Love & a Steady Hand

Tomorrow we list

(hopefully) the house. I'll try and post finished pictures tomorrow. I don't have them loaded yet and I'm too tired to do it now.

The floors are done -- the downstairs floors anyway. We didn't have the energy to do the upstairs. All they really need is a coat of shellac anyway so maybe we'll do them as we walk out the door with the movers. I'll probably do the stairs tomorrow.

I am hoping that we will be able to get professional movers. I have calls in to a couple of places -- please do not comment with your own personal horror story of working with professional movers. We are both too tired to mess with loading and driving a freakin' 26 foot truck. I am too tired to talk to anyone about estimates, but I am hoping that the crazy exhaustion is just about over.

My friend Nancy came over yesterday and helped me pack boxes in the basement. Then she discovered the pile of crap that needed to be shredded and worked on that for the four hours it took to get it all done. And that was with two shredders working simultaneously. We fed her dinner. And grape soda. And hot out of the oven chocolate chip cookies... I hope that was enough.

I worked most of the day in the basement. The tools are packed (except the ones that are neatly in my tool bag), so the tool room just needs all the little bins of nails and screws and junk like that dumped into boxes. The weird assortment of boards has been taken to the garbage. The strange pile of "are these actually yard sale items" has been resolved. The eight hundred bags of garbage have gone to the pile. I swear, our garbage pile is as big as the garage! Tomorrow is garbage day. I just hope they take it all! Keep your fingers crossed!

So the big craft room is almost done. I need to vacuum the floor in the morning and dump all the stuff from the big table into a box and I'll declare that room done enough for realtors and potential buyers. The laundry room is freshly painted and neat. A little more organization of cleaning supplies is in order there, but that will take about five minutes in the morning.

The main area of the basement has been cleaned and swept. All the cans of paint are relevant to the house and appropriately labeled. The 30 cans that the previous owners left in the garage have been taken down to about six left. I need to add kitty litter to the remaining cans so they will get dried out, but I had run out of kitty litter and then got distracted.

The garage is down to stuff we are taking, a few yard sale items that still need to be taken over, and a few things I am pretending aren't there. Like an old keg and a couple of huge tires that I don't know what to do with.

The kids room is great. The playroom is great. The dining room is great. Our room is still just a teensy bit messy, but I think I can resolve that in a few minutes.

The kitchen needs some minor detailing. Both bathrooms are delightfully shiny, since Tim's mom came over and cleaned them for me this afternoon. Most of the glassware and pottery has been wrapped and packed as well.

So, left to pack are: all the books (I need more boxes), the dishes we use on a daily basis, the food in cupboards, one closet full of sweaters and linen, one closet with crafts and games. Most of the games are already packed, but there are a few left over. Most of the toys will just stay in their bins and be packed into the van as-is, so that's no sweat. A few more things in the basement need to be dumped into boxes, but really we are well on track.

I would like to put another coat on the top horizontal portion of the deck, but the forecast for the whole week is rain, so I don't think that's going to happen. And I need to put the quarter round in the dining room. Oh, and paint the insides of the kitchen cabinet doors (which have been re-hung already).

Other than that, I think we're almost done.

Note the almost.

And tomorrow Tim and his dad are driving a first load down to Nashville in the van. Just to get a load out of here. And I think he wants to get out of here too. If I weren't so damned tired, I'd go myself. I am so ready to go!

I don't want to leave my friends, I know my kids don't want to leave their friends, but as we are leaving, I am just ready to do it already. I am so tired!

