Wednesday, January 26, 2011

Starting to catch up. Part 1

Wow, I've had this blog since 2008 and have only posted two blogs!! What a slacker. Not that I've not had quite a bit going on since then, so I think I'll give myself a break. I know that having a fixer up house, two teenagers, and a full-time job should be enough to occupy anyone's time. But when I think back, I've been out on medical leave twice since then. I was home about a month each time, recovering from back surgery. You'd think that I may have taken a few minutes to actually take a few minutes to write & post pictures some place other than facebook......

I would beat myself up over not writing, but please....I haven't even taken down the Christmas tree yet. Don't judge!! I'm going to this weekend. (I swear, it WILL be done!) Having major surgery just takes the wind right out of your sails though. I still can't lift things so it's been a bit hard to get everything packed up....what's that? I have kids to help??? haha, suuuuureeeeee!!!

So hmmm, how to catch up on the last two-plus years!?! I guess I'll start with the house. We painted the WHOLE thing. No more rainbow colors for this girl! (I still shudder when I think how it looked!) The basement was gutted. The horrible, stained, old schoolhouse type drop down ceiling tiles were torn down and replaced with drywall! (Thanks to BS Home Improvements Services...aka my wonderful dad.) We installed nifty swivel lights, along with a super cool dimmer and then I hired a company to install crown moulding. It looks so great.

The house was completely neglected and even the most routine of maintenace was not done, so much of it has been a "oh no, such & such is broken?" thing, with the resulting panicked repairs/replacement to follow. So far, I've had to replace the heating/cooling unit (nice of it to break mid-summer!), the garbage disposal, and I won't even get into all the plumbing & other miscellaneous items.

Honestly though, I'm a little disappointed at what I HAVEN'T gotten done. So many plans I have for this house, but so little of it has been done. I feel like I'm at a bit of a standstill. I replaced the carpet through the whole house, except for the nasty, nasty (did I mention it is just plain gross) dining room carpet. It was horribly stained when I bought it & shampooing it doesn't help too much. I am going to rip that, and the equally dinged & disgusting linoleum in the kitchen & half-bath, and replace it with hardwood.

I get a little bogged down though, because the kitchen cabinets & counters are old and banged up, so I'm not sure where to start. Do I do it all at one time (holy cow, I'll have to sell one of the above mentioned teenagers....JUST kidding! How much do you think I'd get. Again, kidding. Maybe just a loan?? hehe), or do I take it a step at a time? If the latter, which do I start with? I'm the type where I want it all done, I want it done NOW and I want it to match the picture in my head! I don't want to wait, yet I know it's going to cost a small fortune...that's not even mentioning the complete overhaul that both my front and back "yard" NEED. Why do I keep having the phrase "which came first, the chicken or the egg?" run through my head?!? Alternatively, the words TOO MUCH (work/responsibility/cost/decision making) keep racing around here also.

Was this REALLY my idea to own my own house? I mean, the American dream seemed so much more dreamy when it was just that. Please don't get me wrong though, I am completely thankful of what I have!!!! I'm very lucky to be where I am. I don't pretend otherwise, I know these are wonderful problems to have. I'm sure much of it is that it ALL falls on my shoulders and I tend to get overwhelmed. Sometimes I just don't know where to start. If only the house were the priority.....I'd much rather focus on what my kids are doing (or not doing!) and getting my body back in some sort of shape.

Body. Shape. Ugh. That will have to be a blog for another day though, as I'm pretty sure this is already the most monumentally boring blog in the history of blogs. My goal is to start writing at least every few days, if for nothing other than for catharsis.

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