Things undone

Since we were out of town every weekend in June, and July has been filled with puppy-puppy-and-more-puppy we have left lots of projects neglected.

I'm not sure why, but it seems like we need weekends to really get anything substantial accomplished.  During the week, we are doing so many things, like trying to fit in dinners with friends, concerts and working late, oh- and taking care of Ketch, that we very rarely accomplish anything around the house.  Its the two full days at home of solid weekend time that we need.

I have a running mental list going of things that I need to do, but since my mental capacity seems to be diminishing each day, if I don't write them all down I may forget all together.

So, instead of showing you a wonderful project that I have tackled and completed, think of this is a long list of "befores."

The Backyard Fence: I know this has been on the list for over a year, and we have been dragging our feet on getting this done. You would think that getting Ketch would light a fire under us, but actually, the wall that we built contains home just fine, so we have a month or so before he gets so big that he will be able to scale it.

The problem is that we have the small gap between the stairs and the wall that needs to be filled with cement.  The cement needs to be done in tiers (to match the stairs)- so we need to go the bottom layer, then let it dry, then the 2nd layer and let it dry, and so on and so on....which means we need 3 days of warm (non rainy) weather (when we are home) to fill the gap.

And when I say "we,"  I mean Chris.

This small step is what is stopping us (Chris) from getting the darn fence built.  We can't get dirt brought in to the fill the hole until the cement is done or else it will just run out the gaps during the first rain. 

We did finally decide that we are going to hire someone to come build the actual fence.... lets be honest some times you need to know when to call in the professionals, this is one of those times.

The $2 chair: Oh poor naked 2 buck Chuck.  He is such a pretty color, but has not moved since his spray paint day, so he is still waiting for his new fabric covers.  

I promise Chuck I will get him covered by the end of August.

The Nursery: At the rate we are going, this kid is going to have no where to sleep, nothing to wear and no room of their own.

We haven't even really come up with a plan of attack for the nursery.  I know I really want striped walls and to do things in grey/white, but that is about the extent of any decisions I've mad.

The room is CHAOS. I wish I could have HGTV surprise me with a room makeover on this one.

The Basement: Chris is really itching to get the basement done before the baby comes, but I'm not really too worried about that.  Babies don't need basements. 

If it were up to me I would put a carpet runner on the stairs and get a new washer and dryer and call it good, but Chris is really excited about getting it done, and to be honest I'm kind of excited about how great it will be when its done too- but I'm not excited about the construction process.

We just got the bid back from the contractor and we are pretty sure we are going to move forward with it and start work on August 1.

The Kitchen Walls: Chris did a really great thing by painting the kitchen while I was gone in Phoenix.  He painted it the color of the den- a medium grey color.  Unfortunately he didn't really end up liking the color (I couldn't care less about it) so the other day when I was napping he primed it so he could repaint it.

We decided to go with the same color as the dinging room/living room, so hopefully those two rooms with flow together.  There is a chance that we pick a new color for all three rooms- but I'm not dying to do that any time soon.

The Office Paint: This is one of the most stupid things on my list.  After I painted the office way back when, I spackled over a few holes from old picture hangers.  And then I left it.  For a year (maybe more).

What is awesome and horrible, is that these holes are completely out of sight and out of mind and I don't really go in the office very often, so I forget that I need to take 3 minutes and touch up the paint.

This is such a small to-do that I should just do it already.  Oh motivation, where have you gone?

Office Chandelier: During the kitchen remodel we bought a chandelier that was much too small for our new dining room but I liked it for the office (since I'm on a mission to rid our home of nipple/boob lights). 

I'm kind of daunted by lighting and electrical things, so swapping out a light fixture, however easy it may be in reality- seems very difficult in my mind, which is what is stopping me (that and electrocution) from hopping on my ladder and giving it the old college try. 

Bathroom Shower Surround: This is one of those annoying ones that I really don't want to do again.  Also, this is a bit like putting lipstick on a pig (at least I think that reference makes sense).... there is some sort of water leakage or issue behind the shower surround because we get mold every 6 months or so growing in the caulk.

I realize that this is a bigger problem, that I'm not at all prepared to deal with.  In our big scheme of remolding plans, we hope to gut this bathroom, so I'm not really interested in pulling down the shower surround right now when we are not ready to take on the bigger project.

I need to pull out the caulk, clean the area with bleach and then re-caulk again.  This process is just tedious and annoying, not very hard.  The problem is that we can't shower for 2 days so the area is able to fully dry.  So we both will have to take a bath- which makes me feel somehow less clean than showers. What reminds me of us needing to get around to installing a circular shower curtain and shower head in the downstairs bathroom.

So those are all the big projects that really need to get done. I'm hoping that these projects mysteriously get completed by elves while I'm sleeping.  But on the off chance that elves are on summer vacation, Chris and I are going to tackle them one at at time and hope we get them done before the summer is over and the baby is here.

Maybe I can just hire a handyman????