So, I’m taking this week off from fiction writing and doing some chores around the house. We’ve lived in our house for five years, and we have an extra room at the back that has been a catch-all junk room. It was in serious need of organization, cleaning and a new coat of paint. So, today I took everything out of that room and piled it around our den. Check out the picture above for the result. Ack! Good thing there’s nothing good on TV because I’m not sure I could reach the couch or see the TV over the piles if I did reach it. My arms feel like jittery noodles because I moved a ton of stuff, swept down the cobwebs, vacuumed, cleaned the ceiling fan and air vents, washed all the walls and ceiling, removed excess nails in the walls and spackled the holes. Tomorrow’s exciting agenda includes putting Kilz cover-up on several dark smudges, taping the edges of the trim and baseboards so I don’t get paint on them, putting down the drop clothes and beginning the painting of the ceiling. I hope to get the ceiling done tomorrow so that I can tackle the walls on Thursday and be finished with all the painting by Friday. After that’s in the bag, it’ll be off to Lowe’s to rent one of those super-duper Rug Doctors to shampoo the carpet. And then start moving all the stuff back into the room, perhaps talking the dh into selling some of those sports cards and old LPs on eBay. 
I’d love to have the room done by Saturday so I can spend all of next week working on a new story idea and preparing for my trip to visit my sister and then the RWA National Conference.
So, how do you work in home improvement projects if you do them yourself? Do you take a week off from writing to tackle a big project or do you weave in a little bit at a time, continuing writing at the same time?
July 5th, 2005 at 9:32 pm
Trish - you are so, so brave for posting a pic like that. My whole house is basically like that - I hate housework, apparantly a trait I inherited from my paternal grandmother.
Have you ever seen the TV show Clean Sweep? That’s my latest style.
July 6th, 2005 at 10:28 am
I’ve heard of it but not seen it. Is it on HGTV?
July 6th, 2005 at 3:58 pm
I think you have a beautiful den
And once this project is finished, it will be more beautiful.
I painted my son’s room last week and I did it during the day and wrote at night.
Usually, I’d take a break from writing and do it, but I have a lot to get finished this summer before I go back to teaching.
July 6th, 2005 at 4:57 pm
Thanks, Kim. But it’s not the den that’s getting painted. It’s the back room where all that stuff piled in my den came from.
Painted the ceiling today, taped the edges of the trim and went to Lowe’s to buy paint for the walls. Will tackle them tomorrow.
July 6th, 2005 at 9:15 pm
The only housecleaning I do involves picking up toddler toys which creep back out in under 12 hours. So you’re doing about 8x more organizing than I’ll ever do in my lifetime!