Laura's Renovation Adventure

MLK is awesome. I got a whole extra day to work on my homework.


I am trying to make my computer desk into something other than a chaotic mess. So we went to the box store and brought home a couple of cabinet pieces to set on either side of the desk, and to hide the cpu. I built an awesome computer, but the case is huge. And sucks dust like nobody's business. So I am hoping that keeping it in a cabinet might reduce some of the dust. And it will certainly be hidden. And we got a drawer unit, to hold the media that go with a computer. I have a ton of CDs. A *ton*. Installation CDs, kids games, clip art, backup files. All of these need a home.

Of course, lots of stuff at my house needs a home. I have way too much stuff. And every time I begin to think about getting rid of some of it, I get overwhelmed and distracted.

We gave away some furniture today. It was lovely furniture. Nice dresser and chest of drawers. But we simply did not have room. The furniture was seventies-era boxy furniture and we live in a 1920's bungalow. The house really has only 1460 square feet. Related to this give-away is my decluttering. Christopher Lowell says 7 out of 10 people have too much clutter. (I would like to know where that statistic came from, btw.) I *know* that I have too much clutter.

Clothing is my nemesis. I cleared out Olivia's 4T clothes today-- at least most of them. I am not even trying most of it on her to see if she *could* wear it one more season. I am just taking it to Katie. I have a kitchen trash sack half-full of clothes that just do not make me feel happy when I wear them. And I am giving myself til when school starts to get my weight back down or I am going to start getting rid of everything that does not fit well. Or that I just do not wear. I love clothes. Really. Love. Clothes. But right now, I have too much of a good thing...

My house continues to cause me stress. I would *love* to have a tidy house. I don't see ever having a home like my aunt, that always looks company ready. I do need, though, for it to not look like one of my children exploded in my living room. I do need to have enough of the mess contained that "finding the floor" can cease to be one of my hobbies. I need to be able to sweep without being a major production.

I made W clean up his room today. That was mildly painful. And he will need to clean his room again tomorrow. Finding the floor is a major part of what he will be doing. Next I need to nag Meleah. Her room is bad as well. She has no floor. Only clothing. Like her mother, she also likes clothes. Also like her mother, she has *way* too many of them.

Our never-ending saga of house selling continues today. We have cleaned and cleaned and cleaned. Today we took pictures of the interior and the exterior of the house because the pictures the realtor took were, frankly, terrible. We took over a hundred pictures and chose the best 10. I am thinking the realtor took, say, 10 and used them all. We are taking over the new pictures on CD tomorrow and are going to insist that they change the photos.

I hate the feeling that I am always being inspected. I hate the constant urge to find things to pick up and put away. I hate this whole process. I hate trying to find a new house. Hate it, hate it, hate it.

Today Todd took off work so we could hit the house hard. He has some people lined up to look at it tomorrow. While I am thrilled that someone might be interested in buying our house, I am so exhausted. We have finally put the stuff on the walls that we bought to go on the walls two years ago and we painted some odds and ends that we have been putting off. I cleaned the refrigerator, and under the refrigerator, and behind the refrigerator. And then I fixed the refrigerator. It had frosted up on the INSIDE and had to defrost thoroughly. So I let it defrost until it quit dripping water. Then plugged it back in and watched the thermometer and hoped it got cold. It did.

While I realize that the ins and outs of my refrigerator drama are not utterly transfixing, I am so proud of the fact that I figured out what could be wrong with my fridge and I fixed it. Okay, so it did not really require tools or anything, but I still did it.

I need to go and fold laundry. I am too tired to do anything else...