making progress
Took a day from work to stay home and work my ass off. My parents had already decided to come down to perform landlordly responsibilities and I figured it would be easier to get everything done if I stayed home to help. Plus, I really felt bad about my folks coming down to clean, even though the messes they addressed were those made by previous renters.
My dad hung ceiling tile for most of the day and also did plumbing chores. He hates plumbing with a passion, so I bought him a super-rich chocolate milkshake from Amy's. Mama and I cleaned, dusted, vaccuumed, and de-mucked. We sought out dust and destroyed it, including depriving it of its habitat. (Little altars everywhere = lots to dust.) When we took a break, I showed Mama the Lord of the Rings Special Feature about the horses used in the movie. She loved it. (That woman is horse-crazy. It's cute.)
We had the electrician come over to fix some weirdness in Leon's room. Turns out a previous tenant (of the male punk variety) had modified the light switch for unknown reasons, installing a plug that was neither safe nor to code. We're lucky the house never burned down. But this discovery means we can release our concerns about the grounding wires.
Best of all, we packed up more of Mama's books and some other Stuff that I hadn't known what to do with. I've been delaying getting rid of it in case she wanted it, and she did. So the house feels about 20lbs lighter, psychically: now most of the stuff in the house belongs to those who live there, with just a few caches of leftovers.
It feels good to live in that house, and great to make progress on my remodeling goals. The project goes one teeny step at a time, since everyone who lives there has busy lives. One day stolen from work made for a hell of a lot of forward motion, and I feel very satisfied by it.
My dad hung ceiling tile for most of the day and also did plumbing chores. He hates plumbing with a passion, so I bought him a super-rich chocolate milkshake from Amy's. Mama and I cleaned, dusted, vaccuumed, and de-mucked. We sought out dust and destroyed it, including depriving it of its habitat. (Little altars everywhere = lots to dust.) When we took a break, I showed Mama the Lord of the Rings Special Feature about the horses used in the movie. She loved it. (That woman is horse-crazy. It's cute.)
We had the electrician come over to fix some weirdness in Leon's room. Turns out a previous tenant (of the male punk variety) had modified the light switch for unknown reasons, installing a plug that was neither safe nor to code. We're lucky the house never burned down. But this discovery means we can release our concerns about the grounding wires.
Best of all, we packed up more of Mama's books and some other Stuff that I hadn't known what to do with. I've been delaying getting rid of it in case she wanted it, and she did. So the house feels about 20lbs lighter, psychically: now most of the stuff in the house belongs to those who live there, with just a few caches of leftovers.
It feels good to live in that house, and great to make progress on my remodeling goals. The project goes one teeny step at a time, since everyone who lives there has busy lives. One day stolen from work made for a hell of a lot of forward motion, and I feel very satisfied by it.