In 1992-3, we endured a significant home remodel by living out of the house, in an apartment for five months. I likened it to camping.

In this manner, I made light of the

  • mashed, matted, and dirty orange shag carpet that covered the floor and the grease-layered linoleum in the kitchen and single bath.
  • As well as the yellow-white of the ubiquitous Navajo White walls, a color popular in the early days of our city and no longer in vogue.
  • I parked in a slim two-car garage, gliding in with ease, within a centimeter of the right wall. I endured common walls with other people’s noise.

I coped because I had to. It was proximate to the remodel job site so that my husband and I could oversee the contractor’s work crews. “Oversight makes right,” my husband said.

The reward would be the expanded home of our dreams.

We’re now into the fourth month of our enforced homestay in 2020. It’s not clear when – or if – we’ll ever be free and clear of COVID-19.

I do know I’m past the point of considering our modified house arrest as merry camping.

We’d intended to replace the matted and dirty carpet in our living and master bed rooms. We’d even selected the color, the weave, and had a quote for the replacement of new for old carpet. Then COVID-19 homestay started and, as a non-essential business, the local carpet store closed its doors to the public. It’s likely that the owners were more glum than we were…

Finally, finally, the state and its business are decreed unlocked. My husband and I returned to the carpet store within days and the staff were as happy to see us as we were to enter. The carpet’s still in stock, we still like it above all others, and, best of all, the price is reduced!

Joy! On solstice day, the new carpet will be installed! We are ready for a magic carpet ride