose option #2! Okay, but in my imaginary teenage universe I'd rather go to the beach than clean :)

Today Eric remarked, "This is going to be a sweet apartment." It's so fun to see it coming together after months of destruction. I'm so excited to do the pointing on the exposed rock wall...to paint...to lay tile and flooring...all that is super fun stuff.

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French apartment renovations, Day 238: Taping & mudding and lots of other progress

5,111 steps

Lots of work done today! While the kids were eating breakfast, we watched Taka Yaka videos to refresh our drywall mudding & taping techniques. (He is hilarious to boot.) Based on his advice, I had bought several kinds of special drywall tape by Strait-Flex: Original, Tuff Tape, and Crack Tape. We have everything needed to do straight seams, inside & outside corners, & transitions where drywall meets plaster or cement.

I was very impressed with these products. So much better than paper tape or fiberglass mesh! I am sold 🙂 And with the different consistency of the drywall mud, I followed Taka Yaka's techniques exactly with excellent results.

I also plastered in several more outlet boxes.

Eric sank screws that were still sticking out, installed acoustic drywall in the WC ceiling, and got the toilet together and temporarily in place (we need to do some repairs on our main waste stack, and we will need to not use our own apartment toilet for 24 hours...hence the new temporary toilet). Zari painted on the first coat of waterproof membrane in the shower area. Dio helped both of us as needed, holding drywall, fetching tools, refilling my pan with mud.



I was a dirty, stinky, sweaty mess by 5 pm. I rinsed off my arms and hands, cooked dinner, and then went for a quick swim before we ate. Eric was also out swimming and still found a few items, despite the waves and cloudy water.

Dinner was yellow curry with chicken and whatever vegetables I had in the fridge (onions, zucchini, bell peppers, & potatoes). I made enough for another dinner; it's now in the freezer for a busy day.

Piano lessons took up our evening. Phew! Busy day. Also tempestuous between the kids arguing a lot in the morning, Zari crying and going into her room after the arguing, Ivy crying dramatically when Inga went to her friend's house without her, and Inga crying dramatically after because she got into trouble when she left without Ivy.

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French apartment renovations, Day 237: Down day

8,028 steps

I didn't sleep much last night so I opted to stay at home and rest. Well, okay, my "rest" in the morning involved catching up on breech-related emails and scholarship applications. But then I made up for it by lounging around and reading a book in the afternoon.

Oh, Ivy said something funny yesterday: "Happy wedding birthday!"

We didn't really go anywhere today, except Eric went for a swim/treasure hunt and came back with all sorts of goodies: a brand new mask & snorkel, a few Euros, & a beach coverup. Two days ago he found lots of mismatched shoes, an integrated mask & snorkel, Ray-Ban sunglasses, another dive mask, and a 20 Euro bill.

Dinner was on Eric tonight: salad, tortellini, & stuffed salmon. I made chocolate chip cookies for dessert.

The two of us went on a nice long walk in the evening around the port to La Réserve and back.

That's about it. We'll have a good workday tomorrow and put the kids to use.

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French apartment renovations, Day 236: Beach day (and some work) and an anniversary

Lots of swimming...not as many steps

We let the kids sleep in. Of course I was up at 7 am on the one day where I didn't need to be awake! Eric and I headed downstairs for a quiet morning of work around 9:30. We didn't want to disturb our neighbors.

I spent much of the morning measuring & cutting the last piece of drywall. It's slow-going because we had to cut around the curved beam and I wanted it to be as precise as possible.

During lunch, I prepared for the evening's breech live session and got dinner in the oven, pre-programmed to be done. And then...we headed to the beach! Today we went back to Plage Passable in Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat, one of our favorite spots. Except for the massive amounts of people, it was great.





We had to head back in time for my 6 pm live session. But I think 3 hours was perfect--any more and I would have felt way too fried.

Dinner was Tuscan butter gnocchi. A definite favorite and repeat dinner. (https://www.delish.com/.../tuscan-butter-gnocchi-recipe/)

Oh....and I suppose the biggest news of the day: it was our 23rd anniversary! Having an afternoon outing as a family was a perfect way to celebrate.

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French apartment renovations, Day 235: Work hard, play hard

6,356 steps

Again another great work day where, despite all of the work, my fitness tracker tells me I've hardly moved compared to my usual routine.

Eric took the 3 older kids to play soccer in the morning. It was HOT! High of 33 C (91 F). They came back all sweaty and exhausted. Ivy had a friend come over for a few hours, and then she got invited to the beach with her friend once her mom was done with work.

After lunch, we put all of the kids to work. They mudded in the screw holes in the drywall (according to Dio it was "very easy"). The drywall mud over here has a very different consistency. It feels eerily like cream cheese, only a bit more fluid. Zari said that out of the blue today, and I had said the same thing to Eric the first time I used it.

We got most of the wall pieces cut and installed. Just one more left!! I hope to do that tomorrow morning. Yes, usually we don't work on the weekends but I'd love to get it done 🙂

We had to do a bit more cutting with the rainureuse to pare down a few stones that were sticking out too far. We keep thinking we are done with the super messy stuff and we are always wrong!

Eric and I both went swimming after our long work day. It felt amazing. Just in the past day or so, the sea has developed a very warm top layer. The first foot or so it almost too warm, and then below that it still feels nice and cool. So you can choose to warm up or cool down depending on how you position your body.

