I am unteachable.
Dear friends Ian, Christine, and Alise are due to arrive in Louisville for a visit in 8 1/2 hours. Not content to clean up the status quo, I undertook a few projects to spiff up the place before they arrived. I did this at a time when Matt worked long hours, school was about to end and teacher appreciation week added to the to-do list, my work was busy, I had a freelance project to wrap, and I had a charity event to help plan and attend (more on that anon). Let’s see how we did:
1. Replace hinges on Simon’s closet doors (3 years late): completed last night at 9:00 p.m.
2. Paint and spiff up guest bedroom: Walls blocked and rolled. Trim undone. One half of old, painted-over closet hinges left to be removed. Sigh.Extra furniture moved out–but not to where it needs to go. Closets cleaned out.
3. Plant and mulch side walkway: Ajuga down last Saturday. Still unmulched.
4. Replant front sidewalk edge: Old jonquils dug up. One half of new planting in. Rest sitting in pots in the garden.
5. Play area bordered and mulched: Bordered last week. One layer of tree mulch (from our own trees!) down by Friday (Thanks Jim!), play-house scrubbed (thanks, Evie!), top layer mulch laying in bags at foot of drive-way.
6. Clean front porch: Filthy!
7. Set up furniture on back deck: Purchased and 5/7 assembled. I struggled with the swivel chairs, which are still sitting upended on the deck.
8. Clean gutters: Call in. No return call yet.
9. Fix several plumbing issues: Done Tuesday!
10. Lay down new rugs in hallway and guest bedroom: Nope! Not even ordered.
11. Hang un-hung pictures in hall and guest bedroom. Today!
So much remains undone, but the deadline did help move things along.Frankly, the half painted guest bedroom is still an improvement over the nicked, stained, and faded terracotta walls that room previously sported. Today we’re going to clean, pick up a few items, wrap up some easy items (like hanging pictures), and call it “good enough.” Ian and Christine have just purchased a new home that needs work themselves. What could they enjoy more than helping us work on ours during a vacation?
Busman’s holiday indeed.
Coda: That Sunday, we got the pictures hung, the porch and stroller scrubbled, and the mulch down. Ian assembled our last two chairs after he arrived, and I snuck time to plant mid-week. Cousins will be staying with us next month when they arrive to celebrate their father’s (and my great-uncle’s) 100th birthday, so I have about five weeks to finish what I started.
Glad I am not the only one who sometimes signs up for way too much. Luckily we are harder on ourselves than others are – sometimes they don’t even notice where we have “fallen short”. Hope you are having a great week and enjoying the breather.