Update, shmupdate

Well, hey. I haven't blogged much lately, and there are two reasons. One is that I've actually been pretty busy. I've been treating this home improvement deal like a full-time job (albeit one with ample breaks and no having to shower in the morning), which I'll tell you a bit about. Also, I just haven't had anything that major to talk about. I mean, unless you want this to be the all-home-improvement-all-the-time source, then I'm afraid you'd be bored. But, you know, that doesn't mean I'm not going to write it.

Sunday we primed the cabinets. Monday we painted the cabinets. Tuesday was second coat day. Also, on Monday evening I had e-mailed a realtor who left a letter on my door. I get these letters all the time and just junk them, but something about hers struck me. For one, there was only one typo in the whole thing (a rarity), and it had a really nice tone. Plus, she said she lived in the area, knew it well, and appreciated it. She also invited me (well, me via form letter) to the neighborhood meeting. Anyway, so I asked her some questions to see whether she lives up to what I want. I know it's stupid, but over the last several months when I've been half-heartedly looking at houses, I've developed some very picky tendencies. For example, I am much more likely to consider and remember a house if it has a flyer I can take. I like it when the flyer is in color and on nice paper. I prefer when the house is on MetroList with several pictures, not just a single one of the front of the house (or, god forbid, no picture!). Anyway, she wrote back promptly, sounded good, and asked if she could see the place Tuesday. So on Tuesday morning we ran around cleaning up -- it wasn't disgusting in here, but it has been the staging area for a number of projects lately, and the furniture wasn't really arranged in a pleasing feng shui kind of way. Sweetie went nuts cleaning up his office, even though I told him he didn't have to. I hid most of the stuff in my office and just apologized for the rest. Anyway, I liked her a lot, so she's going to be my realtor. She had several suggestions for staging the house, most of which we've added to the long to-do list. I told her I'd stay in touch, but it was going to be at least three weeks before we were ready to start showing the house.

Okay, then Wednesday I put everything back together cabinet-wise. As in, I put the hinges and drawer pulls on and put all the doors and drawers back. It looks fantastic, and bigger! That didn't take long, so I also made Wednesday a shopping day. I bought a paper towel holder for under the cabinet (to free up counter space), some space-saving bag things, moving boxes, a file cabinet, a cute little table from Cost Plus that will coordinate with my dining room table as soon as the bookcases are out of the way. I think I bought more stuff, too, but I can't even remember it all! I assembled the table, and that was that for Wednesday, pretty much.

Thursday morning I got to spend a little time with an old friend who lives out of town, and it was WONDERFUL to see her, even if it was only for a short time. She always cracks me up, and she's gorgeous and smart... Sigh. I wish she lived closer.

Thursday afternoon we dug out the old grout and caulking from the outside of the bath/shower enclosure (more of a pain in the ass than you'd expect), cleaned it out, then caulked it. There was a slight learning curve, but it wasn't that hard, and it looks a hundred times better already! It looks cleaner, and we caulked around the edge of the tub, where it looked a little rough as it met the linoleum. Now it's all fresh and clean and beautiful! (Okay, I just said caulking was beautiful. I may be TOO into this.)

Today I cleaned out the garage, which was a massive task. It's not, like, Martha Stewart organized, but it's not bad. Christmas stuff is on one shelf, gardening on another, tools on another, camping gear on another (and I really weeded out the camping stuff), and shit-I-have-to-take-back-to-school-in-the-fall on another. Paint is in its own cabinet, there is a small amount of stuff that still needs to be sorted and organized a bit more. But the clutter and dirt is WAY down.

I put a big pile of stuff in the driveway to take a picture of for Freecycle, then I realized that I couldn't really drag it all to the backyard for people to take, because my backyard has a ginormous pile of trash to take to the dump, and I'm positive someone would step on a nail and sue me. So I left it in the driveway. By the time I actually got the pictures uploaded and the message posted, the neighbors had claimed about half of it, which is fine by me. As long as it doesn't come back...

Then I came inside and assembled the file cabinet, which was a bitch. Not because it was hard (although there were 20 pages of illustrated steps), but because it was HEAVY! Thankfully, Sweetie moved it for me. Ultimately I'm going to put it in the Gyna-cave, which we're staging as a home office, but until it's cleaned out in there, I don't want to move more stuff in that will then have to be moved yet again.

Tonight we went to sushi for our pre-anniversary. We've kind of been celebrating all day, actually, since Sweetie-head canNOT resist giving me presents early. But I LOVE the presents I got. I got him new bike grips (which is lame, but he needed them), and something I'm very proud of that I can't say here because I want it to be a surprise tomorrow.

We had a lovely dinner, then ice cream at Gunthers! Not to get all mushy, but it occured to me that I am happier right now (home improvement, baby-trying, new-house-shopping stress and all) than I really ever have been in my adult life. And a super-huge part of that is how satisfied I am in my relationship. I don't think, even when I was single and really really wanted to be in a relationship, I ever realized just how great it could really be. It's so satisfying and comfortable. My best friend lives with me, sleeps by my side, talks with me, eats the food I make, shares time with me and time away, is sexy as hell... And while I'm sure there's something to be said for one of those really dramatic relationships where people are always yelling and throwing toasters, I like that we never fight, and at worst get on each other's nerves a little and then get over it. It's such an overused cliche, but I do feel like we're two puzzle pieces -- we're still separate individuals, but we fit together perfectly to become one unit. Okay, enough gushing for one night. I love you, sweetie. Happy anniversary.