Back on the road

I just got back from my first trip since December. It’s funny how, when you haven’t been away from your kids in a long time, the idea of it becomes a bit panic-inducing. But then you remember, you did this many times and it all worked out ok. And so did this weekend. And so we’re back.

Summer is in the air - the kids’ Lord of the Flies summer camp has posted its availability, although you can’t technically sign up yet. Being able to get up an hour to two hours later starting in June is going to be glorious. Theo’s summer schedule is M-Th instead of T-F as it is now which works much better for me - after the typical exhausting kid-tastic weekend, the last thing I have energy for on a Monday morning is entertaining a four-year-old for five hours. So, yeah - summer is going to be AWESOME. Only six more weeks-!

Last week I had a highly rated contractor over for an estimate on my kitchen - he quoted me almost $90,000. I almost sputtered, “are you fucking kidding me?” He said it was mostly the structural stuff around moving the doorway and adding windows. He seemed like a nice enough guy, but obviously WAY too high end for my tiny little project, which some of his yelp reviews indicated. It’s almost as hard to find a contractor for a project like this as it is a life partner! I decided to call in a friend who is an architect who I trust - I really should have called him first - mainly to start the process of rebuilding my rapidly collapsing garage (apparently it’s such a lengthy process that I figured I might as well get the ball rolling now if I want it even started by a year from now) and incidentally have him look at the kitchen. He can at least give me an idea of what to expect budget-wise whether or not I actually engage him to do the  kitchen. 

One of the hardest things is finding someone who “gets” old houses. No, I don’t want fucking granite countertops and recessed lighting. Yes, I know this isn’t practical or what people do anymore. Considering all these people are men, they just loooove to tell you why their ideas are better than yours. Ugh. 

In other news, boys have been behaving better. Whatever slump Bobby was in - he seemed genuinely depressed for a few days there - seems to have passed. Sometimes I think I influence these behavior trends and sometimes I think they just come and go like the wind. Who the hell knows? But if they’re both happy and (kind of) listening to me, I’ll take it!