walls optional

so the good news is that my neighborhood is better equipped for a (pretty weak) hurricane than for an earthquake, and while we did lose power for about 8 hours, our particular condo didn't sustain any (additional) damage due to irene. yay!

the bad news is that after spending a day and a night on a girls' getaway in Annapolis, i walked back into my place yesterday morning to this scene:

that, in case it's not clear, is a passel of workers who are busily ripping out our walls and carpet.

the really exciting thing is that after punching out the lower portions of the wall between our bedroom and the living room, and between our bedroom and the water heater closet on our deck - and ripping out the padding under the carpet anywhere nearby - they left. as in, all our furniture is still smashed into the middle of each room; i slept last night unable to get out of the bed except by scooching all the way to the foot because we have furniture piled up against it on all sides; the cats are getting from room to room by walking straight through the walls.

we've added another industrial fan to the mix (that's a grand total of 3, in addition to our industrial dehumidifier) and we're now waiting to see if THIS was enough to dry out the walls.

it's very, very hot in our house with all of these industrial machines going 24/7.

oliver, stymied by my super-professional job of chicken wire nailed to the exposed studs to prevent him from frolicking in the now-exposed water heater closet.

the good (?) news for me is that i'm getting on a plane first thing tomorrow morning for a week in california, for a work conference. so i'm HOPING that by the time i get back on friday, this will all be magically completed, with our walls back to being structures that divide rooms from each other, carpet replaced, drywall reinstalled, walls repainted. our house is the opposite of a haven right now - i feel very agitated when i'm here, sort of like when you first move into a place and you have piles of boxes everywhere, and it just doesn't feel OK until you move furniture into their proper places and make your bedroom functional? that's how i feel now, with gaping holes in the walls, desks leaning against the bed, couches in the middle of the room.

fingers crossed that next week will be enough to get this all resolved.