I went into the past weekend feeling like I was making some progress, having booked the last available room at the stone house and the last one at the brick house. That would have left just one vacancy at the student ghetto, and that’s the drop-ceiling place from the last post, not close to being ready, and those places generally only rent at the beginning of a semester anyway.

By Sunday the new tenant at the stone house had canceled and the old tenant at the brick house gave notice. Chances are the new tenant at the brick house could cancel also, now that the roommate is out. That shoe could drop by the end of the day.

I have a half day to work at the stone house today and no money to buy materials, so in order to be productive I’ll do a small job for which I already have all the needed stuff. Been wanting to put a tile backsplash around the wall sink in the second-floor shared bath. With two guys and me sharing that bathroom the wall gets splattered with water and toothpaste and anyway, the sink looks dinky. A backsplash matching the white tile shower stall would be a nice feature.

The shower was tiled in the 1960s with those standard white shiny squares. I bought enough of them and the edge pieces for a backsplash awhile ago — they’re cheap, like 11 cents apiece.

This will be my second tile job, the first was a long backsplash over the vanity in the first floor bath. As I recall it was pretty easy.

Dog is pestering for a walk so I’ll begin when I return.

Change of plans — I bought some second-hand furniture for the stone house living room and two of the guys who live here said they’d pick it up this week. They already moved an old TV into the room. We haven’t had any first-floor living space here, other than the kitchen, because I’ve been painting. Got the ceilings and walls of the lving room done two weeks ago and I’m slowly completing the trim. 30-inch thick limestone walls make for deep window sills so each window is a project. Lots of crappy hardware from decades of various shades, blinds, curtains — muchof it with many layers of paint. I’m taking all that off this time and rebuilding the wood if I can.

Anyway, I finished the sill where the TV is and there’s just one more window in that area of the huge room where the furniture will go. It’s got a big 220 air conditioner semipermanently installed and a lot of thick layers of peeling paint, probably because inept tenants didn’t know how to insulate an air conditioner and just put lots of plastic and tape over it which created a moisture situation.

I think I should get that window painted before the furniture arrives, so that’s my project for today. Labor intensvive, light on materials and I have everything I need.