Glass Houses

So, we went out to a party on Saturday night. Elly stayed with the kids. After we'd tucked her into a taxi, we headed upstairs to go to bed. Aaron said, "hey, what's this glass all over the stairs?" And, sure enough, the stairs all the way up were covered in tiny sparkling slivers and shards of glass. A brief investigation revealed that the glass had come from the big skylight, which had a hole-with-spiderweb-cracking-around-it, reminiscent of the result of a pebble hitting a windshield at high speed. We cleaned the glass up as best we could, but since the next day was Sunday, we couldn't call to get it fixed till yesterday. In the interim, every time a heavy truck went past, it rained glass fragments and dust down the stairwell.

But now there is a new panel in the skylight.


The other big news is that a playhouse has finally been built in the backyard. Now, we asked for a simple, on-the-ground playhouse, for which we would pay, to be built back in March. Absolutely nothing happened. The contractor was unreachable, the homeowner wanted us to pick the house from a catalogue that she failed to provide for us, and then we were often traveling with family. Out of the blue in August, the homeowner showed up saying that the contractor would be starting the treehouse soon, since he was moving in September to Canada. Despite my repeated protests against a treehouse in a yard characterized by 10-foot drops from terrace to terrace, the contractor turned up one day in early September and started working. He promptly realized that the treehouse concept wouldn't work logistically, announced, "I'll be back tomorrow," and turned up ten days later with the makings of a steel frame and platform. The house which eventually resulted is quite pretty:


However, the upper platform is not safe, and they are planning to put in a slide as the means to get down. As there has been no word on when such a slide might arrive, I've asked them to put in a temporary railing, which has not been done.

So, last week, the contractor announced that he'd finished and the house was "ready." The next day, I let Joffre play in the house with Carlos. Ten minutes later he was bleeding profusely from five cuts on his feet. Little trooper that he is, he submitted to cleaning and bandaging with no complaints, and was itching to get back up there immediately. The problem, of course, is that the windows in the house are real glass, and the contractor and his assistant cut the windows inside the playhouse and then neglected to sweep up. So, the whole little house was filled with shards of glass and glass dust. Sonia cleaned it up, and we are going to get a carpet for the room. The homeowner has no intention of further painting or furnishing the little house, however.

Man, I could happily go the rest of my life without dealing with glass detritus again.