You know these puzzles, where everything's scrambled but you can only move one piece at a time until you get everything in order?
Yeah, that's what my life feels like right now. Most of the time it's a fun challenge, but other times I start to wonder whether I'm just doing the same five moves over and over again and whether I'll ever finish.
In many ways, Erich and I complement each other extremely well, but, as I know I've said before, one thing that doesn't work out so perfectly is both of our tendencies toward procrastination. We're currently finding ourselves in a situation where we have to get a huge list of things done in a relatively short amount of time, so we have to kick our organization up into high gear. If getting ready for a baby didn't involve the physical rigors of pregnancy, this might be a bit easier, but never let it be said that I won't take the bad with the good!
We moved in early June, when I was about eight weeks pregnant. Now, I know I would have been slow to unpack even at my most vivacious, because I really hate moving and packing up and moving was exhausting, and living in a new house is overwhelming. But the stress of the first trimester meant I was even more exhausted than usual, needing at least a nap every day and feeling like a zombie regardless. As the exhaustion of the move wore off, we started to get discouraged about how much there was to do with the house, and how our priorities had to change. For example, the A/C stopped working and we had to decide when to get that fixed. (Luckily, it looks like we can put that off till next year.) Then Erich went to do a "simple" (haha) re-grout job on our downstairs shower and discovered mold. That shower is now demolished and we're thinking we could/should just redo the whole bathroom since we also hate the wallpaper. Luckily the toilet, sink/vanity and lighting are all new and fine.
Meanwhile, outside of the bathroom drama, which has extended to our upstairs bathroom as well with re-caulking, leaks, and an ornery toilet, we absolutely have to get our baby's room ready. It's currently set up as a guest/junk room. Even though Lily will probably sleep in our room for a few weeks or months, we need to get her room ready before she's born. But I can't do her room before I have places for the stuff that's in there! And here enters the puzzle. This is what I've been doing and plan to continue doing:
- Organize all basement clutter into laundry room (in progress, going well)
- Empty second bedroom of all non-baby-related items and throw away, give away, or integrate into organized laundry/storage room (in progress)
- Uninstall shelves from second bedroom closet, move or store elsewhere
- Patch holes from shelves and paint closet interior
- Purchase and install new closet organization system
While this is happening, Erich will be doing the following:
- Select and purchase tile, shower pan, and fixtures for shower
- Remove wallpaper, patch drywall where necessary
- While we're at it, remove horrible wallpaper from upstairs entryway, prime and paint everything
- Install durock, cement, etc. to studs for shower
- Install tile and fixtures, replace floor and ancient light switch
- DONE. Easy, right? (Riiiight.)
- Paint
- Move queen bed to basement as temporary guest quarters for live-in help with newborn
- Magically come up with baby furniture, assemble and arrange
- Purchase and install closet doors
- Supply baby
Baby's due in three and a half months. Erich is remodeling a bathroom while balancing a full-time job and two grad school classes. I plug along as much as I can, but I'm already feeling encumbered by my rapidly increasing size. We may be crazy to try to get so much done, but our motivation level is very high. We can do it!
(And if anyone wants to help, you know, we'll gladly accept. We're not too proud for help, oh no indeed!)
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