Rehersals

On Wednesday, I had to go have my final visit with the Pick Things Out Lady for my condo. I have to be missing some girlie genes because I do not enjoy this process in any way. We finally had to grit our teeth, dig in, and stick with the program until we finished. I had her keep a separate list of things to "get back to." She didn't like it, but for me, that was the only way to deal with some of the decisions. How do I know if I want to upgrade the granite countertops, which is an upgrade from the standard formica, until I know how much I am spending on upgrades otherwise? The granite ended up being my last decision. I did upgrade. I ended up with $20,000 in just upgrades, but still came in just under my arbitrary highest cost I was willing to spend total on the home. They say it will be ready in six weeks. I won't. This is going to be one huge headache of an expensive problem for me.

Whew. It was close. I even added on bifold mirror doors for the spare bedroom closet. Once we priced them, they were actually less installed through the builder than the cost at Home Depot for me to do myself. That was worth taking a few minutes to look up.

In the meantime, no one has come to see my house. It's on the market, there is a sign out front, and I had a call while I was spending the five hours it took with the Pick Things Out Lady on Wednesday. Someone wants to see your house at 6 pm. (hm, it's a mess, and I am still cleaning and painting) Sure, I said, let them come. I got home about 4 pm and had two hours to do about 10 hours of work. I got close, actually, and then got a call 15 minutes before they were to be here. Oh, they just canceled. Is that OK? No, it's not OK, because I could have used that time to paint, but I said sure, that's fine. I mean, what was my choice? No? Tell them they have to come right now?

In a few days I will be packing up a suitcase and heading to the airport for Vancouver. I will only be gone a few days, but I need this break. I am not packing a paint brush and I am not painting the hotel room. I will not scrub the ceiling in the bathroom while standing on a two-step ladder in the bathtub while the tub is wet, either. I am going to enjoy myself.

I will worry about Molly, and really hope the child can get the magic formula with Molly's medication correct. More stress, more prednisone. Less stress, normal prednisone. That really is all she has to do - but it is a serious balancing act at times. Too much prednisone, and she is an eating/peeing/frantic animal with glassy eyes. Too little, she quits eating, quits drinking, crashes, and dies. I deal with this on a daily basis. Child hasn't learned yet what the name of the disease is or the medications involved.

Today I will finally clean up the drywall dust and general mess in the family room. Lots of stuff has just sort of landed in there by default while I decide what to do with it. Painting will be involved, and clearing out the bookshelves on each side of the fire place. There was paint dribbled on the carpet by the mini-vampire. There is paint slopped on the molding, on the bookshelves, and the recessed windows, so I have to paint all those areas I did not plan to paint, and it will take many hours and three coats of paint to look nice. I also plan to do the garage today.

I am going to try to do a week's worth of work today, and I work slowly. Sometimes I am an optimist. I have another week's worth of work to do tomorrow, too.