No pictures or videos from today. I'll try to get some tomorrow after that last piece of drywall goes up.

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French apartment renovations, Day 234: Hot is relative + 3 showers + lots accomplished

5,613 steps

Wow, it looks like I sat around all day, according to my fitness tracker! But in fact I was working hard in the communist apartment. We have normal summer temperatures this week, really for the first time. 30-31 C. Hot but not like the terrible heat wave Sicily is experiencing, with record highs of 48.8 C (119.8 F).

We started our day with having the kids clean the apartment staircase from top to bottom. Our building hires a cleaning person to come twice a month, but she has refused to come for the past two months "because it will just get dirty again." Um, yes, that is exactly the point--we pay her to clean it! We don't rely solely on her; we do sweep and mop whenever we have a particularly dusty day of renovating. But her JOB is LITERALLY to clean, and now she says she won't clean it unless it's clean.

The rest of the day was installing the ceiling drywall and painting a special primer in the shower area. We'll install the waterproofing membrane on top of this area tomorrow.





Eric and I went back to work after dinner--unusual for us--because we were motivated to get it DONE. Now we just have 3 pieces of drywall to put up on that last wall. That's for tomorrow. I'm so excited to have this big step behind us!

We sent the kids out in the afternoon to the coulée verte while we had a RDV with our bank. They helped tremendously in the morning and deserved some play time.

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French apartment renovations, Day 233: Cool & cold

9,662 steps

We were lying in bed at 8:10 am, pretending we weren't awake, when our doorbell rang. It was the fridge! We knew it would be delivered in the morning, just not when. It's almost the same size as our old one, but it's a really dark stainless steel, more like dark gray than silver. I don't really like it but it was one of very few models that fit our dimensions.

I walked over to our friend's house one final time to pick up all of our fridge/freezer items. It's so nice to be able to open the fridge and get what I need!

And...we are so happy to have AC today. It's HOT outside. I went on a walk with Zari late this evening and it was still toasty out, even well after sunset. We cool just the rooms are are in down to 27 C. Maybe as an extra splurge we'll go down to 26 C :) Living room during the day, bedrooms at night. It's certainly not chilly indoors by any means, but it's just enough to cut the heat and humidity.

The rest of the day was a big work day for us, and occasionally some of the kids. We put up two more big sheets of ceiling drywall. One part was tricky because there was a huge block of concrete, still in its original bag, that we had to score and jackhammer. It was sticking out 2-3" beyond the ceiling joists. It was a mega pain. Both of us took a go at it.

We also found hot & cold water lines running to our own apartment upstairs, embedded inside that block of concrete. So we had to go very carefully in those areas.



Keep in mind that it was in the upper 80s F (around 30 C) today. We had on respirators and safety googles, which added to the heat.

I also got the stone wall ready for drywall. Ivy did a bit of sanding at one point. Inga got a pass because she was at a friend's house.

We ended right at dinnertime. I had so much gunk and debris in my hair when I showered.

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French apartment renovations, Day 232: Back to work

12,744 steps

We said goodbye to our friends this morning; they were catching the TGV (high speed train) back to Paris and then back to the US in 2 more days.

I got friendly with the cement mixer and did my 4th batch of lime mortar. Or maybe my 3rd? I am losing track. The wall is pretty much done now. It's not pretty but it's structurally sound, and that's all that I care about for this one.

Working with lime mortar is tricky; I'm still trying to get the right consistency because it seems to go straight from too crumbly to overly wet and slumpy. It doesn't stick together very well even though I am following all of the recommended steps. Maybe it's just like that and I have to get used to it.

In the afternoon we put up the next piece of ceiling drywall. I cut it all out and we lifted it up..and realized that I had cut out the mirror image! Ugh, it was so much work because we were going around mulitple bump-outs and strange angles. Finally we cut a new one the right way and got it attached, thanks to help from Zari and Dio.



Tomorrow will be a big drywall day: more on the ceiling and then on the stone wall that I just finished repairing. Woohoo!

Eric and I finished at 5:30 pm, just in time for a quick swim all by ourselves. Well, quick for me and long for Eric. The water was clear and calm so he went treasure hunting. He didn't find much besides the usual mismatched shoes.

Exciting news: we get our new fridge tomorrow! It will have been 12 days since our old one broke.

It's starting to get hot. We've had the windows open all week, but we closed up today and turned on the AC. It will be hot all week, in the upper 80s (30-31 C) and only cooling down to around 74-75 F (24 C) at night.

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French apartment renovations, Day 231: Treats

The last day of having visitors. Eric brought his friend out snorkeling out this morning while I did more lime mortaring. I worked until I ran out of sand.

We adults ate at L'Eau de Vie again. Yum! I should have taken pictures.

In the afternoon, Eric took our friends to see Saint-Paul-de-Vence. Dio went to play with a friend. We had a movie party in the afternoon while I checked Ivy's and Zari's hair with the lice comb. I was just about to do Inga's hair, but then she had to go to a playdate with a friend. I didn't see anything in Ivy or Zari, so I think we might be okay. I'll check Inga tomorrow to be sure.

Our friends treated us out to ice cream this evening. Dio had cassis (black currant), I had passionfruit, Zari and Ivy had lemon, Inga had griotte (a kind of cherry), and Eric had Amarena (cherry-vanilla). We are so spoiled 🙂

We had a nice evening stroll through the Cours Saleya, Promenade des Anglais, and the coulée verte. Then we had to sacrifice ourselves and finish a chocolate mousse dessert that our friends had bought. Without a fridge, it was starting to droop a bit.

