Okay, so I'm a little over two weeks into this "Four Projects, Four Weeks" thing. Just past the halfway point. So I should be halfway done, right? Bwah ha ha ha ha ha! Not even close. It's okay, y'all don't have to pretend to be surprised by this. Even I'm not really surprised. If I've learned anything the past four years of working on the Kelly House, it's that nothing ever goes as planned.
Mostly when things don't go as planned around here, it's because of...well...it's because of a lack of a real plan. "Do this, do that, do the other things, and have it all done by April 3rd" is not a real plan. It causes me to run all around the house frantically doing a bit of this and a bit of that and generally making a worse mess of things. The house looks like it's been ransacked. It's so bad I won't even take pictures of it. And friends, I have shared some embarrassing stuff with y'all over the years. This is bad. Very bad. The good news is that there is no more wallpaper on the front parlor walls. Wahoo! The bad news is that there is so much other stuff to do that I am overwhelmed.
Yesterday I had a meltdown that started with me sniffling and fighting back tears as I cleaned the bathroom (but really, doesn't everybody want to cry when they clean the bathroom??) and ended with me sitting in the front parlor wailing over the phone to AJ. Generally, I do not wail. The man wisely recognized the situation as dire indeed, came over immediately, and together we lined out a Real Plan.
Each room now has a to-do list. That way, anyone who comes over in the next couple of weeks and wants to help can see exactly what needs to be done. (Actually, I'm hoping that seeing the to-do lists will guilt people into helping.) Breaking down everything room-by-room helps it seem a tiny bit more manageable to me, too. Then I made labels which say "AJ, G-ma, Dylan, Sale" to stick on the furniture so that everyone knows the destination of each piece of furniture in the house. That probably sounds really crazy, but there's been a surprising amount of confusion over who gets what and I'm tired of answering the same questions over and over. "Yes, I really am selling the buffet. No, not that wicker furniture--the other wicker furniture. No, the kitchen chairs are being sold--the dining room chairs go back to Grandma's house." You can see how that might get tiresome. And then, AJ extracted a promise from me that I would let him help me on the house this weekend. He has previously (and repeatedly, I should add) offered to help on the house, and I've always turned down those offers. Brushed them aside with an off-hand, "Oh, I can do it by myself." (Y'all know those are my favorite two words: by myself.) AJ said simply, "I know you can do it by yourself. I'm tellin you, you don't have to." Oh. Right. The whole teamwork thing. I'm still learning how that works.
And after all of that, we went back to his house, where I discovered he'd baked a chicken for supper. What a guy. A real plan. A good supper. Promises of help. I feel better already.