French apartment renovations, Day 170: Swimming, soccer, noise

12,237 steps

The plumbers showed up nice and early this morning for a half-day of work. I was going to do some work, too, but decided to stay out of their way. And Eric convinced me to come to the beach for a quick morning swim with all of the kids. It was so gorgeous that Zari went back home to get her swimming suit.

Oh, Zari had her brevet oral today and felt that it went well! Because of that, Dio didn't have any school today.

It's starting to feel like summer. Ivy came out of soccer practice, having dumped loads of water all over herself. I'm always surprised at how long it takes for the weather to get warm. Spring is always beautiful and slow, with very few temperature fluctuations. I generally don't start opening my windows until well into May.

We had yet another failed soccer practice for Dio. He had a RDV at 3:30 pm. We were stuck at a super long stoplight and made it there at 3:31 pm. No one was there! I finally found the coach's number and he told me he'd already left. Seriously?! So we learned we have to be at least 5 minutes early for this coach.

We watched a movie together this evening--well, Eric had a big presentation to work on, so it was the rest of us. Today curfew went up to 11 pm and I am already wishing it were back at 9 pm. Too much noise outside! Go away stupid tourists and locals who make noise. I don't want to be forced to listen to your music and your drunken laughter. Even with my windows closed it's loud.

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French apartment renovations, Day 169: Big delivery!

13,731 steps

A momentous day: two pallets of supplies arrived on a delivery truck! It was mostly sheetrock: white (regular), green (for bathrooms), blue (acoustic), and styrofoam-backed (thermal insulation). We also received sandblasting media, acoustic insulating membrane, and wood for the other mezzanine subfloor.

The delivery truck was unable to deliver it in front of our apartment because the crane only worked to the side of the truck, not off the back. And our street is barely wide enough to fit one car! So the driver had to pull into the nearest intersection and drop it off to one side. There was just enough room for a car to pass once the pallets were on the ground.

 


As we were carrying the drywall down the street, I saw a man in full climbing/rapelling gear descending a nearby building. This is fairly common here; a lot of the manual trades have to be done while suspended on ropes as access is otherwise impossible.

This is life in Old Nice.

Then the not-fun part started: we had to carry everything down the street, into our building, and upstairs. We got everything into the building (with some help from a friend and from the barber next door) but most of the sheetrock is still in the downstairs hallway.

We carried up a few sheets and it about did us in. The staircase is so narrow (for a 4x8' piece of sheetrock) that it required constantly lifting and shifting each sheet around each turn. I can carry sheetrock just fine on level ground. Not so much up our stairs!

We also got a few other small shipments today: more electrical cable and two big buckets of a special enduit de lissage (Toupret Planeo G).

At this point we took a lunch break. I was already pretty kaput. But we powered on in the afternoon and carried 3 sheets of green sheetrock upstairs. We got the first piece cut and installed in what will be the shower! Woohoo! It was a complicated cut, going around a few different beams in the ceiling. But it worked.

I also drilled more holes in the big wall where I'll once again put the MAP. This will ensure that the next layer of MAP, which glues the drywall to the wall, really grips onto the wall. You can see the daubs I did yesterday. Those big scratches are purposeful; they help the next layer adhere well.

I called it quits right before 5 pm. Time for a quick shower, then I brought Dio to a RDV point for soccer practice. Back home to cook dinner (larb). Zari has her brevet oral tomorrow, so she's been practicing this evening.

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French apartment renovations, Day 168: Very late birthday lunch

12,397 steps

Ivy has been talking about having a birthday lunch ever since her birthday. With restaurants opening back up for outdoor dining a few weeks ago, we finally made it happen today!

She chose a nearby Indian restaurant. Indian food in France is SO MILD, like almost no spice at all. The flavors are there, but none of the heat. Way different than Indian restaurants in the US.

When the waiter heard that it was her birthday lunch, he gave her two scoops of ice cream for free. She was beaming and talking a mile a minute the whole time.

I ran and did computer work in the morning. After lunch, Eric and I cut yet more wall channels (we keep thinking we're done...and then we're not!). We hung the brackets for the hot water heater. And then we mixed a big bucket of MAP, which is an adhesive mortar used to attach drywall to walls, to fill large holes in walls, etc. I don't know what the English equivalent is.