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French apartment renovations, Days 230: Literal and figurative headaches

14,581 steps

I had another headache coming on this morning, but I'm so glad that it didn't get as bad as yesterday's. Unfortunately, my figurative headache started this evening when I discovered lice in my hair! Nooooo!!!!

Okay, technically we only found one louse and a small number of nits. But still, pas bien.

My friend offered to help comb out my hair. I joked, "You come to France for the first time in your life and you end up de-lousing someone's hair! Great vacation!"

I'm going to check everyone tomorrow, just in case.

We had a nice slow-paced afternoon. Lunch, conversation, and then swimming at the beach. We had nice big waves, but not so big that they were dangerous. Inga and Ivy both ended up with their friends, one by invitation and one by chance.

Eric made duck breast with honey, balsamic, & shallots, along with rice, leftover green beans, and hummus on cucumber slices. Then we had a crepe fete! Our friends got several delicious ingredients: mangoes, raspberries, Nutella, whipping cream...I had dark chocolate & cream for my first crepe, and raspberries, dark chocolate, & cream for my second.

Then the rest of my evening was attending our Siaparto conference presentations (siaparto.com.br/programacao ).

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French apartment renovations, Days 228-229: Visitors!

11,579 steps

We have visitors for the first time since Covid started. We stayed up far too late last night talking. It reminds me of our days in grad school, pre-kids.

Yesterday morning was another good work day; I did more stone wall repair with Zari's help. Our friends arrived at dinner time. I love that even with our small apartment (well, small by American standards at around 800 sq ft if we include the attic bedroom...but pretty average for French apartments, albeing most French families don't have 4 kids), we can fit 8 people and still feel comfortable. It helps that we spend a lot of our days outside.

Today we took a day trip to Eze and Monaco. Eze is a perched village on a cliff overlooking the Mediterranean and is stunning, even when visiting for the 10th time. 

We visited the Jardin Exotique, which is where the cover photo on my blog was taken years ago. I had Eric take a picture of me & the kids in front of the same statue.

We had originally planned on just going to Eze and then dropping our friends off in Monaco for the afternoon...so I didn't pack any lunch or prepare in any way.

Then last minute we decided to go to Monaco with our friends. So we had some very hungry and grumpy children. We finally were able to buy some groceries and eat around 2:30 pm. This is why I like planning things beforehand!

I also got a really bad headache--bordering on a migraine. We left at around 3:30 while our friends stayed to explore a bit more, then caught the bus back home.

I came home and collapsed on the couch for a nap and felt more human once I woke up. Right after dinner, Eric, Ivy, Inga, and I went for a swim. After the big waves the past two days, Eric found tons of shoes, underwear, and bandanas.

We got the kids to bed on time this evening, and we'll probably go to sleep a bit earlier. Being a tourist is exhausting!

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French apartment renovations, Day 227: We (re)built a wall!

12,532 steps

Eric and I have had enough of lazy kids sitting around the house all day. So we told them last night: "We need your help finishing the apartment. Your grandparents arrive in October and we'd like to have the back part done enough that they can stay there. From now on, we're all getting up as a family at the same time, and we'll all work together in the mornings."

So at 7:30 am, the Freeze family was awake and looking

Inga and Ivy had soccer practice again. While Eric was dropping them off, Zari and I got started mixing a batch of chaux (lime mortar) in the cement mixer. I sent Dio off on a walk with Baya. While the lime was mixing, Zari sanded some of the MAP that we had applied yesterday.

I think I have the hang of using the cement mixer now. It's so nice to just push the "on" button and come back 30 minutes later!

I rebuilt one of the big voids in the rock wall. It's almost all the way filled up. Zari was my rock fetcher/sorter/wetter. She'd find the right size and shape, dip it in water, and then hand it up to me on the ladder. She would also refill my hawk with lime.

I wasn't going for aesthetics, just stability. But even so, it looked better than I had expected. It's a bit like playing Tetris as you have to fit the rocks together in 3 dimensions.

Dio helped Eric install the "ceiling" on chimney bookshelf. We ended close to lunchtime, just in time for Eric to pick up Inga and Ivy.

 

Then...fun time for the adults! We went out to eat with some friends of Eric's who were visiting from California. Their daughter stayed and played with our kids while we had an amazing meal at L'Eau de Vie. Everything I've ever eaten there has been fantastic. With a 3-course lunch menu at only 24 Euros, it's one of my favorite places to eat.

We had some brief down time at home, then met up with our friends at the beach. The waves were getting so big that the lifeguards started clearing everyone out of the water shortly after we arrived. They switched the flag from orange (caution) to red (no swimming allowed). They even brought out the big guns: the big patrol boat. It cruised close to shore, ensuring that the stray swimmers complied. The waves don't look very big on the video, but I assure you that they were quite dramatic in real life.

Oh...our fridge! So we've been without a fridge since last Saturday. The repair person came this afternoon and took the entire thing apart. He seemed more and more perplexed as he tried one thing, and then another, and then another, and he even called some support line and asked the person, "have you ever heard of this happening?" He finally figured out that some part of the electronics had gotten water into it somehow and it was completely unrepairable. I'm frustrated because this fridge was only 2 years old!

