Into the rapids

I left work Thursday early to meet the painting contractor at the house.  Kerri has used him before and had nothing but glowing things to say which was a strong enough recommendation for me.  Frank showed up within minutes of our agreed upon time which instantly wins points with me since so many contractors put punctuality on the optional list.  The scope of work in the house is huge.  I am looking at having him paint all the walls and ceilings inside the house as well as paint the complete exterior of the house.  The exterior painting is motivated by a small area of spider cracking on the east wall which follows the mortar line of the cinder blocks.  There is no real clean way to fix and paint just that spot without it sticking out like a sore thumb.  This also gives me the opportunity to change the color of the house, something I was entertaining ever since the metal roof was installed.  Of course I will lean heavily on Kerri to assist on color selection both inside and out as her eye for this sort of thing is far better than my own.

As we walked the inside of the house it became clear that there will be a TON of work required to get the house ready to be painted inside.  Walls need to be cleared, closet hardware needs to be removed and rooms need to be emptied.  I have roughly a month to do it but there is no doubt the amount of labor to get there is going to extreme.

The way to tackle these sort of tasks is in bite size chunks, going one room/space at a time.  The worst room by far will be the hobby room that has all of the 3D and PEV hardware in it as well as a ton of related tools, parts, and stuff.  Of course I know it can be done, when I set my sights on something I can be pretty relentless until it is complete. Today I got the quote for the work back from Frank and I felt it was very reasonable.  The outside of the house is supposed to get done the week of January 21st with the interior going down a week later.

I played pickleball twice in the span of 15 hours.  Last night Kerri and I played with some friends of hers down in East Naples.  This morning we played at the new park near the house.  It was the first time I saw all of the courts in use, ever. Kerri and I played as a doubles team this morning and didn’t lose which I think is a first.  We play together so much that we have become a half decent mixed doubles combo.

Before playing this morning we de-Christmased the house.  Doing it before New Years is an extreme rarity in my world but the focus on house prep has sort of eroded the foundation of what used to be yearly traditions.  Since I had only a couple things outside the entire process did not take much more than an hour.

This afternoon I started digging in seriously to the multitude of tasks at hand.  One of the comments the realtor made was the brighter you can make the living space, the better.  Along those lines Kerri and I bought a new LED fixture for the kitchen to replace the original fluorescent light.  I was able to reach the ceiling easily with my 6 foot ladder.  Being tall is useful at times.  Without much hassle I was able to disconnect and take down the old light.  However I stopped there, wanting to wait until Kerri could help me eyeball the placement of the LED light to make sure it looks straight.

I then set my sights on the hanging pot rack, something again that has adorned the space for many years.  I never thought it visually was attractive but it did serve a purpose of making commonly used pots and pans readily available.  However I didn’t need any convincing that the visual of the space would look better with it’s subtraction so down it came.

Finally I went around the high display areas of the room and removed basically everything.  90% of it was either in the donate pile or thrown away.  Once I became single I never went through this stuff to evaluate if I really needed or wanted it.  That evaluation has now been completed.  Clearing those items have made the main living space feel much more open.  There are other things to come down like pictures but I felt I made some solid progress for day one.

So you may ask me how I am feeling so far sterilizing my living space.  I think at least right now I am more focused on the end result so it doesn’t give me much time to dwell on the subtractions.  If that will continue to be the case throughout is yet to be seen.  I also am likely to get one of those pods to reside in my driveway and hold things that will move with me eventually.  Having a place to put things, even temporarily as needed could prove to be very useful, although not cheap.

I am also aware that I could do all of these things and the house does not sell, although I think there are enough unique and attractive things to my property which should appeal to buyers.  But, if that would work out to be the case, that’s ok.  I don’t HAVE to sell.  Regardless I think it is to my advantage to reduce, remove, and optimize my existence so if an opportunity arises I am in the position to take it.

This will likely be my last 2022 post, peace…..