“I should make a list of what we did. My mother is a big fan.”

“Yeah, you should do that before we forget what the fuck we did.”

One coat of Mulling Spice in the bedroom; we’re not sure if that’s the color. Opinions are mixed. More opinions are needed.

White paint in my closet. Using a drill, a hammer, and a pair of vice grips, got the old shitty shelf bracket out, leaving about a two-inch hole in the drywall. Patched and mudded that hole. Stopped painting.

Lin painted her bedroom and trim. Needs at least one more coat.

Organized some boxes, moving things that go in the basement away from things that do not, moving things that were in the coat closet for no reason away from things that were in the coat closet for a reason.

Set up a workspace for myself in the dining room. With a lamp and a table and everything.

Worked a little, ha ha ha.

Spent the second night in the new house.

Today, I cleared out the living room in Centreville; I’m going to Freecycle the octagonal glass table, and there’s some stuff on it, but all (and I mean all) the other living room furniture is empty and ready to be moved. Took the shelves out of all the bookcases and media furniture and wrapped them up. Even took the shelves and glass blocks out of the closet. Moved the DVR in its box. Put the big Dell monitor in its box. Tried and failed to move the TV.

Brought over some more random stuff. Staged a crapload of stuff (at least I hope it’s a crapload) for the next load the Sedklisches are able to do.

Got a notice from the homeowners association saying I needed to fix my house numbers (done), move my trash to the back of the house (done, with prejudice), and mow the lawn (what the fuck do you people want, I did that).

Tomorrow (or tonight, if I can get my ass in gear) I need to get the upstairs in order, attempt to disassemble the Sleep Number bed, and get the many things I forgot Lin asked me to bring: Magic Erasers, the denim curtains, the small TV . . .

Two more van/truck loads of stuff moved. Lisa unpacked a bunch more kitchen stuff. Not sure I know where any kitchen stuff is.

Second coat of Chai Latte. Much edging; two of the five wall sections in that color are done. Cleaned the goddamn paint roller.

Disassembled/spackled insides of crappy closets.

Lin met some neighbors. Turns out the “Russians” next door are Albanians.

Neva learned the word “graffiti” (apparently, there is an A-for-anarchy on my back gate) and wrote her initials in chalk on the sidewalk out front. After asking Lisa what her initials were.

Lin decided “Max’s room” is her room, and her room is Max’s room. She painted a bunch of trim in her room (the trim that was the awful mustard color of “Max’s room”).

It poured down rain (we brought stuff in to avoid it getting wet). We discovered there’s a gutter/soffit problem that causes a small trickle of water down one wall. Of course it’s in my bedroom. It’s the wall we haven’t painted yet (the Mulling Spice wall), so maybe we’ll be able to do something.

I went up in the attic (eek!) to make sure the problem wasn’t the roof. Max came up into the attic with me, and the histrionics were far fewer than expected when it was time to go back down. The attic over the leak was bone-dry, so I’m fairly well convinced the problem is outside. Which is good, I think.

Dinner at Denny’s. Then a quick grocery trip to lay in snacks at the house. Bought a box fan to help dry the joint compound in the office.

I yelled at Neva and Josie for playing in the hammock chair. “Get out! That’s not secure! It will fall down,” I said. “No, it’s fine,” they said. “GET YOUR ASS OUT OF THE CHAIR,” Lisa said.

Lin sat in the chair.

The chair fell down.

Removed hard drives and RAM from old computers. Attempted to take old computers (and old paint cans and a can of PVC primer) to the hazardous waste event, but forgot to bring any proof that I live in Manassas, so couldn’t go after all. Had the brilliant idea to stop by the conveniently located city utilities office to have them give me said proof, but they’re closed on Saturday.

Unpacked stereo receiver and wired it to speakers left in the house. Using an old bathroom light fixture from the attic as an antenna (really), got music going.

One coat of Chai Latte on the bedroom walls. Looks good.
Started to do the trim in the bedroom. Decided to do the trim last.

The Wagner roller proves to be a bitch to clean, especially if one does not have any buckets or a garden hose and has to try to use the bathtub. It’s almost like the bathroom is designed so you can’t have something sitting in the bathtub plugged in.

Bought buckets and a garden hose.

Mudding of the walls in the office, which were in worse shape than we thought. Sanding and painting (another new color, Hosta Flower, a grayish lavender) to come. Ripped out the broken, busted-up baseboard heater in there; will replace when the weather demands.

Finished spackling and sanding what will be the green wall. We’ll paint that tomorrow.

Mowed the front lawn (three passes to cut it down) and did another pass on the back lawn. Great improvement. Huge mess.

The whole time I was mowing the front, these two guys sat on the stoop next door and just flat-out watched me. Completely creepy.

Took second shower in new house.

Sprayed a ton of weed killer front and back.

Ate bagels and lox for breakfast, Burger King for lunch, and Boston Market for dinner.

Bought a trash can, a broom, miscellaneous painting and drywall supplies. Tried to buy another gallon of Chai Latte, but they were out of the right base. Again. Had David and Lisa pick it up at a different Home Depot.

Counting that one, four trips to Home Depot today. FOUR.

