Life Begins at Forty Something: January - The Calm After the Storm or Maybe Not

Wednesday, January 9, 2013

January - The Calm After the Storm or Maybe Not

I love January for only one reason - it's a quiet month with a minimal amount of activity around our house - usually. In January, I spend my evenings and weekends reading a book by the fire. NOT - IN - 2013. Oh no, last weekend I not only packed up all the Christmas decorations EARLY - yea! During which the house looked something like this. (I swear it looked much worse than that, the picture doesn't look so bad)

We also (and by we I mean SuperDave) replaced some siding on the house that a squirrel chewed a hole through. After 25+ years of exposure to the elements the siding was rotting away. So over the weekend I was painting siding IN MY KITCHEN. Because you can't paint outside too much when the temps are in the 40s and 50s.

Now you are probably wondering why we are replacing siding in JANUARY. That was not the plan. Buying the previously mentioned wood flooring was also not on the schedule for this month. But it's happening this month anyhow.

This flurry of activity was all started by our upcoming mortgage refinance which of course means an appraisal of our home. You are probably aware of the downturn in the housing market since we bought our home 6 years ago. So we are doing repairs and improvements we intended to do when the weather warmed up, NOW instead of then - before the appraisal on the house.

On Saturday afternoon, my dear SuperDave climbed up on the roof to do paint touch up the spot where the squirrel had been gnawing to hold it until spring. He came back down and said the siding was too badly decayed, that he was going to fix it right and fix it now in spite of the cold temps. After two days of hard work we accomplished more than I thought possible! The siding and trim is new and freshly painted and the Christmas decor from the attic is all put away. I will admit there was some moaning and groaning and we were in bed at 9:30 Sunday night.

Our fun plans for the rest of our weekends this month include removing all of our furniture from our bedroom and family room and cleaning out our closets in preparation for wood flooring. Yes we are getting wood flooring in the master bedroom AND in our closets!!!! I am excited people! Why does the thought of wood flooring in my closet excite me so much? I must have a condition.

I've also got to squeeze in painting the master bedroom, because I don't want to paint if AFTER I get wood flooring in there and put the furniture back.

Seriously in need of a nap,
Laura