Our annual Independence Day trek up to Sacramento was kind of a whirlwind -- drove up on Friday, hung out with my sister's family on Saturday and then back to LA on Sunday.
I spent the rest of the week adjusting to our new, gymnastics-less lifestyle, which includes trying to get all of my work and errands done in just the three hours per day that my daughter is doing tennis... and which now also includes three-times weekly physical therapy.
Yup -- I finally went back to the doctor to try to do something about the chronic shoulder pain I have had since at least November of last year. That's the reason I went in to see her back in April, but we got sidetracked by that "abdominal mass" she found (which we have yet to do something about). Now that we know it's not life-threatening, we can deal with the thing that actually has caused me problems.
The doctor diagnosed it as "rotator cuff tendinitis" and gave me a steroid injection, which has helped A LOT (like, I can carry our laundry basket now without grimacing from the pain). I'm not 100% - but I think I'm at 90. So that's good, right?
"The effects of the injection will wear off soon, and you'll be in pain again," my doctor said. Hence, the therapy. "We don't know what caused your injury, but with therapy, we can help it to heal so you won't have to always rely on the injections."
The other big thing that's been occupying my time is the big pink elephant in the house -- which is, of course, the repairs to the house. We are still undecided on what to do for a floor. For a while, I thought we might just polish the concrete foundation, something that is being done these days in a lot of high-end homes. But there were problems with that:
1. Our tiny, mid-century ranch house is NOT anywhere near "high end." And polished concrete might look TOO modern.
2. The process for polishing the concrete would have involved grinding OFF the epoxy finish that was laid on our foundation to prevent further infestation from the poria. It's true that the new floor would then be covered with a different kind of epoxy... but I'm still not sure how it would end up looking.
3. Polished concrete is EXPENSIVE.
So we're kind of leaning back to our original plan: a combination of tile and carpet. True, we won't be able to see any new cracks that develop in our foundation. But without a wood floor to nourish the fungus and all other means into the home sealed, that shouldn't be a problem -- you think?
In the meantime, we finally decided on a contractor to work on our kitchen. We loved the design the lady at Home Depot did -- but we thought we should do a little comparison shopping before we went ahead. So we talked to folks at Ikea... and a local kitchen and flooring company that did a great job on a friend's home.
But another friend -- who did very well in the boom times flipping high end houses (REAL high end houses!) told us that we HAD to talk to his carpenter. I've seen the man's work (my friend's own home has custom built-ins throughout) and I didn't dream we could afford it. But he came back to us with a quote that was about the same as the Home Depot cabinets WITHOUT installation.
The only hitch is that someone else would have to do the finishing. Right now, we think that someone else is going to be US. After all, we had planned to attempt the installation ourselves when we were buying from Home Depot, and after learning more about it, we got scared. Finishing the cabinets will be a lot of work, but should be a lot less hazardous -- we think.
We (actually, my husband) now have five weeks to demo our current kitchen and do drywall repairs. We have also been advised to put down a layer of bitumen (the thin sheets of tar-like stuff that roofers use) under the cabinets as further protection against any poria that might make its way back in.
The tiled floor would be done last.
Hopefully, between the shots and the therapy, I should be able to wield a sander and paintbrush.
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