Update from the land of crazy

Well clearly I’ve been neglecting the blog to do that little business of getting the house on the market. I’ve been neglecting other things as well: sleep, balance, friends, munchkins, book club, … right. I prefer to call it “focused energy” but whatever.

So the house. I’m going to leave out all of the gory details, but it felt gory. I had some wonderful family members and friends that helped me do the final push – washing rugs, cleaning bathrooms, finishing the trim in the kitchen, you name it. I am so blessed to be surrounded by such generous people.

Anyway, that last night before listing wasn’t pretty- I was pretty sick and had a ton of stuff to do. That’s enough details, but it was not pretty. And by that I mean, NOT PRETTY. Extreme mortification. As it turns out, I called to push back the first two showings so I could finish up in the garage. The first guy was a jerk and came anyway (I turned him away). The second people didn’t get the rescheduling message. And didn’t confirm their rescheduled appointment, so they managed to come while I was vacuuming mouse crap in the garage. Awesome. On no sleep. And looking like death warmed over (and covered in sawdust from the garage). They were delightful people. Loved everything about the house. Told me repeatedly what a great job I’d done. And the wife loved my flowers. Awww.  Anyway, after the mortification of being around for a house showing, we finally got things packed up and we fled to my parents house- me, the dogs, and a bunch of clean laundry. I was exhausted.

 

Sunday I got the call that those first people (right, the ones who found me cleaning the garage) put in an offer. Woo hoo! We counter offered Monday, which they accepted, and the inspection was just yesterday. Waiting to hear on the results and the appraisal.

So the dogs and I camped out for the week at my parents. The dead chicken could have been Maggie or could have been whatever animal has been killing my mom’s chickens all winter, but there was a dead chicken and I can’t say Maggie is blameless.

The kitten left no doubt. Sometimes the circle of life if just vicious, especially when you have to see it go down. The little kitties that Owen had stashed in the safe horse trailer found a way out of it, and there I was following Maggie after a brutal day at work… just in time to see her grab a tiny kitten and quickly shake it to death. Tragedy. It took me back to 12 year old Reenie who would always find kittens that had been killed by animals, cars, etc. I’d cry and take their little bodies to my own animal graveyard (a specific spot in the woods I can’t even find anymore). Sad. As the adult Reenie watched her own dog shake this tiny helpless thing, I thought how strange it is to see the same sort of things as I did when I was a kid, and to still be sad, but not heartbroken. The circle of life. It is vicious.

As I buried the dead kitten, the other two kitties climbed my pant leg, falling into the hole I was digging. I dearly hoped this wasn’t a prophetic move. I locked the dogs inside, snuggled these little bits of fur and sweetness, and buried the one that didn’t make it. And life goes on.

Maggie is a complete pain in the butt sometimes but she is also a reflection of me. At my parents house, she runs around like mad, chasing everything that moves, tearing up hills and through the woods, and loving life. She runs up grinning and panting. And then she whines. She wants to go home! Every time she sees my car she tries to leap in and asks to go home. This is fun Reenie, but take me hoooommmmeeeeeee! I feel the same way.

I am SO grateful at my parent’s generosity. That they take in me and a couple killer dogs in our moment of need. And yet, everything felt off. Staying there isn’t home. It isn’t my chaos, it’s someone else’s chaos. Everything about our daily routines with the dogs was off, different. Suzie was fabulous- because basically I am the center of her universe and as long as I’m around, she’s happy. Add to that her exhaustion from all the running around all day, she’s basically the best dog ALIVE. Maggie, not so much. Whiney. Anxious. Happy one second and freaking out the next. Panting. Begging to go home.

So Saturday marked a week at my parents and the inspection was done late afternon and we were ready to go home. I now have the same unfolded laundry at home with me. And two tired and very content dogs, and one tired and content Reenie, who is trying to not freak out about the impending homelessness. (We’ll save that for another post, shall we?)

And hey, the house is (mostly) sold! God is so good!! and the months of intense preparation paid off –it looks fabulous and went quickly. I feel so incredible relieved and blessed. 

Count your blessings

I am blessed.