So after our attempt at swimming, Eric, Zari, and I headed to the appliance store. They gave us store credit but we had to buy a different fridge since the model we had is no longer being manufactured. And of course anything that was the right size was more expensive. We finally found one we could agree on, and it will be delivered next Wednesday. So we'll be 12 days without a fridge.

This took so long that Eric bought pizzas for dinner on our way home. We didn't eat until about 8 pm, which is very late for us! Normal for most French people, though.

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French apartment renovations, Day 226: Soccer, rain, ceiling drywall, & tag

Eric found a girls' soccer camp that has been going on for the past several weeks, and it still had some openings for this week! At just 7 Euros per child per day (8:30 am - noon), it was amazing. Inga and Ivy loved it. Eric wanted to enroll Zari, too, but she said no. They'll go for two more days this week.

It rained most of the day until late afternoon. Just teeny splatters on and off. I went running in the morning and loved the feeling of the rain on my skin.

We didn't get started on renovating work until mid-afternoon. We got another heavy sheet of acoustic drywall up. Thanks to some helpful YouTube videos, I learned some simple hacks for holding drywall onto the ceiling. It was SO much easier this time. Zari and Dio were impressed.



We took an after-dinner walk to get Baya out and to buy ice cream. We bought a 6-pack of cones and walked around the coulee verte, letting Baya make some friends. We stopped to play tag. I joined in, much to the kids' delight. After a while I made them all play "skip tag," just to mix things up a bit and make it more challenging.

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French apartment renovations, Day 225: Chateau & work

I woke up reaaaaaaly early this morning and couldn't get back to sleep for a long time. Ugh. We all went to the chateau this morning for some exercise and family time. I was tired so I just watched everyone else play. I probably should have geared up and made myself run...but I didn't. One of Ivy's friends joined us for the morning.

We finally got some work done in the afternoon. We put in a new ceiling joist to replace a rotten one that we had cut down. I first treated it with 2 coats of insect/rot repellent. Then we had to pare down some of the concrete on the ceiling to make the beam fit. So of course that meant more dust everywhere.

Then finally we were ready to put up the next piece of acoustic drywall. It's so hard to hold it overhead, even with 3 of us holding and one of us operating the drill. We had a bit of MAP left over so we cemented in a few more outlet boxes.

Late afternoon swim with Ivy and Inga and some friends of Eric's who are visiting this week from California. We were completely out of toilet paper, so I left after a short swim to buy groceries and supplies.

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French apartment renovations, Day 224: Slow day

10,899 steps

We had a slow start this morning. Between waking up late and then Eric and the kids watching the Canada-US women's soccer semifinals, we didn't even start work until after lunch. Well, I did! I applied more epoxy wood hardener to a few more areas. Then I spent a long while gazing at all the work to be done, feeling overwhelmed and not knowing where to start.

I felt really icky in the afternoon--waves of fatigue and dizziness and heat washing over me. At a few moments I thought I would pass out. I rested for a while and then did a bit more work with Eric.

We brought the kids out to the splash pad late in the afternoon, since the waves were too big today. Despite them protesting that the splash pad was boring, they had so much fun once they were there. It was hot but very dry and windy, so I felt quite cool as soon as I got wet.

We're plugging along without our fridge. We ate the last of the food that was in our freezer, thawing slowly. Now it's all either gone or at our friend's.

We're going to be a bit more disciplined tomorrow and get everyone up and out the door in the morning for exercise. It's been a weird summer since we're not going anywhere for the first time in years, but we also haven't planned many activities since we have so much renovation work to do. I think we need to do more fun stuff with the kids: hikes, adventures, etc.

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French apartment renovations, Day 223: Walk, nap, walk, nap

After last night's electrical excitement, it took me several hours to fall asleep. I felt plenty energetic in the morning and went on two 45-minute walks. But by mid-afternoon I was fading and had nap #1 while reading on Zari's bed. Nap #2 happened just an hour ago while I was on the couch reading a book and listening to Eric talk with his parents on Facetime.

This morning we emptied out all the perishables from our fridge and freezer and either ate them for lunch/dinner or brought them to a friend's house just down the street. She had some extra space for our things, fortunately. We have just a few items left in our freezer that we need to finish off tomorrow.

What was I able to make?

• Lunch: chicken noodle soup (we'd eaten roast chicken the night before and I already had bone broth in the pressure cooker, plus a container of extra chicken meat). I added leeks, carrots, onions, herbs, and some egg noodles.
• Dinner: the rest of the soup, plus a pork-onion-leek risotto with Emmental, escargots, salad made out of anything that could possibly go in a salad, and dark chocolate mint cookies.

Bad news: the repair service can't come until Thursday. I hope they can actually fix the fridge that day. Managing cooking for 6 people isn't easy anyway, but it's extra hard with no fridge or freezer.

We are watching Baya, the Pekinese, for 5 days. Zari and I brought her for a mid-afternoon walk. We watched the huge waves for a while: it was hot, dry, and extremely windy. Poor Baya can only walk for a few minutes in the summer before she gets too hot and tired.

A friend of Eric's is visiting from California, along with his wife and youngest daughter. Dio, Inga, and Ivy went to the park with Eric and his friend before dinner while I cooked. Then we had them over for a "let's eat everything in our freezer" dinner tonight. They were good sports and helped us out 🙂

We ordered a large pack of origami paper. Now we have birds and insects and animals and throwing stars all over the house, including on Baya.

