The Kindergarten And Potted Plant Association

Yes, that is a mouthful.
And yes, The Kindergarten And Potted Plant Association
was an actual organization of society women in 1890s New York,
who endeavored to bring beauty into the lives of tenement-dwelling 5-year olds
by giving them potted plants to care for.

The Rich, as they say, are different.

And in the case of these babes, well-meaning but apparently not terribly bright.

I'm betting the kids would rather have had shoes.

But more on this later.  First, a trip downstairs to our newly French-drained cellar.

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I think of this project as

The Nineteenth Century Strikes Back!

Ta-da-da-DA-da . . . 

While these cement floors look innocent enough, in reality they are the Supermen of their ilk.

 They were, according to the work crew, the hardest they had ever encountered.

And their attempts to put a pipe through any of the foundation walls for drainage?

That Old House was having none of it.  The foundation was too hard and thick, impossible to breach.

 Which kind of amuses me.  Those old guys knew how to build, didn't they?

Use granite stones, and you can pretty much bank on them not going anywhere without a really big fight.

I shared the spooky progress pictures of this project earlier this week.

Now, the first of the afters; French drains in place, and major appliances and utility sink

no longer gallivanting all over the basement, but meekly back in their rightful places.

 Instead of our original plan to escape to the beach house this weekend, Howard and I

are going to try and get the whole basement cleaned, the few remaining shelves painted,

and some heavy duty plastic shelving units installed, put in a dehumidifier, all so that the mess upstairs

can be tidily stowed back downstairs, where it belongs.  Where it will be dry.

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Now, about those well-meaning but air-headed ladies of the Kindergarten And Potted Plant Association?

They have a role in the new play Anne is working on, The Giantess.

She's building over-the-top giddy costumes for them.

I'm hoping there will be leftovers of some of her fabrics, because they'd make dandy decorative pillow covers.

How 'bout this bustle?

Imagine that -- a time when you wanted your husband to say,

"Gee, that dress makes your butt look big!"

 As you can see, we still have the cellar boxes and bits in the study.

And the hallway.

And the kitchen.

And the dining room.

Yeah, no beach house for us this week, unless we work really fast tomorrow afternoon! -- Cass