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the_siobhanBack about a billion years ago in the beginning of the summer we painted the kitchen, Charlie fixed the rail in the closet and we got rid of the standing rail in the bedroom.
Then you know, everything went to shit. And I stopped caring about the house for a couple of months.
This weekend I finally got to the point where I was ready to set the place on fire just so I would have an excuse to walk out and never go back. So instead I decided I was going to have ONE fucking room where I could actually walk across the floor and have a flat surface to put something down on - so I attacked the kitchen. I wouldn't go so far as to say it's clean now, but I can use the stove and all the pots without having to take soil samples first.
You know, there is a part of my brain that is shouting at me that I shouldn't even care about any of this stuff. After everything that has happened why the fuck should I even think that any of this stuff is important? And then the smart adult reasonable part of my brain answers that living in a filthy cluttered space I have no control over is depressing, hello. You know, that mental illness you have to watch out for that eats your entire life? Yeah, that. Now stop being a drama queen and suck it up and go fix something.
So. Anyway.
After the flood water was cleaned up Axel and I made an attempt to power wash the dried crud off the basement floor. After the first square meter we said Fuck. That. and hired somebody. So that is now done and we can walk around doing laundry and stuff without having to have a pile of towels at the top of the stairs so we can clean up afterwards. It also means I took away the dog gate from the stairs and Feargal has deigned to do some exploring and designate a few this-will-do-as-an-auxilliary-lounging-area-when-I-want-a-change-of-scenery spots.
We need to figure out how to flood-proof better for the future though - our basement has been pretty dry since we got the roof and eavestroughs redone and did some patching out back and that rainstorm was designated a "once in a 100 years" event. But "once in a 100-years events" are now happening every 10 years or so, which means we need to be prepared for it to happen again at some point. So that means 1) Getting an estimate on how much it will cost to flood-proof 2) Figure out how much it will cost us to insure against flooding and 3) Look into city programs to help with the funding. (I think they will pay the partial cost of a backflow valve on the floor drains for a start.)
We still have a pile of Fiona's stuff that needs dealing with. There are a bunch of bags of her clothes that are destined for a woman's shelther - Axel was supposed to give them to a friend who works at one a couple of weeks ago, but they both managed to forget once she was actually in the house. She's coming over again on Monday so I need to have a quick look through them before that. (And then I will text him EVERY FIFTEEN MINUTES on Monday to make sure he doesn't forget again. Just kidding. Not really.)
We also have her computers so we can reformat the hard drives and donate the components to reBOOT. Axel mentioned giving one to an unemployed friend who can use one if either of them is potentially useful. So we need to figure that out and arrange for pick-up of whatever is left over. And I think we might have some stuff in the storage room too that can go.
We took her PS2. Set that up and see if it works. And figure out what games we want to keep and where the hell we are going to store them. (Axel had said something about our video machine dying and we should get rid of the videotapes? You can tell how often I even use the thing, I'm not sure. If it is I think there is one tape that I will need to get converted to DVD.)
Those freaking photos, holy shit. I ended up with a total of six boxes by the time I had collected them all - I'm halfway through the scanning the second and I started with the smallest box. I'm pretty much scanning alongside anything else I'm doing whenever I'm sitting at my desk. I think just the fact that there is so many of them means I need to come up with a better solution for storing them than sitting on the floor next to my chair and piled in big heaps all over my desk because this is going to take a while.
I bought a photo album ap way back when I was originally doing this for Axel and me. I started reading the manual yesterday. If I can get that up and running I can start showing them to my family. She has pictures of my nephews pretty much from the day they came home from the hospital. And tons of relatives in Ireland that I would really like to be able to put names to.
The other big thing that is cluttering up all the space in my house is poor Axel's albums. I think he has decided that he's just going to rip them all and get rid of them, so we need to get started on that.
One thing that won't help the house feel any more tidy but will go a long way towards making me feel more in control is we need to sit down and put together a new budget. Our mortgage payments have gone way the hell up (along with every other freaking thing) and I'll feel a lot less nervous about that once we have some numbers set down and I can see where the money is going. Deadline: September's payment.
Fixing the front step needs to happen soon, before the frost causes any more damage. The front corner has now completely fallen off. That shouldn't take too long, it's just matter of getting to it.
I would very much like to get the upstairs finished. That means sanding and painting the window, and once that's done rearranging the furniture and putting up shelves. And art. A room is finished once you have art. The individual tasks won't take more than a chunk of day each, so we just have to find a bunch of days scattered around when we are both home.
Refurbishing the tub is not happening this year. It will have to sit and rust on the porch for another winter, I'll get to it maybe in the spring.
I never did get around to fixing the screens this summer and as it gets cooler at night the urgency is kind of gone. Maybe I'll get a quote and then I can start putting money aside for it in the budget so it can be done before next summer.
Other things that don't have due dates that are on the "I will get around to eventually" list; Sewing projects. Velvet Elvis. Knot hole in the upstairs floor. Finish the painting. Empty the storage room. Move the bike into town.