I used the MAP to create daubs all along the upper mezzanine wall, where we are going to attach drywall. The wall is nowhere near flat or level, so these daubs were a way of creating a mostly- level surface. We'll put another round of daubs on top of the existing ones when we adhere the drywall to the wall.

So yeah, we're making progress! Our big drywall & sandblasting order arrives tomorrow, along with more electrical wire and "enduit de lissage," a product for smoothing out irregular walls. We might very well have some drywall up by tomorrow. I might even do a happy dance if that happens.

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French apartment renovations, Day 167: Lazy Sunday

13,367 steps

I felt better today, but Eric was super tired much of the day. I had a nice walk up to Cimiez. Then Zari and I walked down past the Monastery and across the river to Cavigal. She had a soccer match in the afternoon. I dropped her off at 12:30 pm and she didn't return until 7 pm! I'm not sure why they met at 12:30 since the match didn't start until 3:30 and it was only 45 minutes away.

We had a nice lazy afternoon. The kids watched a Minecraft playthrough video about how to defend against zombie attacks. Then we went up to the chateau. Inga got really upset because Dio accidentally knocked her over when they were both chasing after a ball. The rest of the time she was Ms. Grumpy Pants. She gets very intense that way.

We ate leftover Thai coconut chicken soup, plus ratatouille on couscous. I'll make larb on Tuesday.

Not much else to report. Bonne nuit!

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French apartment renovations, Day 166: Rest day

3,867 steps

I got a good night's sleep, but woke up with a slight fever and feeling a bit icky. Nothing terrible, just my immune system gearing up. So I took it easy today and did lots of reading and resting on the couch.

I wasn't feeling well enough to go to soccer games in the morning and afternoon, so Eric had to do it all. Inga and Dio had soccer events in the morning and Dio had a match in the afternoon. So much soccer.

I brought the girls out to the beach in the afternoon for some Vitamin D therapy. I wasn't sure if I would swim, but I finally decided to give it a go. It was great. The water is cool but not cold anymore. Inga and Ivy swam with me and Zari decided just to read.

This brought back memories of 3 years ago, when I was going through all sorts of panic attacks and insomnia and anxiety (related to Eric being back in the States for 4 months and me being with the kids on my own). The only time my body felt normal was when I was in the sea. The rest of the time during that stressful period, my skin, my entire body, felt wrong. And I felt brittle, like the smallest thing could shatter me.

It was a long road to resilience. But about a year after it all began, I could finally look back and say that I was thankful for going through it all. It was horrible, don't get me wrong, but in the long run I learned some amazing lessons about coping with stress and gained good-but-painful insights about myself.

Anyway, enough deep thoughts for one day.

We finished watching "I Am Mother" tonight and all of us were left very confused at the end.

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French apartment renovations, Day 165: Reformed epoxy and middle-of-the-night phone calls

13,805 steps

Well, I got out that bad epoxy and shook it around a little. And it started loosening up and getting more and more liquid. Huh. So I gave it a go and mixed it up with the hardener and applied it to the rotted beam. The biggest issue is I didn't have enough. I'll need tons just for this one big beam since the end is almost completely rotten.

I got the entire ceiling prepped for drywall by chiseling down any high (or rather, low) spots and bits of wood that were sticking out beyond level. There were lots! Besides the rotten area in the corner, we're pretty much good to go for the ceiling.

We met with a HVAC installer; we've decided to install ductless minisplits in both our apartment and in the one we're renovating. It's a complicated install because we have to put the heat pumps waaaaay far away on the roof of our building; they can't be installed on the exterior walls due to historic preservation regulations. So $$ but necessary and far more energy efficient than the other option (conventional electric radiators).

We had planned on a picnic at the beach with several other families, but the weather turned overcast and windy right before dinner and then it started raining. So we'll do it another night. Since we were eating in, I made soup (Thai coconut chicken soup).

Zari and I took a walk to Lidl to look at running shoes. Unfortunately they were out of her size (43--same size as Eric!).

What else is new today? Oh, Eric and I got our 2nd vaccinations this morning.

