October 3, 2007

Agh.

The weekend was pure, unmitigated evil.  Eric had a friend of his over who, for reasons best not discussed here, I don't particularly care for.  He was so understanding about knowing I wasn't going to be into the idea, but really, he had no other choice.  He is at a critical part of the shed construction where he needs two people to do it (framing the roof, which is at about a 50 degree pitch, so pretty steep stuff) and he had no one else to help him.  He even offered to pay Josh to do it and Josh couldn't make it up.  I have to say, out of respect for me, he truly exhausted his alternatives.  So the guy came up Saturday afternoon and no matter how hard I tried, I was uncomfortable the whole time.  It really shows me how connected to and protective of my environment I am and that I need to work on handling my emotions better.  It was definitely a situation where we all would have benefited from me coping with things better than I did.  Eric was very sweet to me about it, but let me know that I might want to reframe my mindset a bit.  I tried, didn't work, lesson learned.

I say "lesson learned" because the negatively got me really, really sick starting Sunday night.  I'd successfully held a head cold at bay since way before Founder's Day and figured it had given up, but that night, with my energy all kinds of invested in being pissy, it got me good.  I spent Sunday cleaning the kids' room profoundly, moving furniture and cleaning every crevice.  It's a much more functional and happy room now. 

Monday, I woke up with the sinus headache to be crowned the King of Pain forever.  My face on fire with the pressure and pain from it.   I spent the day in bed, hiding and sleeping and waking up just to moan and go back to sleep.  I took some Zicam a couple of times and finally started to feel a little better Monday night.  Yesterday, I woke up with no headache, just a runny nose and that I can handle. 

I had to go into town yesterday, which as you folks know, is an adventure that takes up hours of my time.  I mailed out the first new hire paperwork for my new job, just as instructed, took it to Fed Ex and sent it out two day mail (they included a pre-paid envelope) and waited.  Finally, about 4 days later (when I was fully expecting my new transcriptionist computer to land on my doorstep any day), I got a call from the processing lady to told me that I had to redo the entire package because I had signed my name "KRasbold."  Mind you, that's how I always sign my name, but no, they had to have me sign my full name.  *sigh*  So they sent me a new package about 4 days later and I had to fill out the whole thing again and get my social security card and drivers license copied again and then go back to Fed Ex again.  Now I wait to find out if I missed dotting an I or if my paper clips were the wrong color or whatever.  Needless to say, I'm no longer starting my training on the 8th, which is fine with me.  Another week with me having more free time to work on my house is a huge blessing. 

While I was in town, I got the last of the paint and supplies, this time for the boys' room (sort of a periwinkle that's more toward blue than winkle) and Delena's black and dark red, sort of like the background of this webset.  She's painting one wall in her bathroom, plus the beams in her room red, then dabbing on the black with a sea sponge.

When I came home, I got busy on the other shed and only managed to get about halfway through it before it got dark.  The short days are killing me.  I found the tapestries I needed, so that was a real bonus, plus got out a ton of stuff for trash and for the hospice thrift shop.  That gets me well on the way to finishing the job when the new storage shed is ready.

Poor Eric has been working so hard, trying to get the shed done before the rain comes.  Now, on some weather sites, snow is predicted down to 4000 feet (which is us).  It's dark as all get out now and he's out there just hammering away on the roof.  That's in addition to delivering the mail, bidding jobs for the electrical company and being a good husband and dad. 

Today, I took the window blinds (the old slatted ones, not my new, cool bamboo ones) and threw them over the clothesline and turned the Ajax outdoor cleaner stuff onto them.  It took about an hour to get those suckers clean, then I left them out there to dry in the sun while I went in to tackle Delena's room.  I spent an hour and a half just on her bathroom, then eventually made my way through her room.  I started at 11am and by the time she got home at 4pm, I was almost done with the exception of a huge, heaping pile of clean laundry that completed covered her bed.  Her room is much more convenient and functional now that I liberated it of 4 bags of trash, six storage bins and a vacuum cleaner bag of dirt.  I left the laundry for her and she is, in theory, working on it, plus doing a biology lab write up.  Because I had to go in and do her job for her, she has to pay me back the hours I invested.  She's a good sport about it and about all the stuff of hers she had put into storage.  (That's how much she doesn't want to clean her room when it gets bad and boy, does it get bad) 

Now that both kids' rooms are clean and streamlined, I am absolutely determined to keep after them on a day to day basis so that they stay situation.  These kids are wily little things and will find the weirdest ways to junk up their rooms.  I'm going so completely gladiator on this.  It's my new passion.  I'm going to be barking about every little thing that falls on the ground with an unrivaled fierceness.