The other day I had one of those moments where something happened and I completely overreacted (mostly in my head). Do you ever have those moments? It felt like piling on. As if I don't have enough going on, and now THIS? And it isn't the first time something like this happened which manages to make me feel invisible and undervalued and abandoned. Stupid, yes. But those are the feelings that come flooding in. Suddenly I'm frustrated, angry, and feeling entirely derailed. Somewhere in the middle of this response, I was able to see that I was overreacting. This isn't something that is going to ruin my life. It doesn't mean my parents have never loved me or that I'll never be able to get the house on the market.  Back to reality, Reenie, back to reality. It is inconvenient and it does throw off my plans, but there are so many things to be thankful for in spite of it.

Today I am thankful:

For God's abundance in all things

For being Catholic

For gorgeous spring weather at last

For tulips and hyacinths and forsythia and daffodils all blooming in my yard

For a couple crazy dogs who love me (and one of them who REALLY loves me) 

For the friends that generously brought over dinner and boxes and their cute toddler for a visit

For my brother and sister-in-law who came over and cleaned the bathroom and helped me trim the kitchen

For a job I love (and that my boss is usually in town and taking his own phone calls) 

For a house that is almost ready to list

For a place to go while it's listed (so as to get the dogs out)

For a housing market that is on the mend at long last

Bottom line: I am blessed and thankful.

The insanity of this particular nut getting a house on the market

Thank God for April and being less scheduled (on purpose, once I realized how overscheduled March was). My dear friend Karen came over one afternoon because she is awesome like that. She touched up my kitchen cabinets, painted trim, put up some hardware, touched up kitchen walls, and was generally awesome. I also put a fresh coat of stain/varnish on the upstairs bathroom cabinets and mirrors, fixed the seal along the tub, etc. 
My first at-home productive weekend in a month (a week or two ago) was awesome. I repainted the front door, door hardware, replaced outdoor light fixture, painted the mailbox and address numbers, sanded and spray painted the bathroom light fixture to cover the rust spots, reinstalled it, found touch up paint for the dining room (SCORE!).

Owen came over for a couple hours and removed adhesive from the front siding (thanks to a great prank from many years ago that included a lot of bows stuck all over the front of my house) and did a bit of yard work for me. And then, after my half hour dinner break, I worked on plumbing... actually, I had started in the afternoon... (prepare for a plumbing rant)

Ahem. So I was replacing the faucets in both bathrooms and the kitchen. They were all old, kind of gross, and had broken parts I hadn't been able to find replacement parts for. So the upstairs bathroom was the real bugger in all of this. I realized later it was because I've already replaced the drain piping in the downstairs bathroom a few years ago (and it was a bugger then) and had replaced the kitchen drain piping when I replaced the garbage disposal a few years ago (also a bugger). And I recently replaced the laundry room sink and had to replace drain piping there too. Basically, this was the one remaining sink to labor over the corroded, nasty drain piping.

In the instructions that come with the new faucet, it reads "2. Removed existing faucet and drain." Like it should take about 37 seconds to disconnect and then you can move on with steps 3-12 with great ease. It was not to be so at the Homestead. It took me over 2 hours to just disconnect the faucet and deal with the leaking valve. Absolutely maddening. Rekindling my loathing of all things plumbing. And of course, the new faucet needs new connection tubes in different sizes than the existing ones. And... right, I'll spare you some of the cruddy, scummy, corroded details... (I said "some" not "all")

 

Let's just say I made a run to Ace late afternoon (because by then Owen was there so I wouldn't have to just leave the house with the door open since the paint was still wet), I got the connection hoses and a couple parts for the valve issue. After dinner, I went back to the plumbing... and of course, after several more hours, needed another part... after the hardware stores were closed... so I trekked to Walmart in all of my plumbing glory (which included smelling of liquid wrench because I'd been using a lot of it and at one point, while shifting awkwardly around under the sink to try to get a better angle and get some traction on some corroded stuck plumbing, I managed to lay on the spray bottle which promptly discharged it's smelly contents into my hair -- I told you, I'm really good at this stuff :)  

