i suggested yesterday that i could get the side done in one step and i essentially did, although i stopped at most of the way done to sleep this afternoon while i waited for the floor to dry. i tend to sleep mornings in the warmer months and evenings in the cooler months. i'm not sure why. it's how my body tends to adjust to the changes in light. i'm always awake overnight, all year round, but would rather sleep from sunrise until noon in the summer and fall sleep during late afternoon and sleep through supper time in the winter. my body seems to prefer the shorter days and adjust to them by shifting sleeping times through the morning to late afternoon over the fall. that doesn't change with warmer temperatures from climate change as it's a solar phenomenon.

as such, i woke up later than intended yesterday and slept earlier than expected today, meaning i missed the shower last night. i won't skip it this morning. i didn't move everything out until close to midnight, and spent much of the night carefully vacuuming out the dirty furnace room for the first time since i moved in.

i was expecting to find signs of rodents in the furnace area and am actually surprised that the only thing i found was a single dead mouse. there were no droppings at all. 

what there was, instead, was an apparent cockroach nest which i vacuumed up. but i only killed one roach that crawled out, annoyed by the vacuum. there was also an apparent hole in the concrete which may have been where the roaches were hiding. i just put a porcelain tile over it and then put a pile of boxes i'm saving for the next move (i've had some of these boxes for 25 years. i moved a lot as a kid and just kept the boxes for the next one. it became a habit. the furnace room here is a good place to keep boxes and not much else.) on the tile.

i then locked and sealed the room from the outside. there is no electrical outlet for a light in there, no usable storage and no real reason to go in there. my tactic will be yearly (if that) cleaning and aggressive isolation of the space. it's clean now, or as clean as it's going to get. there is no way for me to block insects or rodents from getting in there from upstairs, from the furnace ducts or from under the foundation. i just want to prevent anything that might get in there from getting out of there and into the apartment.

after that, i sealed the rest of the floor around the side, i set up or cleaned some small furniture items (a shoe rack i bought for $10, a hat and scarf and glove rack i found here, a coat rack on the wall, an old crt tv stand i found on the curb and haven't used since 2017 but continue to store as an odd table for storage (i will use it for a storage bin for packaged spices here), my old rebuilt coffee table that i initially bought for $5 and is too big for in front of the couch in here that i can use to temporarily throw random things on here, the console table i bought for the last kitchen and should be good for kitchen overflow here, the ghetto hutch and spice rack i found on the curb last year and a two tier coffee table that was here when i moved in) and am sequentially moving them into place along the two walls as i vacuum and steam mop the floors, first, and then moving various things from around the apartment on to the tables, where they should be, and are not now. as mentioned, i'm mostly done. i should be done by midnightish, when i will stop to shower.

today was an unexpected skip day for meals but yesterday's min meal was bigger than normal due to the addition of some extra food items that came in with the food basics run on monday morning, and an unscheduled glass of juice, so i'm not freaking out yet. i'll see where i'm at overnight. i may need to have a second min meal in a row.

i will also need to vacuum the carpeted area at the bottom of the side entrance (which is now completely vacant), seal the window at the bottom of the stairs and put a blackout curtain in to stop the heat from escaping, start to seal up the bottom of the stairwell with cardboard paneling (i caulked and taped up some holes two nights ago) and wash some winter jackets overnight. i will eventually get a small couch and a small table for the bottom of the stairs, which is where i'm going to put the zoom console station rather than on the console table, which will now likely have a cappuccino maker and a pop maker, early in the new year, instead. the goal for this week is just to clean and seal the bottom of the stairs and the hallway leading into the kitchen to stop the heat from escaping. the stairway up to the door remains full of items intended to block the draft, until the new door comes in, and it could take a little time before i get there. it should be one of the last regions to address, and is being put on hold for a bit.

there are subsequently a number of items that have been moved into the front hallway that are ready to transfer out to the garage, this week. as mentioned, it'll be warm this week.

the next thing to do is to get all that cardboard on my couch up on to the ceiling. 

i should get some pictures up soon as well.

it's been a productive few days, then, after spending most of the last week in the shower. this update is minor in scope but massive in function, as almost all of the areas have now attained their completed form, with only minor updates left to come. i'm getting there.

the last major thing to do in the main living area is organize the studio space. finally.