Daily Journal – Day 583: All sanding all day

Well, I did what I could but it definitely wasn’t enough.

Woke up around 5.30, meditated, wrote morning pages and worked on the novel for 25 minutes. Got up around 7.30 and my husband showed up at 8. There was a note from my mother-in-law in front of the door saying that we’re crazy to sand all the paint of the balcony and that everybody says a light sanding should be enough.

Unfortunately everybody is wrong and they didn’t see the state of the wood.

Also very unfortunately one of the sanders died the night before and so I had to bike to the hardware store yet again. I bought two sanders and found sandpaper specifically for removing paint. Which turned out to make the work somewhat easier.

Not easy, mind you.

When I got back from the hardware store I finally got to join in the sanding. I had two hours before we had to stop working for Mittagsruhe. In Germany you’re not allowed to make noise between 12 and 2 (or in some regions between 1 and 3). These days professionals seem to be exempt but I have to say I do like when it’s quiet around lunchtime.

Just before noon a friend of my husband’s showed up feeling the need to point out that we should just go with the flow and that everything will decay in the end, even the balcony. So if we don’t manage to finish it before my trip to Hamburg we just have to be content with it.

That was a bad moment for remarks like that. We are completely aware of the Buddha’s teachings and if we don’t manage to finish the balcony in time, so be it. But it would be much better if we could and if we could finish the whole project before the next rain, and that means we are not laid back about the work right now.

I was still much slower than my husband but not as awfully slow as the day before.

While my husband was talking to his friend I started making lunch. I managed to let the rice boil over, not put enough salt into the baked beans and I left cooking the eggs and bacon to my husband because I’m all out of practice with frying:

After lunch I immediately went grocery shopping. To a nearer store this time. We didn’t need much (I hope the list was accurate) but we did need some things for Easter.

That is the thing we didn’t think about when starting our little renovation project. We won’t be able to work on the balcony on Good Friday, Sunday or Monday. I think Saturday should be alright, at least.

Then I taught the first student of the day for thirty minutes, did about forty minutes of housework, taught the second student, changed back into work clothes, helped to send for about 1 1/2 hours, changed back into regular clothes and washed the dust off my face and taught the last student of the day.

My husband, on the other hand, started sanding (standing on the ladder) when I left for the hardware store, stopped for lunch and took a nap, then went buying soda and beer, went back to sanding non-stop with a short dinner break while I was teaching and when I was finished he was up there again.

I haven’t even finished a quarter of the inside while he has finished three quarters of the outside. But we’re not done yet, we need to do nooks and crannies and take more of the bad wood off.

Out big hope is that with unrelenting sanding all day we will be able to get the whole thing ready for painting tonight.

Wish us luck.

I’m not quite sure if I can wield the sander for hours and hours and hours. Yesterday I did about 3 1/2 hours and playing guitar afterwards was no fun.

So today there will be a lot of sanding. Nice and easy.