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French apartment renovations, Day 222: A lazy day with an electrifying ending

12,585 steps

We had big goals for this morning: sleep in (the older kids especially). I am thrilled to report that they accomplished their goals. I cracked Zari's door open around 9:30 am and she finally wandered out at 10 am.

Eric, Ivy, and I went for a morning swim when Zari was still conked out. The water was beautifully clear. I swam around with Ivy for a while and enjoyed watching her play in the water nonstop. Flip, dive, flip, handstand, flip, twist...she doesn't stop. Eric came back from treasure hunting with only two mismatched shoes.

We did some piano practicing and tidying up, but it was mostly an easygoing day. Dio had a friend over. I did a bit of final mudding & painting on a few areas (not the wallpaper, but other parts of our own apartment that needed attention).

Dinner was roast chicken, salad, pineapple, and dark chocolate mint cookies. "Please, please can I have one more cookie?" Zari begged. "Nope, one is good." She kept trying but I give her points for persistence.

This afternoon, our power went off suddenly. We didn't have much going, just a crockpot and two AC units set at 27 C (around 80 F). We flipped the main breaker and went back to our normal life.

But then this evening, right when we were putting Zari and Dio to bed, it happened again. This time, the breaker wouldn't even turn on. We tried all sorts of things and it would trip immediately.

Of course this got all the kids wired. I think they thought it was a horrible dire emergency because Ivy started crying and asked to sleep with one of us. We assured her that no, lack of electricity is not an emergency at all! Just an inconvenience.

At this point we were worried that our new heat pump system was the culprit. Because that was the only thing we had changed recently.

I then had a brilliant thought: "Why don't we borrow power from the Communist apartment? We could at least plug the fridge in and save our food from going bad."

I am SO SMART. haha. So we got all the extention cords strung from that apartment and plugged in the fridge and our wifi router. Priorities, right?

Well, guess what happened? The entire circuit breaker in THAT apartment tripped, all the way down to the main breaker downstairs.

We kept trying different combinations of extension cords, wondering if the issue was in one of the cords. But eventually a pattern emerged: every time we plugged the fridge in, it would trip the entire apartment breaker (45 amps).

With that figured out, we were able to reset our own circuit breaker and get everything else functional. But now we have a nonfunctional fridge. I checked our warranty from when we bought it just over 2 years ago. It came with a 2-year warranty and, hallelujah, I had purchased a 5-year extention! So late this evening I was on the phone with Darty (a big appliance & electronics store, like Best Buy or Sears). We'll be getting a phone call tomorrow from one of their technicians to set up a repair RDV for some time this coming week.

So, good news: we'll get our fridge repaired at some point
Bad news: not in time to save our food
Good news: it's not our heat pump system, as we had originally feared

I am including an actual photo that Eric took this evening when he was trying to turn his phone flashlight on.

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(Other) French apartment renovations, Day 221: Final paint & hours at the airport

11,822 steps

Ivy and I painted the top coat in Zari's room this morning. Eric and Inga were gone playing soccer. I let her room air out all day with the windows open and a fan running. The paint smell was mostly gone by the evening.

Eric dropped Inga off and kept going to pick Zari and Dio up from their camp. They got home around 4 pm, along with 3 siblings from Corsica who had a flight later in the evening. Zari was home long enough to brush her teeth, and then we headed off to an orthodontist's appointment.

We came back, ate a quick dinner, and then I brought the Corsican siblings to the airport. Since they were flying as unaccompanied minors, I had to stay at the airport with them until their flight took off. So it ended up taking 3 hours in total. I hadn't planned on that today!

I did some major house tidying now that we can put our furniture back and our paint/wallpaper/mudding supplies back. I'm very pleased with the end result of the heat pump installation, particularly that we were able to embed all of the lines inside our apartment.

I could tell the installers really wanted to just install everything with these big plastic "gulottes" (what would they be called in English?) because it would have been easier for them. But they would have been an eyesore forever, and when we got the original estimate, he had told me they could embed everything in the walls. You can't even tell they are there now, and in fact Zari's room looks better than it every has since we redid the entire wall.

Zari and Dio were both exhausted when they came home. Between nonstop activities, late bedtimes, and early wake-ups, they are ready for a relaxed day tomorrow.

Zari made a new friend--a boy a year older than her who is homeschooled. They talked for hours about politics, presidents, conspiracy theories, and history. They also both sat out the "soiree musicale" (dance) since, as she told me, "the music was way too loud! It was so loud I wanted to run away the whole time!" She's so much like me in that regard. Small talk? Kill me now. Deep conversations? Sign me up! Loud music? Kill me now a second time.

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(Other) French apartment renovations, Day 220: Paint and wallpaper

13,085 steps

We went to bed last night to the smell of fresh paint (primer). I did the top coat this morning. We now have our bedroom back!

We also wallpapered the 2nd layer on Zari's back wall, and this evening it was dry enough to prime. Ivy helped roll on the primer. We'll paint the top coat tomorrow morning, just in time for when she and Dio come home in the afternoon from their camp.

I also did some retouching in a few other areas in our own apartment since we have all the supplies up here.

I went running this morning. Ivy and Inga played at the chateau with the same friend, and then in the afternoon Eric took them to the library where they played with the friend some more. So they definitely can check "exercise" and "socializing" off their list for today!

