Remove and Recharge, 13
I spent almost all of New Years Eve with Kerri with a big portion of that dedicated to continuing work on getting the house ready for painting and eventual sale. She was impressed by how much I got done myself the day before. With us working as a team on Saturday we got even more done.
I installed the new LED overhead light in the kitchen. I was surprised just how much brighter it was. After doing this Kerri looked at the old shitty original light that was hanging over the baking area and suggested we look into replacing it. We did, although I broke a bottom cap piece on the new light along the way. The lighting swap brightened up the main living space considerably.
When we bought the new hanging light we also got some small paint samples. Kerri had different swatches on the wall and was looking at them in different light conditions to see what looks best. For the most part I am deferring to her when it comes to color selections. Sure I can tell you if I like something or not but she has an ability to see subtle differences that are nearly undetectable by my eyes. When it comes to color selection I trust her judgement better than mine. Picking a main color for the inside and outside of a home to have the most appeal to buyers is sort of a big deal.
We did a lot more work on pulling, sorting, boxing and tossing. Having Kerri there with me during the process was helpful in keeping me on point and distracted from some of the difficult emotions associated with such an undertaking. We got a lot done.
Our New Years Eve was enjoyable. Kerri grabbed some seafood paella which was very good. We enjoyed our food with wine and just chilled. We chilled so much that we both fell asleep before midnight. I woke back up around 12:45. It was the first time I had not seen the ball drop in years and years but it didn’t change my enjoyment of the evening whatsoever.
Yesterday morning we did some more work around the house including brushing small squares of the paint samples on the wall. We think we have nailed down the interior color but are going to have to take another stab at the exterior color combo. I never was thrilled with the exterior color of our house after we had it painted and liked it even less after the new metal roof was installed. We are hoping to go with some sort of grayish combo outside for the repaint.
Kerri headed out to hang with her girlfriends for a good portion of the day. My mindset was to continue plowing along, which I did, with a few speed bumps along the way. Like I said having Kerri work the decluttering with me was a good way to keep my mind off of negative thoughts. There were a couple times yesterday where I sat and stared at the space around me, feeling the weight of the tasks ahead. We got a call from the painter asking if he could move up the interior painting by a week which we tentatively agreed to, giving me three weeks to be ready.
After doing some cleaning up I packed up a couple more donation boxes for Goodwill and filled a big container with finished 3D prints that were adorning one of the dining room cabinets. They needed to be rehomed. I decided that new home would be my office. I loaded up Elsa and headed into town. As always she sprinted around the halls at work, she just loves it there for some reason. Before putting anything else in my office I had to clean it as well.
I first put away the Christmas decorations and then dusted the space on top of my cabinet. I did a round of throwing shit out there as well, nearly filling my trash can with things I have held onto for long periods of time for no great reason. I was able to get all of the 3D prints in there without much hassle thanks to the subtraction I had done. Much like my house, my office has many years of me in it. When I was done I had to coax Elsa to leave work, she wanted to stay and hang.
On the way home I stopped at Home Depot to grab some boxes that will be used to house things I will keep or donate. Once returning home I used them to get a few piles that were scattered around the house at least contained. If possible I would like to keep the visual chaos to a minimum.
Late yesterday afternoon I decided to grab my S22 for a short ride. Riding is always a good way for me to mentally reset and I felt like I could definitely use one at that point. During the ride I talked about the changes I have set in motion recently and how I am hoping the end result will be an overall positive impact on my quality of life in the future.
Last night Kerri and I watched 13 Lives on Amazon, a movie about a kids soccer team that was stranded in a cave back in 2018. I had wanted to see this movie for awhile as I heard it was very good. The movie was amazing. The heroism, determination, resources, and effort that was put into rescuing these kids after 18 days was unbelievable. If you have not seen it, you should. It’s a solid A movie for me.
I’m off today so back to packing….