Hardwood: Before and After

Just a couple of photos. I am not responsible for the beautiful job that was done in my house today, except monetarily. :)

Oh, give me a home!

Our house isn't much of a home right now. There is not one bit of home-like anything in either our kitchen or dining room. The flooring folk will be installing floors on Thursday (how slowly can 2 days tick by?), and after that I can put back some of the furniture and get started on the cabinets. I have been eating straight out of the fridge, and making coffee in the laundry room!

Luckily I am completely swamped with work and don't have time to stare sadly at my oh-so-naked rooms. But you can! First you see the empty dining room, which I pulled the carpet out of, and then the kitchen before and after. My dad was a major factor in kitchen demo, as you'll see. The cat, too.

Chipka in the office

I thought I'd share a picture of how I work. It involves a cuddly yet very grumpy cat draped over my right arm, groaning/growling every time I move my arm to use the mouse, even sometimes "biting" me when my arm is somewhere she doesn't necessarily like or find comfortable. (I put "biting" in quotes, because this activity includes her opening her mouth, putting her teeth on my arm, and pushing. I say, "Hey!" or "Nooo" and she stops and licks me. Then it starts over. Speaking of starting over, putting her on the floor is also fruitless.) I remember reading a copyeditors' LISTSERV email someone posted months ago about how she solved a similar problem by buying a baby sling and putting the cat in it. I thought this was ridiculous at the time as I was still in an office, but I'm seriously considering it now.

Official open-ended freelance gig!

I had a phone call this afternoon with the publisher who thought I scored well on my editing test, and she asked what I was looking for, and when I said I was looking for a good "base project" for my freelance business, she said "well, that's what I can offer you"! Perfect! So, I'm going to start with about 15 hours a week, and maybe as I see that I'm really enjoying the work, I'll go for more (up to 40!). What a relief to have something STEADY, with a tangible "at least" number to hold onto as I fall into the abyss of not knowing what may or may not come down the pike in the future. That, for me, has been the hardest thing to get used to in freelancing so far. Especially now, while we're remodeling the kitchen and need all the cash we can find.