Anyway, there I was in a desperate state looking for a washer for the drain at Walmart... whose plumbing department let me down big time (no surprise there). I did pick up another set of drain hoses which I realized I would need for the second bathroom faucet. So I stood in line with 30 other people at 10 pm at Walmart, waiting for the two tired cashiers to ring up my stupid hoses... Hoping against hope, I went from there to Meijer, sure their plumbing department is about as well equipped as Walmart... but hoping they might carry a washer to stop the drain leak and be able to turn on the water that evening... please God!!  Gloriously, Meijer had a little package called "Plumbing washers" that had a dozen different sizes (including the one I needed) for $3. Fabulous. And the self scan registers work at Meijer. Leaving there at 11 pm and feeling like a million bucks (and you already know I looked and smelled like a million bucks) I trekked home with my precious plumbing parts.

 

I finally finished the upstairs bathroom (well mostly, because there was still a slight drip at the drain connection-- argh!!) at 1 am. I looked at the other two faucets and figured I might as well just keep going- especially since I knew the other two were going to be simpler since it was only the faucets and not the drains. At exactly 1:59 I finished the other two and turned the water back on so the roommate could shower before work in a few hours. 

The next morning at church a couple of my girlfriends told me how impressed they were. "Plumbing isn't my thing" one of them told me. Clearly plumbing isn't my "thing" either, but no one else was going to do it, so I had to. Meh. And someday I dearly hope plumbing doesn't need to be my thing any longer. But for now, I'm done. The faucets look and work great and I hope to do no more plumbing, at least for the next couple weeks (fingers crossed). Oh and I dug the old corroded washer out of that drain ring after Mass, replaced it, and finally stopped that annoying leak. Done. Whew.   

This getting the house ready to sell process is kicking my butt. So. Much. To. Do. but it is good to be moving forward. I'm going to be soooooo relieved in a couple weeks when the insanity of the prep is done and it is just on the market.

March (a little late)

March flew by and here we are in mid-April! Yikes. Apparently I've been too busy to post anything over here (you're welcome!)

The short version of March: 

 

Payback Saturday with Donal and Lindsey -- we painted the living room, small bathroom, and primed the basement stairwell... I followed up with installing a new mirror in the small bathroom, painting the vanity and updating the hardware, and attempting to put the house back together (ish). It was an awesomely productive weekend at the Homestead!!  (Thanks to Donal, Lindsey, Leslie, and Jenny). 

 

Damian Stayne Conference at CTK - really excellent

 

Silent Retreat at Gethsemane in KY - also really excellent. I am SO blessed to be able to go there year after year and simply encounter Jesus in the peaceful stillness, in the prayer of the Church, in the lives of faithful men who pray without ceasing. And I napped... a lot. It was all so very wonderful.

 

Triduum / Easter at CTK, my class (including my niece Lucy) made their First Communion (a very exciting day for all of us)

 

Painted the kitchen counters (I keep meaning to post about this process and the results... maybe I'll get around to it someday) 

 

And then March was over. Just like that. Without making much more progress than that one really productive weekend, meeting with realtors, and some decluttering / packing in between. 

Lock Down February Wrap Up

And just like that, it is March! (I know, right? You’ve never heard me comment on February going quickly before, have you?) Now that it is the first of March, I can officially declare Lock Down February a complete WIN in my book. Surviving February has never been so easy, in fact!

So the goal of Lock Down February was to take a month to limit (not eliminate) my social activities and lock down in order to get stuff done around my house.  Here’s what I managed to accomplish: 