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(Other) French apartment renovations, Day 219: Lice round 2

8,556 steps

Ivy has been complaining that her head itches. I checked it a few times over the past few days and didn't see anything. However, her hair was also very tangly so I couldn't go through sections systematically.

This morning, we got her hair washed, conditioned, and brushed. And yes...there were lice! I'd guess there were 12-15 lice and a moderate number of nits. Nowhere near as many nits as Inga by a factor of 10 or more.

I actually did a full comb-through twice on Ivy today. The second one only resulted in a few stray nits.

Just to be sure, I also did Inga's head again thoroughly. We saw a few specks in the rinse water that may or may not have been nits. And then I did my own head just to be sure.

So that ended up taking a lot of my time today.

Ivy and Inga went to the chateau with a friend, which gave Eric and me several hours of uninterrupted work. We hung the rest of the wallpaper in our bedroom and the first layer of wallpaper in Zari's bedroom. Eric applied MAP on some of the larger holes or cracks in the Communist apartment, and I patched a few holes with plaster.

Late this evening, I applied the first coat of primer in our bedroom. We can paint tomorrow morning and we'll finally have our bedroom back! We've had ladders and dropcloths for the past week.

We had a quick late afternoon swim, as usual. We spotted a jellyfish and were a bit more careful where we swam after that. A few minutes after we had finished, a man got stung, probably by the same jellyfish. Nothing dangerous, just painful.

Eric is playing soccer with a new over-40 men's team. It's a late game, starting at 9 pm at a town 40 minutes away. He was so excited to find a team to play with. I have the feeling that he'll be running in circles around many of the others.

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(Other) French apartment renovations, Day 218: Chateau and goodbyes

11,431 steps

Zari and Dio left early this morning for their youth camp (well, it's not really camping but I don't know what else to call it!). Eric picked up 3 kids from Corsica who were flying unaccompanied and needed a ride to the camp.

I took Ivy and Inga to the chateau because we got a message that one of her friends would be there with her dad. And then I got another message from a mom of Ivy's friend asking if we could take her daughter. Sure! So both girls had someone to play with. I spent 2 hours talking pedagogy and philophy with the dad. He's a former univeristy history professor whose full-time profession is now homeschooling his daughter and "working as little as possible and living as much as possible."

I haven't taken a morning off at a park for a long time. Because Eric didn't get back until mid-day, we only did some small things on our apartments. I added another coat of mud on our walls, and Eric primed more drywall. We'll be ready to hang wallpaper tomorrow.

After lunch, Inga's friend came over for the afternoon. She helped me make a tian for dinner (thinly sliced eggplant, zucchini, tomatoes, onions, & bell peppers with herbes de Provence & olive oil, baked until it's well browned and starting to caramelize).

The house is so quiet minus Zari and Dio. And our evenings are nice and long!

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(Other) French apartment renovations, Day 217: Feast, fast, & finally AC

15,923 steps

I woke up early, feeling a bit lethargic from yesterday's feast. Instead of lying in bed and pretending I was asleep, I decided to go for an early run. It was nice to go out with the sun lower in the sky. Everyone was still asleep when I got back, and one of the heat pump guys, The Russian, was waiting at the front door.

The heat pump crew brought in a new guy to do a lot of the wall channels. He's from Russia and hardly speaks any French, so we call him "The Russian." He managed to embed the lines in our living room and bedrooms, for which I was very grateful.

However, The Russian is also not very good at finishing work and he makes a mess everywhere he goes. He cut through some electrical cables in the back room and just clipped them together with wire connectors. He was going to embed them in the wall as-is, which is totally against code over here. I insisted that he re-run the wires between the 2 outlets. The outlets were close together so it was an easy job. But still...I shouldn't have to be the one catching these errors! I also had to fix some of his plastering jobs because several areas were sticking out way too far.

Good news, though...even though we're still plastering the last lines, all of the heat pump units are installed. And even better--they all work! We stood in silent celebration as cool air wafted over us. Honestly I can live with the heat here. I have done so for 7 years. But it was SO nice to be able to cool our apartment down!

I keep the rooms at 26 C at the coldest (79 F). Any lower and I'm too cold! We won't cool any of the bedrooms during the day, since we're all in the living room during our waking hours.

After yesterday's feast, I felt simultaneously full and hungry much of the day. I gave my body a break and didn't eat until 4 pm. It felt good to eat reasonably small portions today. Now I'm feeling much more energized.

In the morning Eric took the kids out to play soccer and run around, allowing me to finish the painting in the living room. This evening we put the fridge and dining room furniture back. It's so nice to have our living space again. Tomorrow we'll wallpaper and paint our bedroom. I finished the final mudding this evening at 11 pm. The Russian's plastering job definitely needed a final topcoat.

Zari and Dio are packing for a 4-day youth camp. They leave tomorrow morning. Should be fun! Dio really wants to sleep with Zari, but I'm pretty sure they'll be separating the boys' and girls' dormitories. Despite the uptick in Covid cases, they are proceeding with the camp, albeit with a lot of precautions.

We had time for a short late afternoon swim. It was just me, Eric, and Ivy this time.

I had a Zoom meeting this evening (breech peer review). Eric was busy making crepes and forgot about piano lessons! Oops. My mom was able to do them later.

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(Other) French apartment renovations, Day 216: Lazy afternoon party

We spent the afternoon up in the "arrière pays" (back country) at a birthday party for one of Ivy's friends. It was hot and langorous with cicadas droning. I settled into a hammock under an arbor of grape vines, watching the sun wink in and out of view.

