Thursday, August 18

[gottawonder]

Today I am grateful for:

More hot, sunny weather.

A brief phone call with my Mom, who seemed well. My uncle was there visiting with her and I said Hi to him.

That my Sweetie now seems quite on board with having the contractor do a bunch of work for us. I wonder if it isn't a relief after all, to have someone else helping.

The contractor is scheduled to come tomorrow morning and start working in the basement. I don't need to be up for him to access it.

Then, he wants to do more measuring of windows.

My husband and I are mulling over styles of exterior doors. We have very old wooden doors right now, but they aren't much insulation against our winters.

I picked raspberries for a little while.

I went into town for an appointment with the optometrist again. Trying to find a balance between near and far vision in my contacts without having to buy the bifocal ones.

I had time to be leisurely at the thrift store, and it was nice not to be in a hurry.

I got some groceries, and I am very grateful to get food that is good for me and makes me happy.

I came home, let everyone out for a while, and picked some more beans. More of a clean up job, and I got half a pail this time.

Today I learned that the title for Aerosmith's song "Walk This Way" was taken from a Marty Feldman line in the movie Young Frankenstein.

I loved that movie!

Comments

[cf2princessawnw]

Great about the peaceful progress on the house!

It's the very best when people can come to help do something, and you can still sleep in. Nothing like that relief!

[ratunderpaper]

Hopefully, you'll get a lot of hometime done in the next little while. The Dinghyites here are excited to hear about progress!

Extended warm weather is most welcome this year.

Young Frankenstein was very funny. I still have no idea why those horses reacted to Frau Blücher's name.

[gottawonder]

I think the thing with the horses was just that she was such a terrifying person that the horses were afraid of the mere mention of her name. Dramatic effect, like a thunder clap or organ riff.

I feel like we are going to get a few big things done before the snow flies, as long as our contractor stays on board.

I know my Sweetie wanted to do ALL of the work on this house himself, but that would take YEARS. We certainly would not be able to get all of the new windows installed by ourselves before October, and that would mean another winter of paying a lot more to heat this place.

I know he could do most of the work, he's capable, but it is the time factor. I really don't want to be doing this for ten years.

[ratunderpaper]

It can get pretty tiring to spend ten years building the same house.

The extended family who started their house from scratch in 1987 lost interest in building and moved on to other things they wanted to do. Nothing was finished. They have a big bathroom without a finished shower, doors or mirrors. Their children were born, grew up, and moved out. And nothing in that house was ever completed. It makes me tired thinking about it.

With more of the basics done, you'll be able to spend time doing the hometime projects you want to do instead of the ones you need to do.

[gottawonder]

Well, we spent seven years working on the house we had when we lived in Wyoming. Always working on something, part of the house always torn up "in progress". It looked great when we were moving, and it really paid off for us because we sold it for so much more than what we bought it for (though one could debate about how much our time was worth). So, I already lived through that process once.

When we agreed to buy this old house and move it on to the property, part of me almost didn't want to do it, because I knew what we were in for. I sat my husband down and said I could do this, as long as we pushed as hard as we could to get it done, and not drag things out. I felt that five years tops, was long enough, and the last year or so could be things like the roof or things that are not about the core living spaces. Decks.

This is the third full year, and we are not currently on track. We had planned to be living in the new bedroom this fall, which we COULD be doing if we hustle. We were supposed to have the mud room done.

What you described about this other couple was exactly what ended up happening this past winter. There was all kinds of work that we could have been doing inside the house, and somehow it just didn't happen. Since we could function in the house just fine, running water and okay living space etc., there was "no hurry" to work on the rest of the house. An entire addition and potential finished basement that I couldn't use for anything. Using the cramped, antique, peeling and cracked bathroom that has a washer and dryer jammed into one end (you could load the washer while sitting in the tub).

He didn't buy lumber in the fall and put it downstairs, so we "had to wait for Spring" to do anything. We could have done a lot more on the floor in the upstairs bedroom (which is still not done), but that didn't happen.

He would just come home, not have a plan, work maybe one afternoon, on something maddening like organizing the materials that did not result in anything concrete, and call that good for the weekend.

I totally understand that he is exhausted from his job, but he had to face the reality that he was not going to get anything done on the house this summer if that is how he felt.

Without this contractor, we would have little hope of getting anything much done before winter.

[ratunderpaper]

I think the 1987 couple started out with a tangible goal, but it kept moving and evolving. Now it's ridiculous. They have - he has, really - a number of side projects, and have become somewhat doddering. Grandchildren came along early, and they lost their faculties and purpose as a result. Heaven help me.

I'm keeping my fingers crossed that you do get tangible progress done before winter.

I'm embarrassed to say that I allowed the sunroom to remain abandoned and unfinished for a long time. I'm the only one who really uses it, but if I didn't, I know it would become yet another storage place for heaps of boxes.

[gottawonder]

Yes, far too much of our home has already become "storage".

We have a lovely sun room here too, that is mostly filled with a giant turtle tank and litter boxes. When things are ready, and the turtle and litter can be elsewhere, I would love to actually use it as a sun room with plants in it.

[ratunderpaper]

Many years ago, when we first moved here, this sunroom was yet another storage room for boxes of stuff.
I asked a denizen here if he had insight into the reason why hoarders collect masses of junk and garbage. He said "It's the collection of memories that's important. It's a coping mechanism to mitigate the disappointment of current life."
That's pretty interesting, though it doesn't explain why non-hoarders also have memories and also mitigate disappointments in life... but they don't want to keep empty grease-spotted Kentucky Fried Chicken boxes from a dinner consumed by a parent in 1973.

[gottawonder]

There is a school of thought that hoarding garbage is more like depression, or compulsive disorders.

I can relate to hoarding things like everything from your childhood or parent's house, but garbage is beyond me.

In the episodes of Hoarders that I have watched, the ones whose homes have become full of garbage are the ones that are either physically ill, and can't manage to keep their home clean, or they are horribly depressed.

Then you have the compulsive ones, who can't throw out garbage because they think the cans of rotten food are still okay, and that the old greasy boxes will be useful. I find those scarier than the depressed/ill ones. The depressed/ill ones know it is all garbage, they just can't muster the energy to clear it, and are grateful when it is done for them. The compulsive ones fight the cleaning team tooth and nail to keep the rotten food and broken electronics.

I am concerned if there is a denizen in your house keeping old KFC boxes for sentimental reasons. I am also sorry that this denizen has nothing else to live for.

[ratunderpaper]

Hoarding isn't really well-understood. It was once classified as an offshoot of OCD, but it's its own thing and extremely difficult to treat.

There are no empty KFC boxes here - oof! - but it was used as an example for discussion. The denizen has more insight into the psychology of hoarding than I do. I see it as collecting that has spiralled out of control, but the pathology of extreme hoarding is beyond my understanding.

I'd say that the denizen has too much collectible stuff accumulated in boxes - and one can't enjoy one's meaningful stuff if it's spending its existence piled in storage. The pathology there is that "things that bring joy and comfort" are never given that opportunity. Also, too much storage tends to go hand in hand with poor housekeeping.

[gottawonder]

Yes, I find it difficult to keep the house clean because of the amount of stuff. Mostly cat hair and dust are difficult to keep up with. You have to move everything to get most of it.

[ratunderpaper]

The main floor here is relatively easy to clean up, or at least make presentable - even with a sheddy bull terrier who likes to run amok!

There are no "works in progress" on that floor, or boxes, and for that I'm grateful. I will be painting the kitchen in a couple of weeks, but that's not a major project.

Rooms with boxes are always the dust-collectors.