With Delena's room now cleaned organized, the renovation part of the process is finished and now I'm down to just painting and finishing up the last bit of tiling in the kitchen.  The tiling will go fast.  There's only a little bit left.  Then I paint the walls in the kitchen that same sagey green that I used in the bathroom, then paint the rest of the cupboards the Black Bean color.  I have taken the doors off of the top cupboards for a couple of weeks now just to try out the open cupboard idea and see if I like it.  As it turns out, I absolutely love it.  It looks very pretty and it's extremely convenient.  No more banging my head on the open doors!  My biggest concern, having gotten past the whole "can I keep the shelves showroom straight?" was the degree of dust/dirt that would collect on the shelves and dishes.  As it turns out, there's little or none, so that worked out well.  I'll just pass a damp cloth over the surface once a week or so and it should be good. 

I do need to sand down the areas where the hinges were attached on the cupboard above the stove where I've already painted.  I also have to touch up the (new, yay!) microwave cubby because some of the paint is peeling already because someone (*cough*Eric*cough*) told me that if I painted directly onto paint, I didn't have to prime it first.  Evidently (and we are both learning as we go along here), if you're painting onto latex, priming is good.

So I'll sand a bit and prime a bit and then repaint (all without removing the microwave with any luck). Then the real fun starts.  Once the kitchen is finally done (I started in there first and got distracted), then I get to prime and paint the beams, prime and paint the fireplace after Eric takes out the insert to turn it into the huge, gaping maw look I love, paint some accent areas in the family room (it's matte, so I don't think I'll need to prime, so it'll go fast), paint the boys' ceiling and two walls (leaving 2 white), putting up cloud stickers and Sponge Bob stickers, clean the damned carpets again, then monitoring Delena's painting of her room then, dare I say it?  I'm done!!  Once I get started (tomorrow, if all goes well), I think it's going to roll along quickly and my plan is to be finished by the time I start the new job so that I can relax and settle into it, completely confident that I have a house that is easy to manage and looks a lot better. 

Eric is going to be painting the exterior and trim, adding a railing to the front deck and re-finishing it (he was going to extended, but we decided it would be more practical to use the extra lumber to extend the back deck more than we originally planned since it is better suited to entertaining and the front deck is more of an entryway.  I'm going to trick out the front deck with fountains and plants and statues and such.  Some I have and some, I'll get.  I also heard rumors that Eric is going to paint the fence, which will be nice.  With the weather starting to get unpredictable, he's definitely in a time crunch to get things done.  I'm lucky that all my work, with the exception of putting pretty things on the front deck, is inside.

So that's what's up in my world.  Every day takes me closer to finalizing the renovation.  Every day, my house is more organized and prettier (Although you wouldn't know it from looking at it now.  Since I stayed in Delena's room all day, the outer rooms are in big need of help).  I've had some real blessings in the past few days that have made me really happy and I really look forward to how my life is going.  I hate that I don't have as much computer time as I used to, but I love the results of where I've been investing my energy.  It feels very productive and different that what I am accustomed to doing.  I was really stepping out of my comfort zone to take on a project like this because my sense of style and fashion is almost nonexistent.  My ex-husband used to literally hang my clothes together that went together because I was terrible at finding complimentary combinations.  I took a lot of great advice from people and put it all together with my own tastes and so far, it seems to be working.  Eric seems very happy with the work I've done and I'm eager to get the rest of it done so that I can just snuggle into my finished house and be surrounded by a job well done. 

I will absolutely post photos when it's finished, but right now, the "work in progress" just isn't that impressive.  It appears that everything is going to happen all at once in a flurry of active days and then, suddenly be done.  That's how harvest rolls, I guess.  You work in the fields and sweat and ache (Speaking of aching, Andrea and I did an exercise ball work out today that kills.  I'm very sore!) and cuss and then, all of a sudden, you're on your last row and the harvest is in. 

Right now, I need dinner, a shower and a soak in the hot tub and I'll be set for the night!