It reminded me of when Dio was an infant, 5 weeks old. We were visiting family in Canada. He was a very fussy baby, but the one thing that entranced him into calm was lying swaddled on a lounge chair the back deck, looking up into the branches of quaking aspen.

I took 3 naps over the course of the afternoon and evening! I felt like I was moving through molasses all day. Eric and I went on an evening walk once we were back home and both of us remarked about feeling the same way, slow and heavy.

It might have been from the delicious food that we ate too much of (the friend's dad is a chef). We got sent home with loads of leftovers.

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(Other) French apartment renovations, Day 215: Wallpaper layer 2

14,303 steps

Well, we had some complications with our re-wallpapering. On Thursday we ran out of our fiberglass wallpaper and went to buy more. Unfortunately, the store we had bought it from was out of stock. None of the other stores in town had the same pattern. Eric went all over the place looking for it. We ordered some online from a big box store, and it came yesterday morning.

It was close, but not the same. A bit more flimsy and less texture. We put it up hoping for the best...but it just didn't look good. It showed every imperfection. The whole point of appling fiberglass wallpaper is to hide imperfections!

I went to yet another home improvement store this morning and couldn't find the right pattern.

So we scratched our heads and decided to put a 2nd layer using leftover scraps. We very carefully cut all the scraps to have super straight edges and were able to just barely piece enough together to cover the kitchen wall. And as a bonus, with the 2nd layer, it's the same thickness as the original paper we're butting up against.

What else?

Inga and I went running together this morning. She is super wicked fast, but hasn't ever done endurance running, aka running without stopping for 30+ minutes. We had to stop a few times but that's okay.

Dio went running on his own. We couldn't persuade Zari to go out and exercise. This is getting to be a bit of an issue since she is otherwise sedentary and I want her to a) get outdoors enough and b) stay in shape, with whatever form of exercise she chooses. I'm not worried about her weight or any of that nonsense, but I do want her to stay physically active.

I told her that I'm trying to ensure balance: reading for several hours during vacation is fine. But reading or sitting around the house all day? Not okay. It needs to be balanced with physical activity and social interaction of some sort. (I know this all too well, because I do it, too, at times!)

Anyway Dio and Inga stayed home in the late afternoon while Ivy, Eric, Zari, and I went to the beach. I almost had to drag her out of the house but she ended up having a great time swimming and playing with Ivy and snorkeling. The water was the clearest I've ever seen it.

Ivy helped me make a tiramisu for tomorrow. Dinner tonight ended up being Greek by happenstance. I made spanakopita and grilled halloumi cheese. Dessert was "fake ice cream," as we call it: frozen berries blended with cream and a little dash of sugar.

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(Other) French apartment renovations, Day 214

Eric got the kids up and out of the house first thing this morning. They've been too sedentary (partly our fault, as we're so busy with renovations). I applied epoxy wood hardener to several problematic areas up in the back room of the Communist apartment. I still need to finish treating the very end of the big beam but the other spots are taken care of now.

The heat pump guys were here again today. Still not quite ready to go. They installed the blower unit in our bedroom in the wrong place (they put it right above our bed, when we'd talked to them several times about putting it to the left of the bed so it's not on top of the mezzaine). So I had to text the boss and ask if he could move it to where we had originally asked to put it. Fortunately it's doable, although it will require even more chipping away and re-re-doing the wallpaper.



The kids helped me prime the new wallpaper in the kitchen. I was going to paint the top coat this evening but it's a bit too late. So that's my plan for first thing in the morning. Then we can finally put the fridge and dining table back in place.

We had our usual late afternoon swim and ended up with 4 other families, our usual group of parents from school. Several of them ordered pizzas and ate at the beach, but we headed home because Eric had dinner planned (green beans & bacon; duck breast with shallots, honey, & balsamic).

Also a few pictures from Wednesday, when I was gone and Eric took the kids out all day due to the dust. The whole house was covered. We had to wash every surface at least 3-4 times to get it to disappear.

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(Other) French apartment renovations, Days 212 & 213

10,142 steps

I was so exhausted yesterday that I skipped a day of journaling. The first missed day since the start of the pandemic. Yes, THAT exhausted.

I was gone from 8 am - 7 pm at a musical event (playing my violin at a retirement home). By time we played the last song, I was so tired and hot (wearing a mask + being in a hot room) that I thought I was going to pass out. I hadn't eaten anything all day except a dessert that they served at 4:15 pm. Sugar on an empty stomach = pas bon.

I came home to a disaster. A disaster that I knew would happen, but still a disaster. The heat pump guys had cut wall channels in our living room and bedroom, and there was rock and plaster dust everywhere. I had hoped for a quiet evening: eat and then sit down and relax. But instead the whole family ended up mopping and washing and vacuuming. I didn't stop until about 10:30 pm.

Today we decided to pause the Communist apartment renovations because our own apartment now had big channels cut through the walls. We tore off all of the fiberglass wallpaper in the affected areas, scraped and levels the walls as best as we could, and then began hanging new wallpaper. We ran out of wallpaper in the mid-afternoon. I have more on order (arriving tomorrow morning).

To make the day even MORE fun, in the late afternoon the heat pump guys started cutting the wall channels in Zari's room...not bothering to close her door! So this pumped clouds of dust into the whole apartment AGAIN.



