Today's accomplishments

1. Rodolfo the plumber came this morning. First he and Danny moved the washer and dryer out of the second-bathroom-to-be.

Here they are coming through what will soon be the kitchen. That's Rodolfo in the yellow shirt. I keep waiting for him to burst into song, with a name like Rodolfo. In fact, he did sing to himself a bit while he was working, but nothing at all operatic.


Once the two appliances were installed in their new location in the alcove outside the existing bathroom, Rodolfo hooked them up. I immediately ran a load of wash.

In addition to being a good and efficient plumber and a cheerful fellow, Rodolfo likes to figure out ways to explain things to me despite the fact that he speaks no English and I speak very weak Italian. He is both patient and ingenious. He'd make a great teacher.

 2. Next Rodolfo rearranged the gas line and connected our new stove (in the corner of the first photo). So now we have a working oven AND four gas burners. Our one-burner induction hot plate has been retired. It's such a pleasure to be able to cook more than one thing at a time.

3. Pam and Romano's son Cri, who's a demon cleaner, came over for a couple of hours after Rodolfo left and scrubbed down the bathroom, kitchen, and guest room. I neglected to take his picture, but he did a great job and is a sweetheart besides. We didn't give the place a good cleaning when we first moved in, because there was no hot water, and then we just sort of got inured to it being not very pristine. Cri did things like clean the top of the tile surround in the bathroom and scrub off whatever that weird stuff on the front of the radiator was. Thank you, Cri!

4. Here's how the living room is shaping up. My inadequate photo doesn't include our glamorous ruffled Ikea light fixture, but you can see most of our other Ikea living-room furniture.

This photo wasn't posed--I just happened to catch Danny relaxing after moving the washer and dryer and putting together a little Ikea table--but he is in fact perusing the Ikea catalogue.

Note my little music practice corner. I have been dutifully practicing every day.

5. Once Danny had rested up we went over to Pam and Romano's and picked up a white table that they don't want anymore. Picked it up literally, since we carried it back here (Danny, at his insistence, hauling the heavy bottom part). We're putting in the guest room, where it will serve as my desk when we don't have company.  It's Ikea, too, so it fits our theme. As we left her place tonight Pam said, "If you stay here long enough we'll be able to clean out our apartment!"

Our friend Valerie is coming tomorrow for Easter weekend. We've made a bunch of restaurant reservations and our plans also include visiting some of the local boutiques and going to see an Italian movie whose title translates as "Put Grandma in the Freezer." I'll post a photo of the guest room tomorrow once I get it set up.