Purely for my satisfaction

Before I owned a house I did internal eye-rolls when my friends talked about choosing wallpaper or doing house projects. I was airily superior that if I had a house it wouldn't dominate me the way THEIRS did. I would know it was just a house. Nothing more.

Sigh. I've gone to the dark (dork?) side.

Still to Do

• Basement Bathroom floor
  
• Finish treehouse window (yes, we live in a house where the treehouse has functioning windows. Perhaps not as great as these, but more than I ever expected in a house)
  
• Den (touch up painting)

Completed During Four Day Weekend, or don't ask me how my 4th of July weekend was or I might just tell you... Hey, wake up!

• Repainted entire bedroom, including edging around existing wallpaper border
  
• Put up ceiling in basement bathroom
  
• Drove 2 cars full of paper and magazines to the recycling center
  
• Reorganized and cleaned the entire basement
  
• Made curtains for kitchen
  
• Painted 1st layer on treehouse window
  
• Filled 10 garbage bags with crap!
  
• Reorganized attic storage cubbies
  
• Zapped the wood floors
  
• Cleaned kitchen grout
  
• Cleaned out old Chamber stove
  
• Called plumber (the sinks and pipes in the house KNEW this would be a BAD time to start dripping, so away they went!)
  
• Painted front door and trim (oops, now it sticks a bit. I think I went one coat of paint too far)
  
• Bought plants for porch and front walk (nothing says welcome like droopy, root-shocked plants)
  
• Edged front sidewalks (still need to finish)

Completed by two of my friends, or how being a 'big sister' paid off

• Wiped off ceiling fans
  
• Cleaned out widowsills of 4 years of grime
  
• Polished bookcases
  
• Polished furniture
  
• Washed cabinets
  
• Mopped kitchen floor
  
• Cleaned bathroom (including anti-mildew spray in the tub)
  
• Swiffered floors

The accomplishments of my amazing husband

• Spread lime, topsoil, and grass seed in the bare spot in our front lawn (nothing says "I'm home" like a HUGE bare spot that used to be a 40 foot blue spruce)
  
• Did another recycling run
  
• Did a dump run
  
• Mowed the lawn (after picking up dog poop. Which I swore he would never EVER have to do if he let me get a dog)
  
• Said 'sure' everytime I asked him to move something or help me.
  
• This may not sound like much, but its HUGE (and I'm not being sarcastic). He cleared out his attic office, stairs, and little room at the foot of the stairs of 4 years of geological organization. You've heard of how sedimentary rock forms from layers of sand pressured at the bottom of the sea? Well, the papers were beginning to fossilize.
  
• In addition to all that he had to vacuum slate dust from every crevice in the attic. When they put our new roof on they didn't give us notice and so we had dust throughout our top floor.
  
• Not only that, my wonderful husband, who hates to organize, sorted and organized all the remaining books and papers and set up the attic so it looks roomy and attractive. (It's a finished attic that counts as our third bedroom, so it needs to look spacious.) Most of the papers we recycled? Were from the attic. We've agreed on a new system for our coming apartment life. He gets one shelf. When its full, its getting sorted or it will be trashed by She Who Must Not Be Named.

The moral of the story? Living in an apartment with a landlord on call sounds great!