• Finish painting the guest room, paint guest room shelves, put guest room back together
• Move into guest room and out of master bedroom
• Purge, organize, donate (this is ongoing, but I've been making good progress)
• Cook a lot of turkey and sweet potato for the dog – an elimination diet for my dog Suzie who has horrible allergies and I finally decided to bite the bullet and do this to see if it is a food allergy. We have only 2 weeks left, but I think I’m pleased to say, it does not appear to be a food allergy. She is still itching in spite of eating better than me!
• Host "Wine and Cheese to make February Suck Less" parties (and yes, February did suck less afterward!)
• Mix paint and repaint master bedroom
• Make lists of projects and timeline (ish) for house listing, add to the list daily
• Overbook March
• Take both dogs to the vet for shots (seems like a little thing, but is always ample opportunity for humility and humiliation… not to mention resembling a three ring circus taking them both at the same time)
• Start packing stuff to store while staging the house 
• Arrange for Payback Saturday with Donal & Lindsey (they're coming to help me for a day since I helped with their kitchen-- family is wonderful!!)
• Arrange for buff high schoolers to move boxes and extraneous furniture to storage for staging (that same day Donal and Lindsey and I will be repainting the living room)
• Agonize over how much there is to do
• Watch (and agonize) over the remainder of Downton Abbey (I really am terribly into this show!!)
• Neglect book club book (I didn't call it Lock Down February for nothing!)
• Check out several books on home staging from the library and leave them sitting untouched for weeks on end
• Begin Lent, get back on my early morning Mass routine
• Teach Religious Ed
• Continue weekly visits with my grandparents
• Lose touch with the rest of the outside world
• Send Feb valentines to a couple of my special sweeties and a couple Feb birthday cards (but of course forget to send the rest of them)
• Scavenge for boxes for moving
• And spend the last 2 days of February on the couch with the flu. Not quite how I’d hoped to end the month, but alas, sometimes you cannot escape. At least it has given me a chance to fully appreciate my very colorful green living room before painting it neutral next weekend.

As usual, there were millions of things on my list that I didn’t get done, but I am choosing to look at the positive and appreciate what I was able to get done. And in the midst of all that productivity, I got to see a lot of my friends - who I am incredibly grateful for. I am truly blessed. And with that, farewell February, it really has been the best ever. I’ll see you again next year.

Custom mixed paint

It seems to be my newest hobby. Who knew? Inspired by the fabulous Karen, I decided to give it a whirl. First I made paint for the small bedroom – one can of mistint, plus two quarter cans of previous project blue. It turned out great and I have a small jar of it left to leave the new homeowners for any touch ups. 

Then it was those two cans of blue for the master bedroom. They were clearance mistint specials and close to the same color. I mixed them together, painted a wall, and decided it was entirely too blue and not nearly neutral enough. Don’t get me wrong, I liked it a lot… but it hardly fit the bill for making the room more neutral. So I added a can of that mistint gray (which was supposed to be for the living room). Perfect! It turned out great and there is at least another room’s worth since the master bedroom only needed one coat (painting WIN).

A couple evenings ago, I went to the paint archives (or the far back of the paint shelves) and found lots of good stuff. Several partial cans of beige and off white from before I moved in (most of the house was beige or off white). A partial can of dark forest green (the dining room when I moved in). Some yellow from the first time I painted my bedroom, beige from when Lisa painted her bedroom, and some small amounts of white. I mixed it all together (minus the forest green) and it is a nice, creamy, yellowy beige. I think it will do quite nicely for the basement stairwell and family room. Nice and neutral (and I’m sure I will think it is perfectly boring when I’m done).  Anyway, it appears to be a paint mixing success. And I got rid of about 8 partial cans of paint and a couple cans that were completely dried and unusable. 

A few tips:

• Wear clothes you don’t mind getting paint on. (Those pants that look like the scary green pants with no one inside certainly fit the ticket).  
• Be careful when opening old paint cans. The rims get rusty and can puncture a finger… Or if you are using a crow bar because you’re too lazy to run upstairs for the paint can opener, you may slice your wrist open. Don’t say you weren’t warned.
• Mix a lot longer than you think (stir and stir and stir)
• Before adding a can of paint  to the big bucket, stir it in it’s own can and see if it mixes together… otherwise get rid of it.
• If paint is hardened in the bottom of the can, well… obviously get rid of it! 
• Strain paint before using (it can get clumps if the paint is older or rust from that rim you may have cut yourself on). You’ll thank the future you if you remove the clumps before putting it on the wall.
• Paint a bit on the wall and let it dry before coating the entire room- sometimes it dries differently than you think and you’d hate to waste all that effort if you suddenly decide it is too happy or you hate the color or something.
• Don’t be afraid to mix paint sheens- on the master bedroom, I combined satin, flat and semi gloss and it looks great (sort of satin I guess). 
• Be sure you are mixing latex and latex paint. Don’t mix oil based and water based paint (but you already guessed that). 
• Have fun!