rearranged rooms

We used to have a living room, dining area and foyer and a garage. For three months, they all have been missing. Gone in a cloud of dust, leaving behind the hallow vault of concrete, sheet rock walls and dust.
It began when the rented, mechanical spudder stripped the old vinyl flooring of the kitchen and dining room floors. The noise drove one and all away from the house, leaving only my husband to guide the machine as it racketed back and forth on vinyl that should have been replaced years ago.
At the end of the day, we crept back to the quiet house with a freshly revealed cement floor. In the quiet that followed, the living room furniture and carpeting were moved out to the garage. Instantly, we not only did not have the comfort of a living room. We also lost the comforting shelter of a garage to protect our cars’ windshields from frost through the cold winter months.
Only the heavy antique piano stayed. And it was cold comfort. With no furniture, books or carpeting, there were not quiet practice times. Music boomed off the bare walls and cement floor of the vault.
Then the serious destruction of our home began. Crowbars ripped out the walls of dark paneling and electric drills shrieked as they screwed dry wall in its place. Saw blades, knives, screws, nails, long handled tools, pieces of paneling and broken dry wall littered the former living room and the solitary piano.
Days of quiet ensued as father, sons and daughter applied joint compound and paper over the screw holes, flaws and seams of the dry wall. Once the finishing work of sanding began, dust seeped through the house. A thick layer of white, chalky dust gently settled on the kitchen counters, bathroom fixtures and every flat surface in the bedrooms.
Formal meals degenerated to stuffing our faces at the kitchen counter or balancing plates on knees as we sat on the furniture in the garage. After the dust settled, the dining room table was moved into the vault and we picnicked behind the piano.
We debated the pros and cons of ceramic, wood, vinyl or carpet floors to cover the cement floors. After much discussion, shopping and three changes in our final decision, we settled on ceramic tile everywhere, except the living room for which we selected parquet.
For the next two months, piece by piece, my husband lovingly laid each square of tile in place. For weeks, I stumbled on boards laid to protect the ceramic tile at the grout aged and set. One short Saturday was enough for gluing wood diagonally across the living room. Finally, the floors were done.
A dining room table touched pristine ceramic tiles. A new chair and ottoman tested the parquet floor. Between the freshly painted sheet rock walls, a dining room, living room, foyer and kitchen reappeared.
The garage was still lost, hidden under old furniture and remodeling leftovers. But I have faith in time It too shall reappear.