MORE ACCOMPLISHED!

Every month since Sister Susannah the New Age Nun turned me on to it I've been making a monthly "To Do" list on www.tadalist.com. Sometimes I do weekly or daily sub-lists and I've even done a couple of special project lists - just a really cool way to keep track. Anyway, there has been this nagging issue for years - literally - and it's been on my monthly list for a few months now. Tonight I got around to it.

Widdi and I talk all the time about how we have these things that need to be done and they get bigger and bigger in our brains until we just avoid them for all the time they could take. In reality I think it's the unknown. I have had this 2 foot piece of board trim in my mudroom for years now with horrible (and thankfully very old) termite damage. I've measures it about 20 times. About a month ago I went to Lowe's and got a piece of replacement trim. I even cut it to size the same weekend. And then it sat. Tonight for some reason I was getting things done and decided to remove the old piece. I took a blade to the caulking around the old piece - it just crumbled. So I decided to just remove the darned thing. It came off easily. I pulled the recently used shop vac in from the porch, plugged it in, and cleaned up the debris. OK, between the measuring, buying, cutting, and removing and cleaning up the old piece I have now invested about 20 minutes in this project which has been put off for years. I decide to go the distance! I get my hammer and a few finishing nails and in 3 minutes the new trim is in place. So I spent 23 minutes doing a project I avoided for so long just because it seemed like something that might be beyond me. Widdi and I are Mutt and Jeff twins when it comes to things like this.

Granted it's a piece of bare wood now but the mudroom, like 4 out of the five rooms in my house, needs some work and a bit of painting and upkeep anyway. This is HUGE progress! Eventually the textured ceiling (totally inappropriate) will be removed and the woodwork sanded and the room painted and the flooring replaced with new sheet vinyl.

This might seem strange to most of you out there with "real" houses - mine is between 100 and 130 years old - four rooms plus a bonus - no hallways, and so small I have taken off all interior doors. They seem somehow ridiculous to me and also I am a bit claustrophobic. So when I do work on a room like sanding, etc., I have to get as much as possible out of that room into the rest of the house and then seal it up with duct tape and plastic sheets and work as fast as possible because I do use every bit of space I have. Every undertaking requires logistics planning.

Someday I will live in a house that requires no work. I think I will not be happy when that happens. I hate my projects. I love my projects!