Oh, and how could I forget? The weirdest thing happened last night. I was woken out of a dead sleep at 4:30 am by a phone call. It was someone calling from Italy speaking in passable but accented French, asking for a midwife friend of mine's phone number. It was really bizarre. I told her I'd text her the contact info, but she insisted that I give her the phone number right now. She had the first 3 digits but had lost the rest of it.

Of course after this rude awakening I couldn't fall back asleep. I am SO TIRED now.

This reminds me that I would not be a good midwife because I hate middle of the night phone calls and I hate driving. The being at the birth part is great, but it's the other parts that I don't think I could handle.

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French apartment renovations, Day 164: Bad epoxy

16,585 steps

I was all set to apply wood hardener after my morning run. The end of one of the huge beams is all rotted, thanks to a leak in the sewer pipe next to it. I got out my Abatron LiquidWood...and one of the two parts had hardened in the jar. I'm beyond frustrated as I had to bring this over from the US!

I ordered more LiquidWood at least 6 weeks ago and it still hasn't arrived. There is a product here in France that I could use, but it's a lot more expensive and I haven't ever used it (although boat restorers swear by it). Anyway, it's frustrating to have a plan and then to not be able to get it done.

So we switched gears and ran more electrical lines until we ran out of cable. Then we started chiseling away bits of the ceiling joists that were sticking out beyond level (nothing that will affect the structural integrity). We need the joists relatively level, from one to another, before we can attach drywall.

We also got the little dividing wall in the hallway all the way in place and secured to both the floor and ceiling.

What else? I refilled about 10 bottles with sparkling water and spent some time before dinner at the park. Ivy and Inga were playing hard and I enjoyed the time to chat with other parents.

The house is a bit messy and I'm trying to decide if I'm going to clean or if I'm going to ignore it and read a book instead. What do you vote?

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French apartment renovations, Day 163: Bookkeeping and soccer

10,972 steps

For how exhausted I was after yesterday's field trip, I couldn't fall asleep for a while last night! So annoying.

I spent the entire morning doing bookkeeping for Breech Without Borders. The joys of running a nonprofit.

After our usual dropoff, pickup, and grocery run, I brought Dio to his scheduled RDV to go to his soccer practice. He was going to get a ride with the coach. When we got there...no one was there. Hmmm. I called Eric and got the coach's number. The coach said, "Oh, Eric didn't tell you? Practice was 2 hours earlier today." Nope, Eric had told me the wrong time! Eric got a text message yesterday about the time change but forgot to tell me, and I even asked him today if he was sure about the time. No big deal, but Dio was sad to miss practice.

I made meatloaf Wellington and strawberries with whipped marscarpone cream. We ate early tonight--French people would gasp!--but it was nice to have time left over to go on a walk before bedtime.

Guess what we are doing in this photo? It happens quite often chez les Freezes.

That's all. Time to go in bed and read a non-serious book.

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French apartment renovations, Day 162: Rabbits and chickens and goats, oh my!

I chaperoned Ivy's class trip to a local farm up in the mountains. We gathered a half hour earlier than usual to catch a tram + train up to the farm.

Ivy was SO excited. Like jumping up and down, brimming with energy excited.

This was a small farm up in the hills, mostly designed as a teaching farm for groups. We got to see (and touch) goats, sheep, chickens, geese, ducks, pigs, and rabbits. We had a small atelier (workshop) where we carded and felted wool.

There were two classes from Ivy's school. By time we went home, I was exhausted and overwhelmed with the noise and energy and normal antics of 50-odd elementary students. I talked with another chaperone later on today, and she was so tired she feel asleep on the beach waiting for school pickup (luckily she had set an alarm!).

I'll work on the video tomorrow but tonight I just need to collapse. Phew. How to elementary school teachers do that every day?

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French apartment renovations, Day 161: Another day, another wall

13,154 steps

After a morning run, I went through our receipts and added up how much we've spent on our communist apartment renovations so far. More than I expected but honestly I wasn't even sure where we were at all. It's amazing how quickly things add up. We've probably spent 300 Euros just on screws, washers, and nails!

I had an in-person meeting at the sécurité sociale office to sort out my carte vitale. The woman pulled up my files and exclaimed, "But this is a mess! You've submitted all the documents two, three, or four times! You have everything here, but it's all over the place in our system! I don't understand!" I kept saying, "yeah, I know!"