This was interesting

Your Birthdate: May 19

You are resilient, and no doubt your resilience has already been tested. You've had some difficult experiences in your life, but you are wise from them. Having had to grow up quickly, you tend to discount the advice of others. You tend to be a loner, having learned that the only person you can depend on is yourself. Your strength: Well developed stability and confidence Your weakness: Suspicion of others Your power color: Eggplant Your power symbol: Spade Your power month: October

Monopoly

Last night we played Monopoly with the kids -- Star Wars Monopoly to be exact. Mara and Matthew (I think Math really) chose the game and they got started with Tim. Then he had to go out for a few hours, so I took over his money and properties (I also switched to Boba Fett from Darth Vader) and played for the next bit. The kids and I ordered pizza and took a Madagascar break to eat and watch the movie -- I tidied the cupboards while they finished the movie.

Then we stared playing again. Tim came home. Matthew got too tired to play. Tim took over his properties -- originally as a team member and then as sole landowner. We played until Mara was so tired she was lying on the sofa only rolling the dice when it was her turn. Matthew was asleep in Tim's lap. Mara was mostly asleep on the sofa. Tim was madly putting more junk on Coroscant -- that's the Boardwalk and Park Place section -- and I was just holding my Dagoba and utilities and transportations and sitting there watching him go nuts. He did finally win when I landed on the Imperial Palace, with Spaceport, and had to pay $1700 in one pop. I could have probably found the funds, but I was exhausted.

I think the kids had fun. They enjoyed staying up late anyway. I enjoyed not working on the house for a number of hours...

Today we start the floors. I hate floors. Grrrrr!

I don't know what day it is

I really don't. My sister just called to remind me that her birthday was yesterday.

It's not that I forgot it. I really just have no idea what day it is.

We are down to the last little piddly bits of junk to get cleaned up before we can call the realtor. I am sick of this. I want it over. I hate this.

Today is Day Five

Day three was pretty much a wash. I did stuff, but I didn't do enough and I was grumpy all day -- until about 5:30, when I ditched and went to knitting. I took a big box of patterns to organize, so I was working, just not at home. That was great. I really needed not to be thinking about it for a little while.

Day Four (yesterday) was more productive. Dad was still working on his stuff -- he is obsessed with baseboards, which was driving me nuts, but I have to admit, they look terrific. I just don't think I have time for terrific. I was striving for "pretty good" but he doesn't DO "pretty good," which I had forgotten. So he was still framing out the bi-fold doors and finishing the bathtub tiling job we started together two years ago, and he had taken out the second medicine cabinet in the downstairs bathroom and was patching the giant hole.

The kids and Tim and I went outside and were working to finish up the deck staining job. I was also working on some landscaping -- I had to start that because the bushes next to the deck needed to be trimmed so you could GET to the deck to finish staining it. So I trimmed bushes and then worked on weeding and mulching one of the beds in the back -- it looks very nice now and before it had looked dreadful. The kids helped with that part and carried stones over to the new flower bed by the garage for me and put them around the bed very neatly. We eventually mulched that bed too and planted some marigolds around the daylilies and clematis that I planted two weeks ago.

Then Sue arrived and she took over my part of the deck staining and I continued on flowerbeds and mulch. That stuff is heavy! She and Tim finished up the deck and then we had a break for lunch. After lunch Sue went home for her piano lesson and Tim took the kids to meet Kym and her kids at the pool.

I worked on paint stuff in the basement. For hours and hours and hours. It looks better, but it's not finished yet. I still need to move the washer and dryer and paint behind them. Dad mostly finished up the things he was doing. There are some painting issues and stuff like that, but it's mostly finished. And gorgeous! I'm not yet ready to say it was worth the time he spent on it, but it is definitely gorgeous.

We took a break for dinner -- Lasagna that Uncle Mike made (don't ask me who Uncle Mike is, that story is too long). Then back to work, but I can't remember now what we were working on. Oh yeah, we moved everything out of the kitchen. And at ten or so, I collapsed into bed and went right to sleep.

I woke up at five this morning and started painting the kitchen. So far today we have taken the fridge and stove out of the kitchen, patched a weird spot in the wall, taken out the sink, installed a cold-water shut-off valve, painted the kitchen and the little hallway where the pantry is, torn the old laminate off the counter top and Daddy is presently ripping up the kitchen floor.

