Back to Reality

I don't think I ever mentioned it here, but I had my house on the market for a good bit of last year. When I listed, I thought selling would be a snap. While I joke and say I live in the ghetto, my neighborhood is not the greatest but my house has been lovingly maintained and in good shape compared to some of the others on my street. I really thought it wouldn't take that long and I'd be closer to work, in a little bigger place, by the end of the summer. What I didn't realize was that some of my slumlord neighbors were trying to unload their investment properties at the same time. Adding those properties to the rest for sale on my street brought the total to more than a dozen. I took my house off the market in August and since then, there have been at least 15 house for sale on my street at any given time and as far as I know, none of them have sold.

So now I'm trying to make do with what I have. I don't want to make expensive improvements that won't see any return but at the same time, I want to improve my living space. I've come up with quite a list and prioritizing has been... interesting.

• Replace blinds throughout the house


• Replace kitchen faucet


• Replace shower heads


• Replace outside spigot/s


• New garbage disposal


• Replace door sweeps on front & garage door


• New main breaker box


• New master toilet


• Re-caulk master bathtub


• New oven


• Paint kitchen cabinets


• Paint kitchen


• Remove downstairs carpeting and replace with tile or alternative


• Replace counters & back-splash in kitchen

I realize those last two are probably the most pricey and give me the most pause. One of the houses for sale down the street has dropped its price by nearly 20 thousand and they made all kinds of big improvements - siding, full bathroom & kitchen renovations, etc. I'm sure they're not making any of that money back.

At least I can do most of the items on the list myself or by enticing some friends with the promise of beer/pizza/cookies/babysitting.

Progress

I had some bananas that were quickly aging so I decided at the last minute to make some banana bread. The loaves turned out pretty good - it's hard to go wrong with Grandma's recipe - but they seem a little dry. I'll have to ask her what her secret is when I visit her next month. By the way, it's her 95th birthday today! :)

I've also made a little progress with the house work. I managed to clean my coat closet yesterday. I sorted all of my very-useful-living-in-Texas cold weather gear and hung up the purses I'd forgotten that owned. I think I might be culling that lot and making some donations to Goodwill.

Procrastination

I realize I’ve just started this project and I’m already neglecting it! I don’t mean to but I have had too much work around the house to have any time for baking.

And I don’t mean the usual housework that gets done regularly (or should be done regularly – let’s be realistic here), I’m talking major overhaul (Major Overhaul – salute!) of the clutter I’ve let pile up. There’s a certain level of clutter that I can tolerate and I usually don’t let it get to this point. I’ve been rather stressed with some personal issues and just letting things accumulate around the house rather than dealing with it right away. And I tend to procrastinate, and that just makes things worse.

Rather than trying to tackle the situation as a whole, I’ve broken it down into much smaller tasks. If I didn’t, I would be so overwhelmed it would never get done. The list is long and to anyone else, it would seem silly to have a separate item for “clean out kitchen junk drawer” but that’s how I’m approaching it. But at the same time, I won’t post the list here because some of it so minor it’s embarrassing.

I suppose I also made the list like that because I get a great deal of satisfaction from crossing things off lists. It really feels like I’ve gotten something done. And I’ve actually made some progress this week – I’ve taken all of my old magazines and junk mail for recycling – even though the house looks worse than when I started. I know what I’ve done so that’s all that matters, right?

As time allows, I will post photos and rundowns from previous baking projects and pick back up with the next project (although, it should be noted that I usually bake for work birthdays and other than my own, the next birthday isn’t until the end of May).

p.s. Just found an online coupon for the Container Store – woo hoo!