I think we got things sorted out. Like I've told them every time I've called, I have sent in all of the requested documents, some as many as 4 times. They indeed had multiple dossiers under both my married & maiden names. I even have a temporary number that I can start using. Now I wait for the final number...

This morning I treated a few more areas with the wood treatment (insects/rot). Once I got back from my meeting, Eric and I built a wall to divide the upstairs hallway. We built an extra-wide hollow double wall, wide enough to pass a 10 cm (4") sewer pipe through to train the back-to-back toilets. We got it in place but haven't attached it yet. Even better, we were able to build the whole thing out of scraps from our demolition.

I made saag feta for dinner. Yum. Then I had a Zoom meeting that took the rest of my evening. I'm working on a paper about twin birth outcomes at home attended by an obstetrician (Dr. Stuart Fischbein). A fun project!

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French apartment renovations, Day 160: Piano recital

11,570 steps

We had an international Zoom music recital this evening with my 3 sisters and their kids, my parents, and two other families that are either related or that my mom teaches. Zari was stressing way too much. "I'm going to be the oldest one there and everyone else will be playing much harder songs than me! I'm going to make mistakes; it's not going to be perfect."

But it was fine. She wasn't the oldest and she didn't have the easiest pieces. And everyone made mistakes, even the most advanced musicians.

We watched a few episodes of "The Story of God" with Morgan Freeman and one episode of Queer Eye. We ate lots of fish for dinner tonight.

Dio had soccer practice in the afternoon.

Overall today felt relaxing. I'm ready for another week full of renovating and meetings and work and school.

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French apartment renovations, Day 159: Miracle of the fishes, attempt #2

I wrote a long post about today and it got lost when I hit "post" on Facebook. I see a little spinning thing that's been going on for the past 20 minutes. I think it's unsalveagable.

So instead of writing it all out again, I'm going to type a list of highlights: 

• family soccer match at the chateau 
• Ivy had a friend over to play, first time since this lockdown 
• Inga went to a sleepover, first time ever 
• Dio worked on a Bob Ross painting 
• We let the kids watch the Champion's League final tonight 
• Eric caught 11 fish this afternoon, mostly dorade royal

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French apartment renovations, Day 158: Goodbye, wood worms

14,054 steps

I had a hard time waking up this morning. I laid in bed and pretended I was asleep until just before 8 am. Eric was kind enough to wake the kids up and get them ready. He came back in bed for a cuddle.

I went for a run and worked on video transcriptions most of the morning. Tedious but necessary.

After lunch we tidied up the communist apartment in preparation for wood treatment. I suited up and covered all of my skin, put on my respirator and safety google, and went to work. I sprayed all wood surfaces with a product that treats against wood-eating insects, rot, and mushrooms. Except for the main beams, which need to be sandblasted first to get the paint off, it's all treated in the back half.

Back home, I threw everything in the wash and took a shower as soon as I got in the door.

I took Ivy to the temporary gardens after school, and Eric took Inga to the coulee verte. I like having that down time in the late afternoon, where we just sit outside and talk with other parents while the kids run around. Eric's version of downtime is playing soccer with our kids, and often a large group of other children as well.

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French apartment renovations, Day 157: Braving the wilds of Leroy Merlin

Lots of steps and too many €

Well, today was the day: another big shopping trip to Leroy Merlin. It took us 5 hours and lots of €. We ordered a truckload of larger supplies, to be delivered in about 10 days (ugh I hate having to wait so long): regular drywall, insulated drywall, sound-proof drywall, water-resistant drywall, a soundproofing system to go underneath the ceiling drywall, and subfloor for the front mezzanine. And that was just the delivery order!

We filled our car up with things we could carry: drywall compound, drywall tools, plaster, wood treatment for woodworm and other insects, more electrical supplies, sandblasting kit, mortar for tiling, universal primer, a big sifter for cleaning our sandblasting medium...and the list goes on...and on...

We didn't have time or energy to haul toilets or shower doors home today, plus we didn't bring our roof racks this time. That will be another trip (ugh).