I'm tired. More updates later. Hopefully with pictures of gorgeosity.

Day Five, part two

It's about five minutes after eleven. The kids are eating the cake they made in the Easy Bake oven. That took about forty-five minutes, most of which was waiting, and all of which is ridiculous for a cake that fits inside the palm of my hand. But I had promised, and they had fun doing it. Besides, what do they have to get up for?

I on the other hand, have plenty to get up and do. I think this is never going to end. And at the same time I realize it's going to end incredibly quickly, whether I'm finished with what I wanted to get done or not.

Here's where we started with the kitchen:

So, when I left you last, we were pulling up the floor.

We had a break for lunch -- Tim and the kids brought us cheeseburgers from White Cottage downtown. I wish I had requested a milkshake to go with it. Anyway, after lunch we all took a nap. That was very necessary.

Then we got ready to go on our shopping venture. I can't detail the madness of that trip, but if I tell you it took us three hours, will that give you enough to go on? I was so tired in Lowes that I could barely stand up.

We bought a new fixture for the downstairs bathroom, a new sink for the kitchen, laminate for the countertop, new floor tiles, sink connectors, new plugs for the kitchen (so it will all be white and will match beautifully), and another whole bunch of stuff I can't even remember.

Tim went and got Subway for dinner and I started (or recommenced I guess) stripping paint off the trim in the kitchen with the heatgun. I did that for about an hour and then we started Easy Baking. I alternated between heat gun and Easy Bake oven for the forty-five minutes that took. Now I am blogging.

Soon I will be sleeping.

My mommy comes on Sunday morning. I wish she was coming tomorrow. I understand why she needed to come on Sunday instead of tomorrow, but I still wish she was coming sooner. I also kinda wish I was an octopus, but then I'd need another heat gun...

This is me tiling -- in the summer of 2004 we started that bathroom. This week we finished it.

Here is Poppy working on the same bathroom, the same year. He looks pretty much just like that now. Except he's done working on the bathroom, so you'll have to imagine him in the kitchen.

I hope you sleep well. I don't think I have any choice in the matter. I expect to go from vertical to coma in the space of about thirty seconds.

The Second Day

Today I got up at 7:30, and nobody was jumping on my head. I think there is something wrong with me. Oh yeah, I'm moving.

I ate some granola. I do not like granola very much. I wish I had had a cheeseburger. I drank some tea. It was too strong. I didn't have any cream.

I started painting. I painted all day long. Here is what I painted:

I put primer on the exterior surfaces of the windows (there are four panels of window once you take them out of their frames). I painted the exteriors with paint. I scraped the paint off the glass. I painted the interior of the windows. i painted the interior of the window frames. I painted the kids' dresser, and the drawers and the drawer pulls. I painted the door that goes into the attic (it is blue, it used to be bare brown wood, not even stained or finished). I painted most of the closet. I painted the mantle.

I am tired of painting. There is still MUCH painting left to do.

The kids are in the bathtub, so I need to go make sure they don't get water all over the floor.

Guess what I'm doing tomorrow. Yes, I will be painting. You are very smart! You know what your prize is? You get to come over and paint with me!

The Master List - the first day

My dad, known to regular readers as "Poppy," arrived last night for his annual Ohio mission trip. He was supposed to fly -- I had the ticket all booked and everything -- but he decided at the almost last minute to drive instead. There were two reasons for this:

1. He wanted to bring his own tools -- ostensibly because he thought he probably had some stuff that I didn't (which is true), but also because he just likes to work with his own tools. Understandable. And really a good thing he did, because we've already needed some things I don't have, but that he had very cleverly brought along. And

2. because he figured with his car, he could finish up early and leave before his scheduled flight on Saturday afternoon.

To this number two I say, BWAHAHAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA because I had seen what he had not: The Master List!

