Tom arrived safely at 9-30am yesterday morning, with two miserable,traumatized cats in tow.
Of *course* as an alternative to 90+ and humid, we had 80s and near 100% humidity all day, and no breeze, so everyone was soaked with sweat very quickly. Fortunately, my host, his wife, and several of their friends showed up to help get everything unloaded. That was a huge help - we had the truck emptied by midday, and could start sorting things out.
We now have a living room full of furniture, including the box spring of our bed, which was *not* going up the stairs in any circumstances. Rob and Gary (host and friend) spent a solid half-hour trying to get it into the stairwell, and it was not happening.
The kitchen is more or less functional, with a collection of assortd homeless bits and pieces, and the back room is full of boxes and bits and bobs.
The attic contains a collection of boxes and things that were looked at and designated "deal with later - attic". At least we have ample storage space! There's even unused cupboard space in the kitchen!
Upstairs, we've taken the smaller, front bedroom (among other things, the window AC there actually works), and turned the back bedroom into an office space. It will double as a guest room when we get organized enough to get ourselves some kind of sofa bed for it. It's a nice big room, so a sofa bed won't be a problem. We're also looking at possibly a cheap AC unit for that room.
The attic is storage. Lots of storage. Partly because the old chimney (sealed goodness only knows how long ago and probably not touched since then) has sagging brickwork in the attic, and there could be other problems.
The back room will be my craft stuff, closet space, and kitty korner. Crafts I'm not currently working on will probably join everything in the attic.
The living room will include walls of books (as many as I can cram onto the shelves) and my ornaments. Exactly how we'll use it will depend on how things sort out.
We still need to find or arrange a dresser of some kind (closet space is seriously inadequate - we will almost certainly have the closets in both bedrooms full to busting) and - preferably - a glassed display cabinet for my ornaments and things, especially as some of them can't be dusted. That can wait, at this point.
I'm aching all over and totally exhausted, and so is Tom. We still need to find out if the window ac unit downstairs actually works, and get it into a window if it does.
Oh, and at least one of the cats has overcome her trauma enough to knock on the bedroom door last night to be let in for snuggles, and knock again a few hours later to be let out for potty. Then again to come back in.
She's following us around and keeping an eye on us, while the other one has taken up position on top of the fridge and is watching from there.
Kate