The Cats, Kendra’s Bar Tile & The Chandelier

Yesterday Gracie spent a good bit of the day crawling from one surface to another. Maybe this is a cat stage they go through at around 9 months of age.

Gracie seems to be practicing walking around objects with little surface room. She delicately tiptoes slowly around objects trying not to fall to the floor.

It’s a balancing act and reminds me of an acrobat up on a high wire.

Meanwhile, Ms. Ivy Hissy Fits is splayed out on the couch, watching to make sure that Gracie doesn’t dare jump up there.

When Gracie attempts to jump up on the couch, Ivy quickly goes into her dragon breathing routine to scare her away.

Sometimes I imitate Ivy and hiss right back at her.

She looks at me from where she’s laying on the gold throw as if to say, “Don’t you dare mock me. I’m the alpha cat around here and don’t you forget it.”

Poor Gracie slinks off with her tail between her legs because Ivy has once again been mean enough to put her in her place.

Ivy doesn’t much like to be in my bedroom, so in the evening Gracie has me all to herself while I’m in bed reading.

She climbs all over me and bats at the book I’m reading with her paws.

Kendra’s House:

Below is a rustic photo of Kendra’s dining space. In the background, you can see her newly tiled bar area.

Just look at that gold dining room light fixture. I’d hate for that thing to fall on anyone’s head.

The Gold Chandelier:

Kendra thought she wasn’t going to be able to use this chandelier because it’s so big.

But she got those boys to go in the attic and shore up the ceiling, and now the chandelier is waiting for a dining table to be placed underneath it.

The movers are moving her on the 25th and there’s still a lot to do. For instance, the bathtub is sitting in her bedroom.

The Bar Tile:

Here’s a closer look at the bar tile. I had to enlarge it a bit, so the detail might not be as crisp as it appears in person.

The kitchen was teeny-tiny, barely enough to turn around in.

But Kendra did some tearing down of walls. And though the area is still fairly small, at least now the space is open.

The large island I don’t yet have a photo of is the star of the kitchen space.

The Long-Delayed Windows:

The windows she’s had ordered since October are supposed to come in sometime in April.

She needs to move in and get things settled because she can’t purchase another flip house until she frees up some money.

Which she can do once she moves into this house and gets paid for the house where she’s currently living.

A friend of hers snapped up her three-level house right away to use for an Airbnb. I think they close on that house at the end of this month.

Neighborly Help:

Yesterday I got the itch to go to the nursery and brought back a bag of potting soil and a few house plants.

I didn’t even dare go outside into the rows of colorful spring plants because I knew how tempted I would be. And I prefer not to buy outdoor plants until the middle of April.

I took the house plants in, then knocked on my next-door neighbor’s door to ask if he’d mind carrying the soil from my car to my patio.

After that, I invited him to come inside and chat for a bit. You may remember that his wife died right after I moved in.

He told me they’re having a ceremony with his wife’s ashes on Earth Day.

Both of them were master gardeners, so that chosen date seems fitting to me.

Last week I was bringing home the wicker chair for my office. And a guy I’d met named John happened to be walking by and helped me carry that in.

John has a dog named Rocky that he sometimes walks over on this side of the complex, so that’s how I originally met him.

Gracie is perched behind my head on the back of the chair. She must see birds outside because her tail keeps hitting me in the head.

I’m almost due for physical therapy, so I’d better hit the road.