Feeling better today after a full night's sleep, although still not well. Also, I had a bad dream in which I realized that Kevin was going to leave me, even though he hadn't realized it yet himself, which was no fun. I wonder if that's a pregnancy-related thing, too, an increased awareness of how dependent you are on your partner and a correspondingly increased anxiety about having to do this terrifying thing alone. Probably.
Anyway, I have nothing scheduled today, so I can slowly and calmly do some small house projects and catch up on all the painfully overdue e-mail. There are a bunch of painter / masonry / handman folks coming, but not until next week, so we have a little time to do the upstairs de-clutter, thankfully. Painting is a $2200 estimate (repainting our chocolate-gold bedroom to a neutral bone white, ditto one of the red walls, repairing two stairwells and a myriad of other touch-ups around the place). Ouch, guess it's a good thing I signed up for summer teaching or I'm not sure how we'd work that into the budget. Eat nothing but ramen for the rest of the summer?
We also need to somehow clean the patch of carpet at the top of the stairs, which is quite stained. I have no idea how to clean a carpet. Suggestions? Help??? I'm thinking of hiring a carpet cleaning in Peoria company to come do it for me. Possible tasks for today (but most are entirely optional, hooray):
- Sadly discard insect-infested ming aralia (indoor plant), which has resisted all my efforts at nursing it to health, and pot new ming aralia -- (DONE, 7:40)
- Pack up extra stuff for Freecycle and put the word out -- (DONE, 8:00)
- Watch two-hour Grey's Anatomy season finale -- (DONE, 10:15, although more annoyed than satisfied...)
- Answer fifty e-mails (20 done so far...)
- Pick up supplies for Kavi's birthday party tomorrow -- (DONE, 2:00)
- Order cake? Or decide to just make one instead? -- (DONE, 2:00, decided to make two, actually -- one white cake with strawberries and cream, one lemon poppyseed pound cake with lemon curd and cream, both in a daisy mold -- now I just have to actually make them)
- Finish clearing up detritus on roof -- (RAINED OUT)
- Pot gorgeous orange-pink sorbet hibiscus -- (RAINED OUT)
- Sew canopy and hang it
- Rearrange fuschia in hanging basket so more even
- Clean aquarium
- Get groceries for party
- Return stuff to Target
- Return cardigan to Camelot Kids
- Get maternity jeans / pants hemmed
8:00 update: Happy new ming aralia:
I too have to do some carpet cleaning–I’m told that one can just go to a local grocery store and rent a steam-cleaning unit, then steam-clean the carpets oneself. I think I did this once many years ago, but have almost no recollection of it.
Re painting costs: ouch. Sad to have to spend that much money on painting over those vivid wall colors. I don’t suppose you could leave the walls their current colors? I guess for some buyers that would be a negative. But still sad.
It’s a pretty huge negative, I think. You’d think people would be able to just visualize what it would look like without a vivid color, if they didn’t like it, but apparently not.
I’ve been kind of amazed at how much of a difference taking things out has made to even my perception of the space — when I walk in, it really does look a ton bigger. Startling. I suspect painting to a light, neutral color will have a similar effect. This place is going to look like a cavern. A huge, empty, devoid of personality cavern… No, not really. We’re keeping lots of art and such still, to help people visualize themselves as the sort of people who would live in such a lush, exotic, and elegant space. 🙂
I’m going to try just OxiClean first on the carpets, as several people have recommended. If that doesn’t work, we’ll rent a steam-cleaning thingie.