I also knew what he has since figured out, which is that he is far more likely to end up using the "flexibility" of driving to have to get a pulpit supply and stay LONGER instead of leaving early. So again:

BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH Leave early. HAH!

This list is not short. It's really not short at all. It's enormous. And we have dented it today, but not much.

I am very happy though, because we split up and he was working on some things while I was working on other things and that was less conversational, but more efficient on the whole and we didn't get in each other's way too much.

Here's what Poppy did today: got up, dug out the coffee maker to brew his morning caffeine, drank a cup of coffee and had pancakes. Tim makes great pancakes. Then he started on re-framing the bi-fold closet doors I put up a few months ago. The job immediately got more complicated than it had started out, but what else is new, right? He was well into that job when I distracted him by asking about the drain in the upstairs bathroom tub. [We were going to make our first trip to Lowes and I wanted to know if we needed plumbing supplies. We did. So lucky I brought that up, huh?]

When we finished the plumbing I further distracted him by pointing out that the windows in the kids' room needed to be taken out and re-glazed. I get a credit on this one because the access to the tub plumbing is in the kids' closet, and I was just making conversation really, but we kinda got busy on the windows and left the door framing where it was.

We pulled the windows out and scraped all the peeling paint and he took the actual windows outside to work on the re-glazing part of the project. (That and the plumbing also required two quick trips to Slaters hardware). We took a break for dinner and the glazing was finished afterwards. Dinner (which we had at Grammy's house, where the kids are now sleeping, since their windows have no actual windows in them) was bratwurst, baked beans and salad. Tim made brownies for dessert. I'm glad not to be diabetic, because I would be in a coma right now from those brownies!

Then Poppy took a shower, read some of the PTM (the Precious Time Magazine) and he's in bed in the playroom. I hope asleep by now.

Here's what I did: I got up, took a shower, ate Cocoa Krispies for breakfast, drank some orange juice (which I usually don't like) and pointed Poppy at some jobs to choose from. Then I went upstairs and started installing a shelf in the bathroom cupboard for towels. I got the brackets in, but then I had to patch some holes in the cupboard and in the wall (a poster ripped down a big chunk of paint). While the patches were drying, I touched up the spots on the ceiling where I made a mess painting the bathroom walls. Then I went downstairs to the basement and sanded the shelf and stained it. That took a while. I hate sanding.

Then I moved all of our clothes onto the bed and started to patch the holes in our closet where the roofers cracked the plaster with their banging last summer. That took a while too. Then the kids were hungry for lunch, so I got out all the stuff for sandwiches and the side stuff and we had lunch.

After lunch the patches in the bathroom were dry, so I sanded and painted them. Then I went down and put another coat of Danish oil on the shelf. While I was in the basement, I found a can of paint that I bought last year for the porch chairs, which really need repainting. So I went out and did that.

Poppy was ready to go to Lowes, so we talked about plumbing and I helped him (a little) get the pipes out and we headed out to Lois of Lancaster -- say it out loud, that helps it make sense. We were there forever. This is not news. It always takes forever at Lowes. But I think we got mostly what we needed -- aside from the stuff he had to get at Slaters later.

Tim and the kids were back from the park and Matthew needed his blister washed off, so I did that and made him sit on the potty for a while. Then Poppy was done with the tub, and that was when I commented about the windows. I ended up helping to get them out and I scraped the old paint off the upstairs frames while Poppy took the windows downstairs to work on them. I also primed the frames and the door of the kids' blanket cupboard. Then I went down and helped scrape the windows. Then I came back upstairs and painted the kids' closet door. I think this is about when we left for dinner.

After dinner I took down our old closet rod in preparation for putting in a new one and I had to patch some more. I primed the door to the attic and I was going to sand the patches in our closet from earlier, but decided that Tim's comic book boxes needed to get moved first so I started working in the attic to make a space for the comic book boxes. I filled up two big bags and asked Tim to help me get the rest of old kids clothes downstairs to sort. Then I moved all the hanging clothes to the rod in the attic -- so our bed would be cleared off-- and I put the new shelf in the bathroom cupboard and put the towels on it -- thus further clearing off the bed enough for us to actually sleep in it.

