a prayer answered

[this is the kitchen. half renovated.. no, not half.. just beginning. the stove is going & I am getting a stainless steel stove [eventually]. the wall behind the current stove has to be re-plastered then painted. New bench tops will go in soon [thank heavens for the fact that dutch husband is a kitchen designer and manufacturer] I am thinking granite tops.. still not sure yet.

I have been told numerous times that I must be careful what I wish for. to be careful what I pray for. over the weekend, I realised that wishes do come true. it may take eons to happen, but it does.

quite a few years ago on australian television, there was a mini series about Nuns living in a convent. Brides of Christ. and I remember vividly one episode, watching a Nun on her hands and knees scrubbing a timber floor. I said to myself, how much I would love to do that. to be in the presence of the Divine, scrubbing old wooden floors. Yesterday, that wish came true. And I realised that it had, as I scrubbed..
you see, over the weekend we tackled the kitchen floor. I pulled up old lino & discovered sheets of masonite nailed to the floor..

dutch husband [he looks a little worried, don't you think?] got to work and showed me how to pull the masonite up.. and I became general building hand.. using a tyre lever to wrench the masonite off the floor..masonite that was mildewed with years of water spilled on it.

I started to pull the nails up, but didn't have the strength in my arms. the masonite nails were every 2ins apart and nailed into the floor about 1' depth.. thank heavens for the muscles of the man I am married to!

and as we pulled the masonite and nails up, we discovered a gorgeous, un-finished timber floor...albeit a little water stained..

I got to work and scrubbed..on my hands and knees.. just like i had wished for all those years ago.. all that was missing was the Habit.

of course, it will take more than one wash. I looked in my French housekeeping book and saw that in days of old, french women scrubbed floors with soap and bleach. I have a gorgeous cake of olive oil soap that I will use to do that and vinegar instead of bleach.. and I am going to buy myself a lovely wooden bristle scrubbing brush.. I must be the only person in the world who takes delight in scrubbing floors. but it is true, I do love to do things like this. I get lost in my own thoughts.

[oh and later that day, I scrubbed the benches clean and decided to clean the dishwasher.. giving it a run of water through.. we turned it on and i continued to clean.. feeling an odd sensation about my feet, I looked down and I was standing in a lake of water.. the pump on the dishwasher is broken and it was pumping water all over the floor.. but making use of the water, I just mopped the whole kitchen floor again.. more dirt gone!]