We also arranged for an estimate for heat pump heating/cooling systems. The technician was available this evening, so he came over and looked at the communist apartment, then we had him come to our own apartment, and then he looked at our upstairs neighbor's apartment as well! The exterior heat pumps would all be mounted on our roof, so we climbed out of our neighbor's window onto the roof. I've never been up there before--it has beautiful view of the tiled rooftops of Old Nice.

The technician was great: "Tout est possible." I told him I liked hearing that. More often than not, you hear, "C'est pas possible, c'est pas possible."

We also had our syndic (building co-op) meeting tonight and talked about several projects in our building, some small, some bigger. Fortunately we only have 3 families and one business, so it's easy to get things done.

Inga constructed a "kingdom" for Dolly, complete with a green flag waving in the breeze, thanks to an artfully placed fan. She's been obsessed with setting up the flag and the fan just so.

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French apartment renovations, Day 156: Soccer with an unexpected twist

7,682 steps

I woke up very early--before 6 am--and wasn't ready to be awake. Once Zari and Dio got up at 7, I brought their toothbrushes out (so they wouldn't come in and wake me up) and went back to bed.

We had our usual soccer + grocery afternoon, but then Eric found out that Dio's team at the chateau had been disbanded and combined with a team in La Trinité, a neighboring city north of Nice.

With just a half-hour notice, I had to get ready to drive Dio and Ivy over there. We missed the exit and spent another 20 minutes on a long detour to get back to the right exit. I really dislike driving over here, because there are so many bizarre intersections with very little warning about which way to go.

So until soccer season is over, my Wednesdays just got a lot more complicated. I'm hoping he can carpool so we don't have to drive him every Wednesday and Saturday.

The soccer field was in a gorgeous area, way up in the hills near the top of a small mountain. We were next to an equestrian center so Ivy and I got to watch people taking riding lessons. 

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French apartment renovations, Day 155: On the 2nd day of plumbers...

12,314 steps

My true love gave to me: a toilet drain hidden in the wall!

They managed to chisel out enough rocks to recess the entire 10 cm drain pipe into the wall. It's all connected and is awaiting the final tees when they come back. The rough coat of plaster is in.

They also installed the shower/water heater drain lines and started plastering them in as well.



They're done for this week and will be back next week to finish the rest.

We didn't do anything on the apartment since we didn't want to be in the way. I feel bad for not getting work done, but I suppose work *is* getting done, right?

I went running this morning and did a lot of sedentary computer work. I finally needed to get outside and stretch my legs mid-afternoon. Eric and I read on the beach and I got some good Vitamin D therapy plus a cat nap.

I brought Ivy to a new place after school, the Jardin Albert 1er. We've been there many times, but not as an after-school play spot. There are these amazing temporary garden exhibitions, so the group of girls and fun running around in them.

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French apartment renovations, Day 154: Invasion of the plumbers!

11,737 steps

Lots of noise and excitement today: the plumbers arrived. Cue the jackhammering all day long. It was a bit odd because they arrived and said, "ok, we need you to cut the wall channels here, here, and here." Eric and I were surprised as we figured they'd have the tools for it! They had lots of other tools, but not a wall chaser (rainureuse). So we got our tools out and cut the channels in the floor for the main water line and in the wall for the water/drains.

Then we left them to it. See the video for details.

 

Dio had a school assignment due this evening: a movie & narration of the poem "La Cigale et La Fourmi." Zari and Inga helped create the "set." Ivy had a big meltdown because she wanted to hold one of the puppets but we only had 2 puppets and 3 holders. Then she had an even bigger meltdown because we put her name on the credits. "But I didn't even help! You wouldn't let me."

 

Oh, and speaking of meltdowns....Inga had a 30-minute sob fest yesterday after Zari discovered a little slug on a piece of lettuce she was about to eat. Zari pulled the lettuce off her sandwich, showed the slug to everyone, and then rinsed off the lettuce in the kitchen sink. (Then ate her sandwich.)

But Inga was devastated because "Zari killed the slug. She doesn't even care about nature or wildlife!" So for a long time we heard her moaning and sobbing about the poor slug that didn't get a chance to live.

We had rain all day and school holidays. By mid-afternoon, we were going crazy with the kids running around inside the house. They were happy, but it was crazy-noisy-chaotic happy. We tried to send them out but they wouldn't go until I came along and forced them out the door with me. This reminds me of lockdown a year ago.

