Weekend Update
On the two year anniversary of the day we signed the papers for our house, you'd think that Ben and I would be having a big ol' celerbration. Technically we have until March 17th, St. Patrick's Day, to celebrate homeownership because the processing of the title took so goddamn long.
But no, we're at the tail-end of a two month "we can do this" whirlwind of home improvements and "settling in" things that needed to be done before our international visitors arrive on Friday night. I channeled my natural project management skillz and made a checklist with a March 14 deadline that will still have items unchecked before the weekend, but we've done a good chunk of work and I'm proud of us.
This past weekend's accomplishments include (but are not limited to):
- Having a new mattress delivered!
- Moving older mattress upstairs to the guest room (big pain in the ass)
- Cleaning and clearing away most of the clutter in the dining room and kitchen (big countertops are great, once you can find them under all your stuff)
- Clearing away a good portion of clutter from my office
- Going to Home Depot for the one millionth time
- Patching drywall around more shitty, dangerous outlets (that will probably be replaced tonight)
- Nearly finishing the replacement of the guest room door
- Nearly finishing the installation of a new fan in the bathroom*
Most of the cleaning/de-cluttering fell into my court and the "man stuff," of course, into Ben's. As much of a feminist as I am, there's something to be said about division of labor working out for everyone. I'm better at organizing (though I'm not allowed to use my label maker nearly as much as I'd like), putting away laundry where I want it and planning/preparing the house for guests; Ben is better at electrical wiring, fending off fiberglass, inhaling paint fumes, and heavy lifting.
*The new fan is not a simple replacement. The retarded monkeys who built this house did not actually install a vent from the bathroom exhaust fan to the outside world. Also, it was decided that we needed a bigger fan. So Ben spent much of the weekend in a tiny attic crawl space, where he cut a hole in the floorboards, fought through insulation that will surely need to be replaced and fixed up all the wiring to accomodate a larger fan. There was a cloud of testosterone oozing out of his pores for most of the weekend, particularly after his jaunt with power tools in the crawl space. And he proudly showed off all the cuts and red bumps on his hands from imbedded fiberglass and only needed help removing one splinter.
"Why the hell weren't you wearing gloves up there?" I asked.
"Cuts and splinters are a symbol of manhood," he said.
"You're stupid," I said.
Later on, for a completely different reason, Ben inspired a one-liner that I warned him would be a little harsh. He still wanted to hear it.
"You have to get a degree in Stupid to be that stupid."
Overall, Ben and I had a good and fairly productive weekend. Probably because I barely touched my computer... which I plan to be touchin' lots (in addition to touchin' my Wii remote) after our visitors leave. We're really looking forward to seeing them and spending time with them, but we're definitely ready for a break from housework.
Oh, and maybe, just maybe, those DAMN SKYLIGHTS will be installed the week after our visitors leave.
