Weekend in Review: The Hamster Wheel

"The hurrieder I go the behinder I get!"

The poor little hamster runs on his wheel which goes round and round, faster and faster and he stays in the same spot no matter how fast he tries to go.  That seems like our state this weekend, although to be fair neither Ornery nor I were moving altogether very fast!

Friday I spent most of the day shopping for beds and bedding.  We are replacing our queen with a king, and had a coupon for $1000.00 off another Select Comfort, so I ordered that, then shopped for hours looking for cheap inexpensive bedding.  Later in the day I discovered that CW, our intrepid brother-in-law and fix-it guy will arrive Wednesday night (the 13th) but our new bed won't arrive until the 22nd, which meant I had to find another bed!

We had planned to purchase a twin XL for the other guest room anyway, so I got online and found one at Sears that we could afford and was assured could be here Monday.  Of course I didn't have linens for that either, but an online search didn't help me much unless I wanted to pay express shipping charges.  I opted to get some locally, even though shopping rates right up there with dental work on my "least favorite things to do" list.  All that shopping wore this girl out, and Ornery wasn't really up for a late night of working either, so we took the day off from our work on 507.

At the beginning of any overwhelming project we seem to sort of set-up like jello for a while until we get our bearings.  It was sort of an easy place to start last week by doing the outside work of raking leaves and cleaning out the gutters, but Saturday was rainy, cold and windy and not favorable to working outside, so we went on a gathering mission instead.

First we went to Target for some stuff for the house as well as bedding for the twin XL.  Then to Lowe's for our first list.  We dropped that stuff off at home and at 507 then went to Janese's to borrow some tools from her.  We dropped that stuff off at 507 and then sat down and worked on a plan of action.

Unfortunately, the heater for the house seems to be in a non-operative state, so anything involving paint will need to wait until the Home Owner Warranty people can get us fixed back up again.  Can I just say here, for the record, that I am elated that we decided at the last minute to purchase that little policy?  'Struth.

So, our first project is going to be fixing up the garage.  It is abominable. It will warm us up, so to speak, for the interior projects, of which none are as daunting as this one.  Ornery spent some time pulling random nails and screws from the walls all over the garage, then took down the water heater closet door which was gaping along the opening and another cabinet door which had been sawed off at the bottom.  He took them home and cut a cabinet door from the closet door.  We made a long list of the items we need to make the repairs and a list of tools to bring from home.  And that was about all we accomplished all day Saturday.

We put over 100 miles on Big Red, running in circles...

Sunday Ornery started out by dropping all the stuff off we had gathered for our projects, then making a grocery run while I puttered around being slow and catching up on my computer with emails and such.

While I was on the computer, I decided to check on the status of some of the things I had ordered.  I re-read the Sears email about projected ship date and discovered that the bed would not be here on Monday, but was scheduled for delivery on Friday!  After two different calls to customer service in India, (which never puts me in a good mood!) I was so frustrated I cancelled the order.

That left us without a bed for CW.  After lunch, we stopped by the Mattress Firm very close to our house and purchased a clearance floor model of a Temperpedic twin XL mattress for the same cost as the whole Sears bed would have been.  Then we went back to Lowe's and bought some lumber to build a platform to put it on.  Ornery spent the rest of the afternoon and evening in the garage designing and building it.

By the time he quit for the day, he had the support frame built and we had changed the final design plan a few times to make a storage area beneath.  He plans to actually finish the whole thing after CW leaves, but still needs to cut the plywood to set on top of the frame tonight. We will then move it into the guest room and take it back out to finish it when other things aren't so pressing.

So, our weekend did not turn out anything like we had hoped, and we appear to be no closer to having 507 ready to rent, but we have amassed quite a collection of supplies and tools over there so when we finally do get over there to work, we will be prepared!  Of course we had to bring some of it back home to build the bed, but it should be easy to take it back.

Today I am planning to clean house, take the required papers and money to Window World to change the warranty over to our name and order the replacement sash for a window that is broken, and if necessary spend the afternoon at 507 to await the arrival of the heater repair man.  It seems like I really am running faster and faster and not really getting anywhere right now, but maybe it is just perception and eventually I will look up and realize I have accomplished a lot!