We went to the coulee verte, which was almost completly empty except for our across-the-street neighbors (one of Inga's best friends) and maybe two other children. One of the benefits of rain--everyone leaves the parks as soon as a drop falls. It was barely misting at that point.

Eric went spearfishing and came home with 4 fish! A sar, a dorade, a labre, and a saupe. Dinner tonight.

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French apartment renovations, Day 153: Silly movies

13,029 steps

We had a family movie afternoon and watched "The Mitchells vs. The Machines." The movie was silly and predictable, and Zari kept up an exasperated commentary of how ridiculous it was. I think that was kind of the point.

We refilled our water bottles at the village "well" (sparkling water fountain). Ivy and Inga did 1-2-3-swing with Eric and thought it was hilarious when he pretended to be the "baby" swinging between them.

The plumber is coming tomorrow morning--hooray! Once we get the electricity in, then we can start doing things that will look dramatically different very quicky, such as drywall.

Well, I guess we still have other steps before that: reinforcing and treating the rotted wood, sandblasting the beams, treating any wood with xylophene as a preventive. THEN we can install drywall. Always so many steps!

Tomorrow is a holiday so we get to turn off our alarm clocks.

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French apartment renovations, Day 152: Birthdays and soccer

8,848 steps

Ivy and I went to a friend's birthday party at a park about 20 minutes away, while everyone else played soccer at the chateau. I forgot to take a picture of the sea glass art that we made.

We left after over 3 hours and were only the second people to leave. But it was nearly 2pm and I hadn't eaten lunch yet and was getting hungry. I also was feeling people-fatigued.

I like being around people but it also tires me out and I have to recharge from it afterwards. If you're an introvert, you'll understand what I'm talking about. I'm not at all shy but I find making small talk, even with friends, challenging. Give me something serious or deep or important to talk about, and I'm fine. But chit-chatting? It's so exhausting!

Eric had a virtual conference presentation in the afternoon, so I took Dio to his soccer tournament at Le Ray, a municipal soccer stadium in northern Nice. So I was outside most of the day. It was cool and overcast and I wasn't quite well enough dressed for the weather.

All I want to do now is curl up in bed under the covers and get warm and snuggly with a book.

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French apartment renovations, Day 151: Nearing the (ceiling) finish line

20,116 steps

Not a bad exercise day, between going running in the morning, running errands the rest of the morning, and jack hammering in the afternoon.

I helped Ivy make some sea glass art for a friend's birthday party tomorrow. I did more of the designing than normal and, of course, all of the glueing since it's an epoxy and not easy to work with.

Zari didn't have any afternoon classes so she read books and exercised via PE With Joe. She deserves it after the last several stressful weeks of preparing for her brevet blanc.

We were planning on having a dinner picnic at the beach with several friends, but the weather turned chilly, cloudy, and windy by late afternoon. We all decided to cancel as we would have been shivering and trying to keep our food from blowing away.

Renovation update: We went back to the first half of the ceiling that we had removed a few months ago. There were lots of places where the old cement hadn't gotten removed to the level of the wooden cross-beams. (I'm not sure what it's made of, but it certainly isn't plaster. It looks and feels a lot more like concrete or cement. It's really hard, and it's the same material that the terrazo floor upstairs was laid into--it serves as a tile bed, a solid fill between each ceiling beam, and the ceiling plaster underneath. Weird.)

We're going to attach the new drywall directly to the wood, so we needed to take off every bit of plaster sticking out. What did that mean? Lots more jackhammering! Eric wanted to put it off until we were ready to hang drywall, but I said, "Let's just do it now and get it DONE." So now it is done, except for two small areas.

We also cut a few more channels for electricity. We're now ready to run wires for all of the ceiling lights on the upper ceiling.

We have a good 30 bags of debris to dipose of even after many trips. The plumber is coming on Monday so our weekend goal is to get everything cleaned up and vacuumed so it's not such a dusty mess everywhere.

Now that curfew has been moved to 9 pm, Eric and I were able to go on our evening walk! We put Zari and Dio in charge of getting Ivy and Inga to bed. What a luxury to come home without the circus that is bedtime.

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