Then I took a shower. I came down, stared blankly at the living room full of outgrown clothes and started sorting. I have three big bags for community action, one box for Teddy, two bags that Jodie might want, and a bag for Diana's girl Avery. I also have some stuff set aside for Meg's friend Praerna, whose name I have no doubt spelled wrong. The attic is not empty, but it is cleaner. There is room for the comic book boxes anyway. And Tim will do that in the morning.

Here's what Tim did:

He got up at the crack of dawn with Mara and probably played cards. He took his shower fairly early, I know that much. Then he made pancakes for everybody -- which included Greyson and Delaney for part of the morning. Then he gallantly took on childcare for the rest of the day. He also ran errands for me, including faxing our application to the guy we're probably renting a house from in Nashville (that took four tries because the number I had initially was wrong), and stopping for more comic book boxes. You don't want to know how many boxes there are, but I am SOOOOO happy because they are all the same kind/size of box now. It looks so nice and neat! And then when we got home from dinner he was exhausted but he still spent about two hours scraping the old peeling paint off the front porch pillars and ceiling. Then he played Diablo on the computer and now he is in bed. Hopefully sleeping.

I am blogging. But soon I will be sleeping. That was wicked long, but I really needed to focus on what all I did, because it doesn't feel like much got crossed off the master list, so why am I so damned tired? It feels better to see it all spelled out that way. I didn't finish everything, but I got good starts on lots of things.

On the whole, I am pleased with Day One. Now I gotta get some sleep so I'm ready for day two.

P.S. here is the awesome trick I played on Mara: I needed some way to get the kids involved in keeping the house clean so it's ready when we want to list and show it. And I finally figured out that if she decided what things needed to be done in each room for it to be perfectly finished, she couldn't insist that a partially clean room was "done enough," which happens quite often around here. So I got her to help me make a "Master Cleaning Check List" with each room listed and what needed to be done to make sure those rooms were clean. We typed it up on the computer -- each room is listed in a different color -- and we took it to Office Max and had it laminated. Now they are both keen to check off stuff with a wet-erase marker and they race around trying to finish all the categories and make sure each room is done. And I made a deal that they would each get a quarter for every room they helped me get all checked off. They don't get the quarter until every box is checked off for the room and if they want, they can decide on a piece of candy instead of the money.

We made the list on Saturday and so far it's working great. We did the playroom, the dining room and their bedroom on Saturday and they chose candy for their reward. Their room has never looked so good! We had the closet organized, the bookshelf was neat and tidy, the stuffed animals were all put away and even their dressers were cleaned off! On Sunday they got up and looked around their room, decided every checkmark was still taken care of, except they needed to make their beds neatly. So we did that and their room was still clean this morning when Delaney and Greyson showed up. It actually stayed clean until Poppy and I got in there, but I'll help with that pickup. This is a complete first! The playroom is in pretty good shape too. The dining room is a disaster because it's all full of tools and debris, but that will remedy itself soon enough. And on Sunday, Tim and I went through the piano room (which is also the library) and culled all the duplicates and stuff we didn't want. We cleared off and dusted the shelves and the piano and the window frames and got the entire floor cleaned up. That room is the staging area for things that are going elsewhere, so the chaos comes and goes, but it has never looked as good as it looks now. I am so happy! I love moving!

That is not true, I don't love moving, but I do feel like we're doing it right this time around. I've taken about six bags of paper to the recycling station. Tim's parents suggested we put all our potential yard sale stuff in their garage, so it's not in the basement anymore, which is great. And best of all, I am finally letting go of stuff. I've been hauling around papers and just junk for eons and now I can let it go. It feels really terrific!