Then you know, everything went to shit. And I stopped caring about the house for a couple of months.
This weekend I finally got to the point where I was ready to set the place on fire just so I would have an excuse to walk out and never go back. So instead I decided I was going to have ONE fucking room where I could actually walk across the floor and have a flat surface to put something down on - so I attacked the kitchen. I wouldn't go so far as to say it's clean now, but I can use the stove and all the pots without having to take soil samples first.
You know, there is a part of my brain that is shouting at me that I shouldn't even care about any of this stuff. After everything that has happened why the fuck should I even think that any of this stuff is important? And then the smart adult reasonable part of my brain answers that living in a filthy cluttered space I have no control over is depressing, hello. You know, that mental illness you have to watch out for that eats your entire life? Yeah, that. Now stop being a drama queen and suck it up and go fix something.
So. Anyway.
After the flood water was cleaned up Axel and I made an attempt to power wash the dried crud off the basement floor. After the first square meter we said Fuck. That. and hired somebody. So that is now done and we can walk around doing laundry and stuff without having to have a pile of towels at the top of the stairs so we can clean up afterwards. It also means I took away the dog gate from the stairs and Feargal has deigned to do some exploring and designate a few this-will-do-as-an-auxilliary-lounging-area-when-I-want-a-change-of-scenery spots.
We need to figure out how to flood-proof better for the future though - our basement has been pretty dry since we got the roof and eavestroughs redone and did some patching out back and that rainstorm was designated a "once in a 100 years" event. But "once in a 100-years events" are now happening every 10 years or so, which means we need to be prepared for it to happen again at some point. So that means 1) Getting an estimate on how much it will cost to flood-proof 2) Figure out how much it will cost us to insure against flooding and 3) Look into city programs to help with the funding. (I think they will pay the partial cost of a backflow valve on the floor drains for a start.)
We still have a pile of Fiona's stuff that needs dealing with. There are a bunch of bags of her clothes that are destined for a woman's shelther - Axel was supposed to give them to a friend who works at one a couple of weeks ago, but they both managed to forget once she was actually in the house. She's coming over again on Monday so I need to have a quick look through them before that. (And then I will text him EVERY FIFTEEN MINUTES on Monday to make sure he doesn't forget again. Just kidding. Not really.)
We also have her computers so we can reformat the hard drives and donate the components to reBOOT. Axel mentioned giving one to an unemployed friend who can use one if either of them is potentially useful. So we need to figure that out and arrange for pick-up of whatever is left over. And I think we might have some stuff in the storage room too that can go.
We took her PS2. Set that up and see if it works. And figure out what games we want to keep and where the hell we are going to store them. (Axel had said something about our video machine dying and we should get rid of the videotapes? You can tell how often I even use the thing, I'm not sure. If it is I think there is one tape that I will need to get converted to DVD.)
Those freaking photos, holy shit. I ended up with a total of six boxes by the time I had collected them all - I'm halfway through the scanning the second and I started with the smallest box. I'm pretty much scanning alongside anything else I'm doing whenever I'm sitting at my desk. I think just the fact that there is so many of them means I need to come up with a better solution for storing them than sitting on the floor next to my chair and piled in big heaps all over my desk because this is going to take a while.
I bought a photo album ap way back when I was originally doing this for Axel and me. I started reading the manual yesterday. If I can get that up and running I can start showing them to my family. She has pictures of my nephews pretty much from the day they came home from the hospital. And tons of relatives in Ireland that I would really like to be able to put names to.
The other big thing that is cluttering up all the space in my house is poor Axel's albums. I think he has decided that he's just going to rip them all and get rid of them, so we need to get started on that.
One thing that won't help the house feel any more tidy but will go a long way towards making me feel more in control is we need to sit down and put together a new budget. Our mortgage payments have gone way the hell up (along with every other freaking thing) and I'll feel a lot less nervous about that once we have some numbers set down and I can see where the money is going. Deadline: September's payment.
Fixing the front step needs to happen soon, before the frost causes any more damage. The front corner has now completely fallen off. That shouldn't take too long, it's just matter of getting to it.
I would very much like to get the upstairs finished. That means sanding and painting the window, and once that's done rearranging the furniture and putting up shelves. And art. A room is finished once you have art. The individual tasks won't take more than a chunk of day each, so we just have to find a bunch of days scattered around when we are both home.
Refurbishing the tub is not happening this year. It will have to sit and rust on the porch for another winter, I'll get to it maybe in the spring.
I never did get around to fixing the screens this summer and as it gets cooler at night the urgency is kind of gone. Maybe I'll get a quote and then I can start putting money aside for it in the budget so it can be done before next summer.
Other things that don't have due dates that are on the "I will get around to eventually" list; Sewing projects. Velvet Elvis. Knot hole in the upstairs floor. Finish the painting. Empty the storage room. Move the bike into town.
(no subject)
Date: 2013-08-20 12:02 am (UTC)