We decided to just leave and go to the beach to let the dust settle. We came back once the work crew was gone. Quick dinner because we were pressed for time (grilled cheese sandwiches with my homemade sourdough bread, Emmental, avocados, & tomatoes; green beans; Turkish yogurt with red berries).

Then...More cleaning! More mopping! More vacuuming! More tearing off old wallpaper!

We'll probably be busy all day tomorrow wallpapering and painting. Then we can get back to our normal programming.

Other news: Ivy is at another sleepover. I hope she goes to bed earlier this time. Last time she was a disaster when she came home.

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French apartment renovations, Day 211: Mortgages and more power tools

10,149 steps This morning we tackled the ceiling again. Zari helped me rip shims on the table saw. She does not like the table saw--it scares her! I agreed, "Yes, you need to have a healthy respect for tools like that."

We still had several joists that were sticking out beyond their neighbors. I had tried chiseling one of them down and it took hours and hours of work with a horribly uneven result. I tried cross-cutting shallow hatch lines with various tools. Nothing really helped. After that one joist, I decided that chiseling was just a bad idea.

I suggested borrowing a planer from a friend, but Eric didn't want to wait. So he went to a few home improvement stores and came home with the right tool. I have to admit, it's great having the right tool and being able to get it done straight away.

Both Zari and Dio helped me plaster more of the electrical cables. Both the upper and lower hallways are now done. We have decided to smooth the walls with "enduit de lissage" before installing the boxes in case the smoothing compound adds a bit of thickness.



We had an appointment with our bank to look at refinancing the mortgage on our apartment. Interest rates are great right now (1.23% for a 15-year refinance) so we are going to go for it. We won't save as much as we'd hoped originally due to more expensive (but better) life insurance tied to the mortgage, but we'll still save a good amount over the life of the loan. And we'll be able to consolidate everything into one bank account. Right now we have 2 French bank accounts and they cost about $15/month each just to use.

In the morning, Zari sent Inga and Dio outside. They chose to go to the splash pad (miroir d'eau). I finally got Zari to exercise in the afternoon. And then I couldn't convince any of the kids to go swimming with me in the late afternoon! Their loss. I had a nice 20-minute swim and came back considerably cooler.

Eric went spearfishing in the evening. He didn't catch anything, though.

Ivy came back in the late afternoon from her sleepover. She was very happy and also very cranky. Apparently they got to sleep well after midnight and then woke up at 6 am ready to play again. She fell asleep on the couch while we were watching an episode of "Les Jeromes." I woke her up to get her out of her swimming suit. "I wasn't sleeping! I was just thinking!" She got really grouchy at just about everyone and was convinced everyone was being mean to her.

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French apartment renovations, Day 210: Ceiling drywall, sleepovers, and migrating bread

8,874 steps

It's hot! I went to bed hot, woke up hot, and stayed hot except for a brief interlude in the ocean in the afternoon. Still doable but the heat presses in from all directions.

We got two sheets of acoustic drywall hung on the ceiling this morning. "Only two?" you might ask. Well, remember that we're installing this on a ceiling that isn't level, flat, straight, or square--anywhere. One side has to tuck inside the great big load-bearing beam, but of course the beam itself isn't even so some places stick out more than others. With 2 kids, 2 adults, lots of trimming and re-trimming, and many shims, we got the first two sheets in place.

Zari was terrified she was going to drop the drywall on her head. It's heavy--far heavier than normal drywall. But we did okay.

We have to accept that we will never have flat or straight ceilings in this apartment and just do the best we can.

With some of the leftover MAP (which we'd used for a bit of extra reinforcement on top of using screws), we sealed in some of the electrical cables in the downstairs WC.

I stayed for a while in the afternoon shaving down one of the joists that is sticking out far beyond the others. It's about 2/3 done. What a pain. It has to be done bit by bit with a chisel.

Ivy left this afternoon for a sleepover. She overpacked by several outfits and underwear changes. I didn't want to stamp out her excitement so I just kept adding things to her backpack. She'll be up in the "arriere pays" with two other friends.

We couldn't get Dio or Inga to come to the beach. Oh well--it was magnificent. Their loss.

Zari helped me go grocery shopping and carry home 160 Euros of groceries. Keeping our family supplied with food is its own job!

I made bread for the first time in a long while. It's getting too hot for baking bread. One of my loaves slid off the edge of the baking stone and plopped onto the bottom of the oven. Then it kept on baking down there. So we had a very interesting looking loaf of bread, with the bottom bit on the baking stone, a very burned bit that had baked in place on its way down, and then a weird lumpy loaf on the bottom that I had to scrape off with a long wooden spoon, trying not to burn myself in the process.

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French apartment renovations, Day 209: Recovery

~5k steps

I slept poorly due to chest aches--something like heartburn or pleurisy. And it's been persisting today, so I took it easy and didn't do much at all. I think all of us needed a day off, honestly! It's tiring to have fun!

Today is the first truly hot day of the summer. I think we had a high of 32 C (90 F). It's still bearable, even without AC, but definitely warm in the afternoon. Now our windows are all open, attempting to catch any stray breezes and cool the apartment down overnight.

Ivy had a friend over in the afternoon. After an early dinner, Eric brought them to the beach for a quick swim.

I did get up to cook dinner (risotto and a puree of 5 green vegetables). That's the grand total of today's accomplishments.

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