This is one of those “Why didn’t we do this when we had the house all torn up last fall?” situations.
Last fall during the big remodel, we rewired the entire kitchen and downstairs powder room and two upstairs bedrooms. For reasons which seemed good at the time (I hate to say how much that job cost!), we left out the front bedroom, and the miscellaneous wiring in the hall and entryway, all of which was ancient ungrounded knob-and-tube. This fall (after having been turned down by three insurance companies because we still had working knob-and-tube wiring) we brought back Scott the electrician, and asked him to replace all the remaining knob-and-tube.
Scott, his sidekick, and his team of plasterers have been here since Tuesday, and they’ll be back Monday. We hope they’ll finish Monday, especially as at the moment we have no electric light in the dining room. I went out today and bought candles and some modern candle-holders, and we dined in elegant dimness. Unlike last year, we’re living in the house while the work is going on. I’ve emailed the cleaning company, which usually comes first thing Tuesday morning, and ask them to move us to afternoon next week, just in case.
There isn’t any real reason why I couldn’t do some of the projects I’m supposed to be working on, not to mention the rehearsing I’m supposed to do, except that the house is so torn up I can’t concentrate, plus they’ve had drop-cloths draped over my keyboard and music stand for 2 days. Since yesterday my ability to concentrate has been further disrupted by a major windstorm. I hate high winds. The dust they kick up annoys my allergies, and they make me feel threatened. Nobody who lived through the Oakland Hills Fire in 1991 will ever feel quite the same about a high wind. Nothing is more destructive than a fire that takes down 3,500 homes; but as a windstorm this one is actually worse. Trees in 1991 just burned; but in this storm we’ve had trees blown down on cars, and across roads, all over the Bay Area, and Scott the electrician said when he drove in from Contra Costa this morning he had trouble keeping his car on the road.
The high wind advisory is now gone, but there’s still a small craft advisory off the coast. Scott and his team don’t work weekends. Maybe I can get something done tomorrow.
