moldy omelets or trashy eggs

Ya know that saying, "you've gotta break some eggs to make an omelet"? Yeah, here's the Maberga version...

"you've gotta go white trash to ..." well, I don't exactly know how to finish.

Maybe it's like this "you've gotta go white trash to not actually be white trash"

Or maybe I'm thinking of something like this "you've gotta go white trash to not live in squalor"

Well, ok, enough of this verbal masturbation, here's the real deal, "you gotta move your couch to the front lawn when you discover that there is mold growing behind it".



I was sweeping in this corner last night and noticed some moisture.

Yeah, Yeah. That's the kind of nice way to say that I was sweeping for the first time in the 3 months since I moved the couch to this corner when I noticed that the mounds of dog hair coming from back there were not the fluffy mountains that I had been expecting but rather soggy, dark fur balls resembling something a cat would cough up, if the cat were the size of a cinghiale.

"hmmm, there must be some moisture back there." I said to myself.

Yep. The hot weather has hit Maberga, which, coming on the heels of a really wet winter and spring, has made my floor sweat. Thus, causing mold on the stone wall. Or maybe, since there is the same rain+heat+dirt combo behind the stone as there is below the floor, the wall is sweating too.

Have I completely destroyed every one's romantic visions of what it means to have an old stone house on the Italian Riviera yet?

Yep, House Project for week 9 (is that what week I'm in, I've totally forgotten now):



This.

I would like to say that I'm going to clean and paint all the kitchen walls but, well, why rush through all that FUN in just one week when I can spread it through 3? Besides, this



is the easy wall. Wait 'til you see the other ones.

For my knitting this week I'm going to start (and for sure not finish) this african square blanket. Isn't crocheting a blanket the first thing you think of when your floor and walls are sweating?

right on schedule...

sort of.

Painted, anti-fungied pantry -- DONE.





I really love this little room. It's had so many reincarnations in the six years that we've lived here. When we bought the place it was the kitchen.



Then when we discovered we wanted an indoor bathroom we took half the space for a toilet and a bath.

In case you were wondering, at that time we used this as a kitchen...



Yeah, that's the side of the house. Yeah, that's an old bathroom sink I found somewhere on the property, set on a wine barrel (empty) and strung the garden hose through it for running water. The fridge actually worked. And it really tied the room together.

Then, when we still had exposed stone in the now-studio area upstairs(read: major exposure to the elements and all varieties of 4, 6, and 8 legged creatures) this little room behind the new bathroom became the "winter bedroom" - it happens to be just big enough for a double bed...and nothing more. For a while it was the guest bedroom. Then, with the transformation of the window into a stairwell, it came into its present state as a pantry.

Actually, truth be told...I've really hated this room until today. It has no windows, it's always cold and wet and dark and it collects, well, everything that cold, wet, and dark spaces collect.

There's still no window and no heat source but, at least for today, it's clean, and white and organized, it's stocked and has flowers.



Right on schedule, or maybe 6 years late.

On the hat front...



4 DONE...



And one more to be completed tonight...



Thanks for the pattern, Lois. It's really great.

Tomorrow begins week 3 of the 20/20 project. I'm starting to question my scheduling of this whole thing -- why am I always begining these things on the weekend?

20/20 Project -- week two

Given that spring seems to be coming and going here on the Riviera, I've decided to move inside for this week's project. That and the fact that the mold in our pantry is really getting to me. Maybe it's just me, but it doesn't seem like a good idea to have fungus growing on the walls in the room where we keep our food.

Thus, decision made. Week Two house project:



The pantry. Let's get a close up of that...



Gross. Ahhh...the joys of living in a 400 year old house. Today I took everything out of the room and fumigated with a potent chemical spray called Anti-Muffa (translation: anti-mold. I hope the marketing genius who came up with that brand name made a bundle). Tomorrow I'll start with another appropriately named product called pittura (translation: paint).

This week's knitting project, not accurately named by me, because it is this hat from Lois's blog - which is quite obviously crocheted. By the way, when you go to Lois's blog, check out her bread recipes. I highly recommend the Sweet and Light Whole Wheat. It's the only one I've tried so far, it's delicious.

Please excuse the complete and utter lack of pizazz in this post...I think those potent chemicals are getting to me...perhaps more than the mold was.