A Month in...

July 04, 2021

A Month in...

Can't believe that today marks a month that we've been in Ireland. Of course, the first seven days were consumed with COVID activities - first, five days quarantining, then two days waiting for our PCR test results. In past years, a month would've been close to half our typical summer visit. I'm so pleased that this year we still have three months remaining in our holiday.

But, since from emerging from quarantine, it's hardly seemed like a holiday - we've been in a whirlwind of activity. We've been busy renovating our apartment, a sixteen-year-old property that has always been a rental, owned by a absentee landlady from England, and a property that has received minimum maintenance and upkeep. It's got "good bones" and there's no major issues - good plumbing, an adequate and safe electrical system, mostly new appliances, quality windows and doors with fine weather proofing - but it looks like it must still have the original paint (Candee dubbed it "landlord beige") and the carpets would probably frighten G. Gordon Liddy. Work would need to be done...

Our tenant who had been in place since we bought the apartment in late 2019 was supposed to stay until the end of June. She advised us at the beginning of May that that would be her last month. She had been having difficulty finding a place for her and her young daughter to move to - Westport just continues to get more and more popular and rental property costs have been increasing at an alarming rate. So we were relieved and happy that she was able to secure a place. We certainly didn't want to turn her out - she's a nice young woman with a good, and increasingly successful, career and a very involved single mom. And, boy, did the early exit work in our favor. We immediately set to work tearing up carpeting, painting the place from top to bottom - including cutting in at the ceiling level - up and down the ladder innumerable times - and crawling around on hands and knees painting the skirting (baseboards). We remained at our rental, the "Lodge" on Barleyhill. And thank goodness for that. We couldn't have kept our sanity for long living in the mess we created - a pile of carpet and underlayment shoulder high, dropcloths, cans of paint, brushes, and rollers all about, the remaining furniture covered with dust and paint splatters, just a complete and total mess. We worked several hours a day, but the time change (five hours ahead of Florida) and our fatigue from these tasks - on the edge of silliness for this septuagenarian, and even for the significantly younger Milseain (in a different decade for mercy's sake) to attempt this major reno - had us exiting the Lodge closer to noon than sunrise. A subject of continued mirth for our lovely, but much more industrious landladies, Carole and Colette. But work did we...

In addition to the aforementioned grunt work, we had many decisions to make - who would be our broadband provider, who would provide electricity to the apartment, who would we select to provide our TV service - here there are many choices, Airtricity, Energia, Prepay Power, Eir, Westnet, Sky, and many, many others. Luckily, we had our local friends to advise us. I must say, it's nice to have choices - and the competition shows in the prices. At home, we pay $110 per month for cell service and $140 for broadband/TV - and that's with no premium channels. And add in extra charges for Hulu, and for Amazon Prime, and for Netflix, and for Disney +... Padraic had directed us to a deal with Eir (a major mobile and broadband provider) that would've provided unlimited calls, text, and data for our mobile phones and high quality broadband for our internet for a total of €50 per month. I stumbled a bit and selected a local provider for our broadband - not a bad deal, but lacking the power of the mobile/broadband combination. So I'm probably paying €100 per month instead. I will follow his advice on TV service, however, and be able to access just about anything on the planet for a very reasonable fee. He's also scouting out deals on a high-quality Smart TV and we might have a road trip to Galway this upcoming week to secure one.

But back to the apartment... We selected wood flooring to replace the tired carpeting, but had a very tight deadline. Luckily, we were referred to Mulchrone Carpentry Services in the neighboring town of Newport. Alan came out to assess the job (and us, I believe) and agreed to do the job within the allotted 10-day window. He declared it a "one day job" - 60 square yards of difficult-to-click-together laminate and over 150 linear feet of trim, careering around columns and doorways and nooks and crannies. He even offered to haul away, at no additional cost, the extraordinary amount of detritus we had created - "just reimburse me for the landfill fee." Meanwhile, everyone had said we'd be lucky to get someone out within six weeks' time. The price was fair; we said deal! Still, it seemed too good to be true - we were moving in on June 30 and had furniture arriving on July 2. It really had to go like clockwork.

Sure enough, Alan and Martin showed up on July 1 at 8 a,m., threw all our waste - the carpet, the underlayment, a wardrobe, a gigundous couch, two immense chairs, floor lamps, table lamps - over the balcony, down three floors, and to their waiting trailer. Loaded and strapped - done and dusted, and they were tearing apart packages of flooring before 9. We access our apartment from the second floor of the building, but the land slopes away and we gain an additional floor in the back. We live on the American first floor, but the Irish second floor - here the ground floor is referred at as the first floor - got that?

As the lads got going, we decided it was prudent to get out of the way - in fact, get the hell out of the way - and told the lads we would vacate the premises for awhile. They looked relieved and nodded in fervent agreement. I still thought it a job that would take a full two days - after all, I've done a fair amount of this kind of work. We used the time to find the many small and large items it takes to establish a new home - plates, cutlery, cleaning supplies and implements, sheets, a duvet cover, pillows, glasses, coffee cups, a microwave, a toaster, placemats, a creamer and sugar bowl, table lamps, hamper and a big et cetera right here. We went over to the neighboring "county town" - Castlebar, the seat of County government, to shop. More selection and the big box stores that Westport so charmingly lacks.

We got a call from Alan that they were running out of flooring so we hustled back to pick up two more boxes of flooring and brought it to them. We were astonished at their progress and, in fact, they were done with the whole project by 7. Eleven hours of hard, non-stop work. He refused payment, said he needed to take the stuff to the dump, pay them a so far undetermined amount, and figure up his charges. He'd be back to me. I held my breath. He installed 62 square yards of flooring, talked the dump guy down from €290 to €250 and said that payment for 60 squares would do him just fine. I had budgeted €1,200 for the project and am thrilled to get away with €850 (plus certainly a gratuity of at least 50 quid - respect must be paid...). In case you're wondering, right now it takes $1.19 to purchase €1.00. It's a calculation I do constantly, and it drives Candee to distraction...

So, a few pictures - not enough - of before and after. Still bunches to do, like paint the bathroom, kitchen, and the hallway, purchase some flowers to put on the living room balcony. And, of particular interest to me, hang some things on the wall. I've ordered a print from a well-known local artist that incorporates many elements of the town and its environs - click here. I've also ordered a print from a painter who captures the light and essence of the beautiful area south of us - the Maam Valley and Maamturk Mountains - click here. I have a few other things in mind, but I'm most hopeful to acquire an original M. Duffy painting and a stunning P. Sadowski photograph to grace the halls of this unlikely, but so fortunate, home.