So much for New Year's resolutions. It's three weeks into 2005 and the gyms are already emptying out. Rather than exercising, many are sitting around eating Twinkies and watching Fear Factor. People are shopping with credit cards of charging fury. Organization flies out the window when you tend to keep everything in a pile on your kitchen floor. It's already time to start over.
But it's a frequent topic of renewal I'm talking about that is at the top of my household's list: home improvement.
Basically, the house is a wreck. Forget Extreme Makeover: The Home Edition; we need Extreme Vaccuum Cleaner: The Suck of No Return. I also need to refocus my efforts on actually finishing – not just starting – the hundreds of projects I seem to have going right now. I need the crews from This Old House, Design Invasion and Trading Spaces to massage our abode into something more livable. And while they're rebuilding my home, I need to be sitting on a beach somewhere eating Twinkies. After a long jog and 100 situps, of course.
Here are my plans for the next several weekends:
• The Master Bathroom
The toilet works, but that's about it. I need to install the new shower, fix some of the dry wall, install the new sink/vanity, put in the new floor and wainscoting, and install the new closet and entry doors. This project has been going on since the beginning of time, it seems like.
• The Hallway
This is a more recent project, wherein I ripped up the nasty carpet and replaced it with laminate flooring. Well, most of it anyhow. I need to fix a few hiccups that occurred along the way. And then finish putting down the quarter-round moulding.
• The Yard
Our vintage 1964 home came complete with zero useable flowerbeds. Much of the soil had been washed away by our severe spring and summer and fall rains, so we began in the back of the house (that side slopes downhill) to build up new planting spaces. I need about 200 more landscaping stones and a truck of dirt to be finished. Well, finished with the beginning. Then I need to plant something. There is also a drainage issue along the front of the house that also needs quick addressing.
• The Stairs
Also formerly covered with nasty carpet, they are now bare and in need of new wooden treads to be complete. As well as have the surrounding trim repainted.
• The Treehouse Playroom
It doesn't necessarily need to become a themed room right away, but we do need to clean out the junk that's up there. The stairs, incidentally, lead to this room. It's like a Home Renovation Snowball, and it just keeps getting bigger.
• Organize the Garage
In reality, if I had a workbench and all my tools in order, I could probably finish all these projects a lot faster. But because there is a long list of half-done projects ahead of it, no dice for T-bone and his tools.
This isn't taking into account the projects that will need addressing in the near future, but that I haven't started. The kitchen, hall bath and guest bedroom need lots of TLC (the TV channel and tender loving care) at some point. Just not until I'm done with everything else.
The man who lives across from my grandmother's house in Virginia used to suffer teasing and anguish from his family and friends because he similarly had 100 projects going on at once. One of them was painting their home's exterior. It took him so long to finish, that by the time he painted the back side the front already needed repainting. I feel his pain.
Man...I was frustrated and irritated before I came over and got reminded of all the things I need to do...yikes...I think I'm going to hang it up for the night after reading this post :)
I still dig ya though :)
Good luck on knocking your list down. I can't even start on my list until sometime in July when I return from deployment. At least I will have lots of time for the gym while I'm deployed.
i hate to say this, but...i'm feeling kind of stressed out after reading your post. an older home certainly has character...which i adore. however, i don't envy your projects.