Why I'm not practicing (or blogging) much

Because our house has been turned upside down to install hardwood floors in the last four rooms covered in crappy carpet.

Tyler takes one last look at the carpet.

This is all part of the process to buy a piano, too (believe it or not). After we turned our dining room in a music room, Mrs. S wanted to paint her study. And since we were putting in flooring in the master bedroom, might as well go all the way. Which meant emptying four rooms into two. I could hardly get to my piano, much less play it while all the painting, furniture rearranging, junk dumping, and everything else was going on. (The list of everything we did is too long to even think about, much less write.)

This is about half the wood. And, there wasn't enough to finish the job!

I thought, however, that during the install, I might be able to play the piano a little bit, since I would take off work for two whole days. And, even though I've only ever been around one flooring install (upstairs in our current home), I knew there was no quiet way to install flooring. What I didn't realize is exactly how loud five guys, a power saw, an air compressor, a hammer driven nail gun, a bunch of regular hammers, and nine hundred square feet of hardwood flooring can be. And, how, as the project progresses, the echoes throughout the home build and build as there are less and less soft surfaces to absorb the sound. In short, the installation is downright deafening. Then there are the “contingency” sounds of the install, like the door constantly being opening and closed as they go outside to cut the boards to size. And they had to move that outside, because when they cut a board sideways and caused it to smoke, they set off the smoke alarm. No wonder I can’t practice the piano.

Look, ma! No carpet!

The floors, however, look great. The music room, which looked great for one day after we finished it and moved a bunch of furniture into it, looks like a garage sale gone awry, as it still holds the bulk of three rooms worth of stuff so that the flooring could be installed.

The chaos of the "music room". (The piano bench is just visible at the left.)

This weekend, we have slowly begun to reclaim our house. The guest bedroom has been cleaned and dusted, including the bed linens. Some books have been put back on various shelves. Furniture was rearranged in the living room. Clothes have mostly been put back in the closets.

Mrs. S's study, newly painted, oldly carpeted

I still have a couple of pictures to put up and out of the way, and a deer head as well.We need to buy some more area rugs to absorb some of the sound. And although it isn't much of a space, there is a path leading to my piano, so I might play some today if Mrs. S isn't making too much noise moving stuff around.

Mrs. S's study, flooring and rug in place, desk about to be.

And that's why I'm not practicing (or blogging) much.