Bombay

My flaky friend finally came through yesterday and we had a nice afternoon, also discovering that another friend lives right here in my building. These are the first people I've let inside my awful apartment and neither was horrified. Comments included, "this is exactly what I expected of you," and "wow, you have furniture." The first is from a guy with an alarmingly well-tuned eye for style and the second is from a student unaccustomed to grown-up furniture.

The contract on my new house still isn't signed. There was some kind of medical emergency so they're going to try again late this afternoon. I really wish this was settled.

Bought two cheap handbags at Target last night after dinner with the flautist. I like them a lot.

I think I'm not going to go on the retreat tomorrow. I feel like I want to stay here and would now be going on the retreat mostly to fulfill my obligation and because it's "good for me." Those are not good reasons to go and will probably prevent me from getting out of the experience as much as I would want.

I'm very hungry and all there is to eat is salad and the makings for lamb ragout. I don't want either of those. Golly, but I'm hungry!

I cannot wait to put together my new kitchen!!! I think I'll have an island covered in zinc so as to wall off a "hall" from the back door. That will permit some extra lower cabinets. I think I'll run the cabinets up to the ceiling like in the old Trinity kitchen, but I'll probably only do that on the interior wall facing the door. I might do them in a color. Like maybe dark dark wood for the base cabinets and a quiet green for the wall cabinets? That sounds really beautiful and appropriate to me. Still, with 14 foot ceilings, that's an AWFUL LOT of cabinets. Might be a bit much. Might not. I'll need lots and lots of fancy interior fittings in the base cabinets since I won't have a pantry. I think the weird tiny closet where the water heater is could be fitted with a deep and tall cabinet for a broom closet. Not ideal, but might as well use what space there is. I'm going to put the washer and dryer upstairs on the sun porch. I think I could turn the wacko-under-the-stairs half bath into a full one that makes more sense. The problem with it is that the door and the area with the sink are normal height, but then you have to crouch down under the FIVE FOOT CEILING to get to the toilet at the far end of the room. That's no good. I'd prefer to move the toilet right up close to the sink, then put a whirlpool bathtub at the far end of the room where the toilet is, under the window. However, I'd like to drop that bathtub through the floor a fair bit so that the base of the tub is lower than the floor (there's a crawlspace, there should be room). That seems to me a much smarter use of the space, and would provide a second bathing facility to the house. Even if it downstairs.

I have researched the floors of this house. What I will need to do (before painting but after ripping out the kitchen and baths) is to rent one of those big floor machines. I apply a liquid wax stripper, touch up the stain, then apply new wax and buff it up with the big buffer. I can't wait for that part. How do you do stairs? By hand? Not sure about that part.

I also plan to cut a big crescent of a driveway in the front of the house. The front of the lot is enormous and there is no parking for the house now. It needs to be wide enough for two cars to pass and will be lusciously planted on the sides with overlapping daylilies and hosta and artemisia and other wonderful plants. The garden between the drive and the house will be a low border with sweet blooming woods and herbaceous stuff. The garden between the drive and the street should also be low, may include a lawn, and should require almost no care. Tall order. I haven't thought about the back yet. Curb appeal is so important. I'd also prefer to use the wonderful front porch and door and entrance room as the main entrance for guests and for me.

I'm really excited about getting to work on this house. I may paint all the ceilings the color of a Bombay Sapphire gin bottle. I'm positively in love with that color.