Friday the thirteenth

Dave left the house at 6:30 am. He was supposed to pick up a fellow to work on our well. Today was the day our water problems would be solved. We have our own drilled well that has run out of water. We've been using city water. Today the drilled well would be cleaned out and its water added to the reservoir where the city water came in. No more running out of water!



The rest of us wearily drug ourselves out of bed to go back to working on the boys' room after working hard all week. The ceiling was up. One half of the ceiling had one coat of paint. I got out my brush and continued the edging so that others could follow with the roller. Seth came in to spackle.

As soon as Allona and Vova got up and around I enlisted them cleaning out the debris of wallboard and pieces of boards, tools and dirt otherwise that lay all over the room. I wanted to finish the room and start moving in that day.

Faith came up to work her aching arms back forth to wield the roller across the ceiling. All of a sudden I heard a cry. "OH!!!"

"Dare I look?" I asked.

"Better not," was the answer.

Imagining a puddle of paint on the floor and over the freshly stained wall timbers, I turned around. The puddle of paint that I expected was slowing soaking into Faith's clothes. Seth and I started laughing. Seth's hands were not paint-spattered like mine so he ran and got the camera. "I shouldn't have gotten up today!" Faith said.

By mid-morning, the room was cleaned out fairly well. Both sides of the ceiling had at least one coat on them. I was starting on one special part of the wall. Vova had asked me to paint the wall in camouflage. Seth was continuing to spackle. Faith was starting on the walls. The men were outside working on the well, bringing up a small amount of sand.

At lunch Allona fixed us chili, with step-by-step directions from Mom. Because our worker said his stomach couldn't tolerate spice and tomatoes, she fixed him another soup of potatoes, carrots and meat.

After a break she and Vova did dishes. The rest of us continued to work on our respective jobs.

About 3:30 when we are all thoroughly sweaty, grimey and paint-spattered, Vova and Allona had an announcement. "We're out of water!" Dave and our friend had run up town for an errand.

They returned to work on the well. No success, a few gallons of water was all they were able to pump out. And those gallons were very dirty. Dave sent Vova to the store to get some pop to drink. We needed another tool to work on the well. We went to the neighbors. They fixed the tool up for us with a bit of welding. The fellows went back to work.

I sent Vova to the store to get some plain drinking water so we could fix supper. He came back with carbonated mineral water. He warmed the soups from lunch. They scorched, to the extent of ruining one pan. He tried to fix grilled cheese sandwiches using oil.

We ate and went back to work. Dave took our worker home, with no further success. Our worker told us he would like to give the well drillers "a talking to!" Here's what they were working with and on.

The camouflage was done. Now to finish the walls and get the linoleum cut to fit the remodeling and down. Ten pm found us trying to sweep the last bit of dirt from one side of the room to put the linoleum down.
By around eleven the first piece was down but we were getting tired enough that our fitting linoleum around things was no longer accurate.

We decided to go to bed, wallboard spackling dust in our hair, stinky and dirty as we were, and try again the next day!

Saturday, when the city water hadn't been turned on at 9:30 am, we ordered a small tank of water brought in. The driver brought it promptly. We were ever so grateful. As soon as the linoleum was laid, the walls that were hard to see in artificial lighting, touched up, and all the boys' belongings hauled back into the room, I disappeared to find the tub.

What a relief!

We had four city kids come in, to visit from around three pm until seven pm. Yes, we were busy, but I was afraid that if I said anything now at the beginning of summer, they might not want to come back!

By evening the boys' room was back in relative order, as was the rest of the house. As Seth did supper dishes, we worked on plans for youth camp. We're behind on laundry but otherwise pretty well set for Sunday.

Thanks for sharing my long Friday the thirteenth. . . . as my husband reminded me when I was in the US and he was in Ukraine . . . better days are coming!