Oventually

Finally, at long last, after numerous delays, setbacks, and vast tracts of empty procrastination, I've installed a new oven in my kitchen. It's awesome. I'm knackered.

This oven has been in my house, waiting to be installed, for many months now. It's silly how long it was there waiting. The problem was that we needed to have a cooktop, too, since it's a wall oven. So, we ordered a cooktop. Then, we needed to have a cabinet to install the oven and cooktop into. So, we took the oven specs in and ordered a cabinet. Once we got the cabinet home, it was totally wrong. The huge cardboard box the cabinet came in wasn't even big enough to accomodate the oven.

So Saturday and Sunday, I took the cabinet back whence it came, and, with the help of family members (who were coming over for Easter activities of various sorts), installed not only the oven and cooktop, but also a 9-foot length of countertop and all the oven trim. Rewiring was done. I crawled under the house (not my favorite). Nothing else got done.

But now, I have this beautiful Wolf oven and a new ceramic cooktop in my kitchen, rather than just sitting on a dolly in my back room. I also have the desire to lay down and sleep until tomorrow. Right now, that's looking like a project for another day.

Progress

By gum, I made some progress this weekend, knocking three projects off my monstrous project list, 90 degree weather notwithstanding.

I stumbled across a huge, cheap composter at CostCo (which, despite its eternally hellish interior, was cooler and somehow more pleasant than my yard), so my old compost enclosure made from a wad of green plastic-coated chicken wire and some sticks I'd pruned off the Portuguese Laurel has been retired, most of the compost moved via big blue bucket, and the whole thing set up to be in more direct sunlight.

I also cleaned up some pruned branches, always a joy, and then strung some lights on the awning over the deck. This area has grown into a nice sanctuary, with grapes and wisteria climbing up to give shade. It feels very cosy, and with the lights, should be a good place to hang out in the evening once things start getting darker earlier again. As it is now, the lights would only be good late at night.

How Not To...

How not to cool down when it's 90 degrees, outside and in:

install new blinds. Yesterday, after coming home and finding that my house was sweltering inside due to unseasonably warm weather, I resolved to nip the problem in the bud and replace the blinds on my West-facing windows (the major source of summertime heat in my house). I picked up some bamboo roman blinds at the unpleasant big-box home improvement store and set to work. Installation was not difficult, just some drilling and driving screws, but holding a drill motor over your head when it's hot and stuffy (windows had to be closed to install the blinds) for an hour does nothing for the situation. Hopefully my efforts last night will pay off with cooler conditions this evening (once I finally get home to experience it).

I'd go cross this project off my list, but it wasn't even on there. Guess I missed one.

Projects

I will be listing posts detailing some of the many projects I have in progess or waiting in the wings. There are a lot of them. I am a homeowner stupidly devoted to doing everything myself. Here are the ones I can think of right now:

• Sell 2 1966 VW Bugs in various stages of disrepair
• Build a new gate out of the bamboo I've had sitting in the carport for well over a year now
• Grout the tile in the mudroom
• Clean up after demolition of the 3-sided shed that was behind the carport
• Install the high-end oven currently sitting in the back room
• Repave the driveway
• Replace horrible carpet in the backroom with something better, preferably bamboo
• Buy and install a cooktop to accompany the high-end oven
• Replace horrible counters with something that looks and works better
• Replace horrible kitchen cabinets with something that looks and works better
• Replace every fixture in the bathroom with something that looks and works better
• Completely tear down and redo bathroom floors, walls, and tub
• Clean & treat the deck
• Replace the outdoor faucet in back
• Install a drip watering system in the back yard
• Readjust the drip system installed in the front yard to make sure everything gets watered
• Bottle current batch of beer
• Buy a new PC (the old brown Dell just ain't what she used to be)
• Build one or more new raised garden beds
• Improve the compost setup
• Pull weeds front and back
• Cull small or diseased plums
• Prepare jars and storage area for jam projects
• Throw away everything possible from under the carport
• Install lights on deck awning
• Get a new hammock
• Clean out cars
• Put pruned forsythia branches into yard waste
• Design and install a shelf for plants in the back room

I'm sure there are more things. I simply can't bear to add anything more to the list. Some of those are fun. Some of those are an impending nightmare. I don't have time to do any of it, what with work, driving my kids around to and from school and other activities, watering, cleaning up after 2 adults and 2 (freaking messy) kids, listening to backtalk, and trying to stay sane by doing things that I enjoy, such as playing the guitar and ukulele, playing soccer, drinking beer, cooking, etc.

All the things on this list are things that I have at least a general idea how to do. They're all productive things with higher practical value to me and my family than riding the train in to the city and hanging out in an office building, but the job has a much higher monetary value, so I do that instead. Why? Because in order to be able to pay for materials and other costs associated with all those activities, I have to trade away the time I would need to do them. Does this make sense? In some cases, the project wouldn't even have been necessary if I had had adequate time to take the steps necessary to prevent the problem from occurring in the first place.

This whole thing is strictly for suckers, but nearly everyone does it, or something even more onerous. To me this way of life is the very essence of stupidity. I didn't design it, and I don't know how to fix it, but I still have to live with it. My only hope is to be able to exploit enough money out of the whole scheme to be able to escape from most of it by finding a situation where a higher percentage of the work I do contributes directly to my benefit. I have to own it.