November 18: My Sister Comes to Visit

Over the weekend, Phil worked on several tasks, aided for some hours by a friend. They finished most of the flooring, primarily. Phil bought doors and installed the sliding pocket doors. Without trim, they swing a bit crazily, but it is nice to have them in place.

My sister and her daughters came to visit, arriving Sunday night. We sat up late that first night and talked.

The 18th, though, had beautiful weather sunny, in the 60s. Knowing this might be the last time such a day comes this year, we decided to unpack as much of the storage trailer as we had strength and energy to complete.

Phil and our electrician friend did wiring all day. Our friend joked that this is an electrician's worst nightmare, to have two women storing stuff while the house is being wired. I can see his point, but it was not a deterrent.

After four years, to move things out of storage and into Underground Storage was an amazing experience. In many ways, I had been both dreading it and looking forward to it. Phil happened upon the snake at one point; various cats have padded about; the number of stinkbugs around the perimeter explodes every fall. The space isn't really climate controlled (Phil's office, in the front, usually has the door shut). The climate is humid. Just how much damage should I expect?

One box of books smelled musty and the box felt damp. A second showed visible signs of mildew. (That apparently began with a book purchased from a garage sale; perhaps latent mildew spread?) We uncovered the piano very early on and the bottom corner was discolored.

I had to step back to cry, just a bit. How bad would this be?

I kept uncovering the piano. It does have some very sticky keys; can that be fixed? Perhaps. Happily for the discolored bottom corner, the piano is not veneer, and it hasn't warped at all. (Unlike, sadly, the armoire that we bought two months ago: it has a huge bubble in the veneer after living a few months in the barn. Such a bummer!)

Incredibly, that was the extent of the damage. Two boxes of books that may be of questionable quality, and a bit of possible damage to the piano.

But my ivory knit afghan from Grandma: no damage. Same with the down comforters. And another afghan, which had some form of rodent droppings in it, but no chewing.

Our very large wool rug also had a collection of seeds and droppings in it, but no chewing damage at all. I pulled out a photo album and a bunch of seeds and such fell out from the spine, but there was no damage, not even a few nibbles. We found a few acorns in a box with some blankets—was a squirrel living in the storage trailer?

There are a few tiny nibble marks on the back of my pie-crust rolling out pad. So a bit at the edge of the side that faces the counter: no big deal. And that is all the rodent damage we've seen.

We did find the two boxes of precious artwork that have been packed away for four years.

For the present, Jonelle did the popular "lean" in the playroom. It looks so nice!

Overall, I was pleased to see that, really, we don't have that much stuff! After we got through the stored clothes and assorted randomness at the entrance of the trailer, we have just the kitchen table, our bed, and the piano by way of large furniture. As Jonelle said, "About a third of your stuff is just books." At least.

We found photo albums. And then sat up until late at night and looked through them.