A Soggy Saturday, Stairs, and a Story

Rain for the past week. We're putting to the test all the waterproofing we did on the foundations. Fingers crossed that it's working.

Running to the church today just to turn off the hot water heater (still leaking) and hopefully figure out how to empty it without destroying the sump pump. Hubby thinks we can syphon it, running the garden hose from the tank, up the stairs, and outside. I'll leave the physics of it to him. He's very good at looking at a problem, mulling it over for a day or two, and coming up with about eighteen solutions.

Hayters has fixed the location of the propane line and the thermostat (which is on back order), so at least the propane company can come inspect on November 3, but it will be a couple of weeks after that before we get the actual propane. Hopefully. If there's any mercy in this universe. The temperatures are dipping toward freezing.

Whenever we make the drive, Hubby and I stop at the En Route outside Woodstock or Cambridge for a quick break, and inevitably we return to the car with junk food. Today I'm determined to kick that habit. All this driving isn't just expensive, it's also fattening. Though you'd think I'd burn off all those extra calories hauling gravel, building temporary walls, and running up and down all those stairs.

Have I explained about the stairs? When you approach the church, you can either go up the cement steps to the front door, thus accessing the foyer, sanctuary, and bedroom (and up further stairs to the balcony). Or you can go to the side of the church and enter on ground level. Going in the first side door, you are given the choice of going up some short stairs to the main level or down stairs to the basement, where you will find the rec room, kitchen, laundry, and utility room. But halfway between the two floors is the bathroom, accessible by stairs going up from the rec room or down from the bedroom. And there's a second side door that enters on the level of the bathroom, so when you're standing at that door, you have a choice of the stairs to the bedroom or to the rec room and yet more stairs going up to the sanctuary. So you have stairs at the front of the building and stairs at the back of the building, and all of them are narrow and steep, and some of them double back on themselves, making furniture installation next to impossible. My personal favourite staircase is the curvy one going up to the balcony, because there is a stained glass window on the landing that casts a beautiful glow through the stairwell.

As I typed that last sentence, I made a typo and wrote "stained glass widow." And instantly I got a plot in my head for a story about a woman who turns to her hobby of stained glass after the death of her husband, and she's moved to a small rural village where no one knows her, but someone from the city has followed her with dark intentions... Hmm. People ask me sometimes where I get my ideas for my books, and it's stupid little things like this--typos, of all things. Must sit in the balcony and develop the plot!