Painted the closet doors for the mustard-colored room. Now white. Having Neva and Josie paint them proved to be a mistake.

Painted over the footprints on the doors.

Came home to a water leak, completely my fault. I’d somehow left the bathroom faucet running all day with the drain closed. Cat-related, he likes that, but thirteen hours of it was a bit much. I’m sure I’ll hear on Monday if it infiltrated other apartments, but I fixed it up in here. Little spackle when it dries out and it’ll be no different than the evidence of all the other water leaks I’ve had in this place over the years.

Good thing I’m moving.

Bought a type of carpet cleaner I never would have chosen otherwise, based on my mother’s recommendation. Turns out it can be used in my Little Green machine, so that’s great. After we paint I’ll tackle some of the spots on the carpets.

Bought a type of spackle I never would have chosen otherwise, based on David’s recommendation. Spackled what I could of holes in the stairway wall and in my bedroom. There are three huge nails I can’t get out of the walls. I pulled out a handful of screws. Did these people never hear of thumbtacks or picture hangers? Good lord.

Stuck on the where-the-doorknob-hits-the-wall shield thingie so it can be painted.

Took all the outlet covers and switchplates off the walls so the walls can be painted without worrying about them (I have all new ones anyway). Discovered weird sticky spiderweb stuff inside a phone jack. Kind of gross, but definitely old and no longer “in use.”

Bought new toilet-paper-roll springy insert tube thingies. Took me ages at Home Depot to find them. Why would someone take those with them?!

Bought a rug and towels for the upstairs bathroom (light gray, which I rightly thought would look nice with the purple paint). Bought towels (green) and a trashcan (blue) for the powder room. Discovered the powder room has no towel rack.

Bought a trashcan and a shower curtain for the basement shower. The shower curtain has monkeys on it. I love it. And matching monkey shower-curtain hooks.

(You can see the shower curtain here, but I did not get the scary rug!)

Bought plain white paint (eggshell for the walls, semi-gloss for the trim) for Lin’s and Max’s rooms.

Bought three awesome new floor vents for the living room and dining room (where the vents were mismatched and broken). I was looking for oak, to sort of match the flooring, but I found brushed nickel in an art deco design for half the price and oh my god they’re gorgeous. Here, hold on, you have to see.

See?! They’re awesome. And they were cheaper. I’m getting two more for my bedroom, I think.
Bought sixty cans of Diet Coke. It was on sale.

Took a carload of random things over to the house. My camera, for instance, now lives there, as does my basket of notepads and clipboards. Yes, I have a basket for that.

The sooner I move some of these stretch-wrapped items, the better, as Jasper has taken to clawing at the stuff. Jasper’s starting to get seriously stressed out. I’ve hidden many of his favorite places with boxes.

Tomorrow is Manassas City’s hazardous waste collection day, so I’ll be getting rid of an old scanner and two old computers (no one on Freecycle wanted them), as well as many cans of paint from the basement of the house. I’m keeping the can of purple if it’s not dried out, as I like that color and that room needs some patching.

Last but not least, after months of searching, I found a new purse. No stupid buckles, no contrast stitching, no exterior pockets, no other buckles, no ten-inch armpit strap, no metallic fabric, not the size of my car, and so on and so forth. I had criteria. They were many.

My mail is forwarding. Which is fine now, because today I figured out which mailbox is mine.

Monday I bought a bunch of paint (Behr; to see the colors you have to make an account on the website, but it’s Sabal Palm for the stairs and Mulling Spice and Chai Latte for my bedroom), and the associated detritus, including a Zibra edging tool and a Wagner power roller I’m very excited about.

Today I bought a lawnmower! And then I mowed part of the back lawn! I don’t think I’ve pushed a mower since I was about 13 years old. And this was the first time I’ve used an electric lawnmower. I’ll never go back to a gas one. Wow, is it light and easy and neat. I’m glad I got it. As soon as I can do the front lawn (and I’ll need a weedwhacker and some weed killer too), the place will start to look like a place I can actually live in. Then next year I can plant my own flowers.

I also got a bunch of light bulbs and a bunch (okay, all Home Depot had in stock of the cheap style I liked) of switchplate covers and outlet covers. I need about five more of each to make the whole house match (this is a reasonable desire, right?), but that can wait a while.

Today, after mowing the lawn, I took my first shower in the house! I like my new shower.

Deborah and Angela came over tonight and changed out light bulbs for me. We can’t figure out why some of them won’t light, but I can wait a few days and let David try to suss it out.

All that aside, tonight I did something many years in the making: I sat in my hammock chair. The situation’s not perfect—the carabiner-style hook I got won’t fit through the links of the chain I got, so the loop holding it up right now isn’t permanent enough—but I sat in it and it holds me and it’s lovely. I can’t wait to try it in the daylight.

I think I bought that chair in the early summer of 2000. I certainly didn’t buy it any more recently than that. It’s pre-Schism. Being able to hang it up was one of the major factors driving my house purchase.

On Saturday, we paint. Tomorrow evening, I think I’m going to spot-clean the carpets where I can, buy things at Target like trash bags, toilet-paper holders, shower curtains, bathroom rugs, and wastebaskets, and pull nails out of the walls. That seems like a reasonable amount of things to do.