Cleaning

I may have more time later...depending on when the carpet cleaners show up and whether or not Heather can nap while they're working, but I want to do what I can for the moment.

I've spent much of the past few days cleaning up around here. We are having most of the carpets in the house cleaned today, as well as the living room sofa. The cats definitely know that something is up, but they are trying to take their morning naps as usual after following me around all morning as I did the last of the straightening up.

I admit that all of this straigtening and removing (or redepositing) of clutter makes me want to do a real clean sweep around here. On one hand, the place feels kind of cold and empty without any knick knacks or other personal items sitting around. On the other, the rooms feel bigger without any piles of clutter. And the non-carpeted places that became dumping grounds for stuff remind me that we have too much.

So far, I think I've done a good job of keeping Heather's things organized and manageable. We already have a couple boxes of baby things for donation (formula samples, too-small or poor-fitting diapers, extra blankets, etc) and I want to stay on top of her stuff. Somehow, before her stuff gets out of control and before she gets much bigger, R and I need to get a handle on our stuff, too.

The other thing that will help is putting back together the front room on the third floor (currently gutted and in need of electrical work, drywall patching and floor patching) so it can become a family room and accept some of the things that don't really belong on the first floor but end up there because it is the space we "live" in.

2 steps forward, one back

Yesterday was better than I expected, although there are still obvious residual issues from Sunday night's "event".

Positives for the car - the repairs are covered by insurance, including most of the cost of a rental car during repairs, and the car has been received by the dealer.

Negatives for the car - we don't know how long the repairs will take and they won't start them until the insurance company looks at the car and approves the estimated cost.

Positives for the garage - R and I made the repairs to the frame of the garage door yesterday. Before we put up the last piece of trim, we ran the garage door and it was running better than it had been before our repairs.

Negatives for the garage - After putting up the last of the trim, the garage door refused to operate. R took it off of the automatic opener, and it moved along it's track just fine. So it is apparently just an issue of tension or sensitivity. (It shouldn't be a major repair, but it will require us to call someone...)
Also, in the semi-negative category, our frame repair was really just a band-aid job. It is stronger than it was, but the frame really needs to be disassembled and rebuilt properly, which is not something we really had the time or inclination for yesterday. It's also unclear when it will be warm and dry enough to prime, paint and caulk the new trim...but given what this winter has been like, it seems likely that we'll get the opportunity before spring

Other positives:

Though yesterday's constant wetness and rain made the job less fun, the temperature's in the 50s weren't bad. Especially when you consider that today's temps are in the 30s and it has been snowing all morning...

We finished before it got dark, and R was able to spend the evening with a friend as planned and I was able to work on the mural in the nursery.

Despite the downsides and unplanned nature of our work, it has been a while since R and I have worked on a home improvement project together, and it is nice to work together as a team. It was as fun as it could be, under the circumstances.

I still feel kind of crappy about the whole thing, but the emotional response to talking and thinking about it seems to have passed. I don't think I'll really stop feeling bad until the car is fixed and the garage door is working again.