…phase one of the great suburban renewal project is complete, and I thank you all for your patience as I disappeared from these blogging responsibilities for the past week or so. A few random observations about the experience:

1. The folks subcontracted by the flooring company couldn’t have been more responsible, concerned with our need to keep living and breathing while they destroyed and rebuilt everything underfoot, professional, and efficient. Some guy named Juan led a team of four hard-working Mexicans (more on that below) who showed up every day (except Sunday) right around 8:30 and worked non-stop till 4 PM. They moved furniture, tore up carpet, pounded stone tile into dust, carted it all away, smoothed the floors, laid out the new tile, washed it down, set the grout, washed that down, cleaned everything up, then moved all the furniture back in an almost robotic fashion. I know this is what they do for a living, but to watch these artisans at work was both fascinating and a study in excellence.

2. The laminate folks then followed hot on the Mexicans’ heels, and laid down the new flooring in our living room and my prayer room/office. I’ll have some before and after pictures in the coming days, but if it weren’t for the same painted walls and furniture you’d swear you were living in an entirely different house. It’s almost as if I have a home here now.

3. It takes a job like this to realize just how much dirt and dust there is in the world. And it’s not just the dirt and dust from all the tile and laminate work; until you actually start moving all your stuff back in and cleaning the rooms in order to make everything spiffy that you realize just how much of a pig sty you’ve been living in for the past 6 1/2 years.

4. The rabbits hate the new floors and flooring. I look into their beady eyes and all I can see is their bunny brains conjuring up hatred at us for removing their familiar sights, smells, and underfoot stability. Cosmo is especially pissed, but he’ll get over it once the area rugs are strategically placed to enable him access to the whole house again.

5. There’s still a lot of stuff to move out of the garage, but tonight’s the first night that the house is starting to look habitable for two weeks. It has been quite a project, and it’s not over yet – in three weeks the master bath is being replaced, and Tracey’s desk and credenza from hell (huge oak pieces weighing hundreds of pounds) will be refinished. And that, my friends, will be it for 2010.

6. Was complementing the flooring guy about our Mexican “tile team”. Interestingly, he told me the exact same thing the guy who came last month to feed our queen palms told me – if you want conscientious, hard-working manual labor you hire Mexicans to do the work. Like everyone else, I’d heard the argument put forth by those supporting legal (and illegal) immigration – that it was necessary because Mexicans (and other foreigners) will do jobs that Americans are unwilling to do – and never believed it. But from the stories they tell these guys appear to know what they’re talking about, and it pains me to hear that kind of thing.

7. It doesn’t surprise me, though. I look at the subdivision we live in and all the kids have every kind of toy in the world – scooters, motorbikes, you name it – and you wonder if their generation will ever equate hard work with the ability to acquire such things. My generation – the so-called “baby boomers” have destroyed this country, kow-towing to every desire and whim their children demand of them. Where do you go to find people willing to work hard anymore? I’d love to hear some stories from those who frequent this blog.