Mike happened to talk to a former colleague from the Baseball Association on Thursday the 18th. When Mike mentioned that they had moved the guy asked what he was going to do with the old apartment. Mike explained that they would probably start renting it in February as they still had their couch there and other small things to be moved. The apartment needed to be painted also. He said, “Great, how about renting it tomorrow”. It turns out that they have a coach coming in from Australia the next day and needs a place to rent until September of next year, the Softball Association rents it for him. Mike told him it just wasn’t possible as there would be no furniture in it yet.
The conversation ended up that Mike would move the stuff over the next couple of days. Saturday Hanka purchased a small and inexpensive bed and hired the person delivering the bed to also move the couch to the new apartment. The Australian coach moved in on Sunday.
But now there is the question of the guy staying at the apartment until September. Turns out the Association has an apartment that they are already renting for a different coach who doesn’t leave for another month and that they only wanted Mike’s apartment until then. Seems to be a little confusion on the conversation between Mike and the guy at the Association, and the conversation Hanka had with the guy at the Association. Like Mike said, the good thing from this is that they probably got the couch to the new apartment quicker.
They have added a glass door to mone of the bookcases and made it into more of a china cabinet and they purchased a matching fold-out bar unit They had the carpenter build a floor to ceiling bookcase to match the wall unit for a different wall. It really is starting to come together.
Marek is talking up a storm, most of the time it is in Czech. Naturally, he finds this easier because it is what he hears most often. He hasn’t quite got the meaning of the phrase “Say it like TaTa says it”, in other words “Say it in English”. Most of the time, if Mike says for him to “Say it like TaTa” he will, but when I tell him to he just repeats it in Czech. Then if I don’t understand after he has repeated it several times he gets frustrated.
Sunday night we went over to help with the door bell and to put an old bookcase into what they will be using as a pantry. I played with Marek in his room so he would not be in their way. It was 50/50 for him speaking in English. He seems to completely understand what I would say in English, but to explain to a two year old to speak in English will take some time. Mike really wants him to be around English more. Amazing how he can flip back and forth between the two languages when they learn that young.
Even though they do not own the apartment, they paid for most of the remodeling. They then will have a 15 year lease on the apartment. They still have some light fixtures and area rugs to purchase but they haven’t found what they are looking for at a reasonable price.
A different carpenter was to come to install the oven range hood and vent today (December 23rd). Hanka left work at 10am to be there when the carpenter came as she knew exactly what she wanted. The guy didn’t show up. He didn’t even call to say he could not make it. Hanka, needless to say, wasn’t happy. Today is their busiest day of the year at the pharmacy and she wasted a couple hours sitting around waiting for a no-show.
Mike has a little over two weeks off from work. The school has off five weeks for the holidays and the start of the new semester. He is hoping to get a lot unpacked and arranged at the apartment. Then he hopes to get a lot done at the library since the students wouldn’t be in near as much as normal.
Jack spoke to Mike today. He got his Christmas shopping done. He said he took Marek over to Hanka’s parent for the afternoon so he could accomplish what he wanted to in half the time. It sounds like Hanka is over doing it for the Xmas dinner. She was up until 2am last night baking cookies.
The people upstairs have scrubbed and cleaned every nook and cranny of the entry way. They even took the curtains down and washed them. They were perfectly clean. They are the white lace type and there wasn’t even dust on them at the top. What appears to be a niece has spent the last three days with them, probably to help. She brought her dog too. So it was somewhat futile to scrub the entire entry floor. It has been just above freezing everyday so the dogs track in mud each time they go out. I’ve been good and wiped up after Shep each time.
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