make my house my home

and some of the tasks that I have been putting off for years are getting done. After who knows how many years, I had heating and air conditioning installed. It was stressful but it’s over (except for having the City inspect the system). My house is now warm in the morning.

I also had an under floor heating system installed in the bathroom, and the floor tiled. This goal only started 7 years ago. I got around to buying the under floor heating system in February, 2007. It’s been sitting in a box for all this time. Now that it’s installed (it took the electrican a while to figure it out. I had to keep explaining how it should be installed…) I want to install the same type of system in the other bathroom, and even the kitchen. I like warm floors.

Like many goals, it was easy once I finally got around to working on it.

A few more items on my list:

move the hot water heater
have solatubes installed
fix the fences in the yard
retile the back porch and kitchen

But my house is looking and feeling more like a home. :)

I moved into a beige boring box 2 years ago and gave it warmth, character and life. I feel mostly at home there (though I wish it weren’t in orlando florida).

The city will collect oversized trash from each house once a year. I didn’t get my act together last year and didn’t get rid of some stuff that needed to go (an old sofa, an old dryer). I just made an appointment to get rid of the stuff next Friday! Yeah. Once this is gone, I will have more room in the garage, and I will have to make a decision about furniture for the family room (since I’m getting rid of the sofa I sit on). Maybe the twin bed should also go… Then I could use the spare bedroom as a den. Hmm, I’ll have to think about that.

Of course I am kidding but I saw a fantastic house today that’s for sale for $1.3 million! It was huge, had a good floor plan, and had a large yard in a nice neighborhood. Wow, I loved it! It may be too much house for me but I think I’d have fun trying to live in it. The people who were selling the house probably have lived there for 40 or so years. It must be hard to let a house like that go.

Our local community college offers classes that are of interest to the general public. I have taken a few of the classes and have found they are great value for the money. So I signed up for 2 more classes today – basic bartending and entertaining on a shoestring. The classes aren’t too expensive, and are usually offered in the evenings or on weekends.

So after I take these 2 classes (early February) I will be motivated to have people over to utilize my new skills. Let’s see I can either host a “Happy Hour” or some themed party in February.

I have been concentrating on doing things around my house lately. Finishing off projects that need attention. Looking at new furniture to buy. Thinking about how I can improve my house to make it feel more like home. I’d like to make this my challenge goal but first I need to define what I see as my end state. Is my house my home when I entertain more? Or when I feel totally comfortable when I come home? Or when it has more of my personality in it? Or when it is neat and clean and relaxing?

I’ll think about this as I take care of some small tasks around the house. Then I may be able to make this my challenge goal.

The list of things that need to be taken care of on my house is long. If I really want to make my house my home, I need to finish a few of these projects:

plus lots of other things that I won’t list right now.

Yikes, I went shopping with a friend and had to come home to let my cats in the house before it got dark. She wanted to see the house since we had been looking for tile for the bathroom. Busted! The house wasn’t “company ready”. It wasn’t really dirty but it wasn’t tidy. OK so I was embarrassed but I couldn’t figure out a way to not let her in the house.

The take home lesson here is to KEEP MY HOUSE NEATER and then I wouldn’t have to worry about people stopping by unexpectedly. The yard was a mess since it had been windy yesterday and all the pine needles blew into everyone’s yard. It took all of 30 minutes to rake up the needles after my company left. So why hadn’t I raked them up this morning? Because I was playing on the computer instead of doing yard work.

I will get rid of 27 things around my house each day until the New Year. That should help me reduce the clutter in my house. Junk mail counts. Trash counts. Weeds count. So let’s see how well I do on this and if it entices me to keep going on this goal.

I think that was a polite way of saying it needs work. :) Well, it does, but somehow I kind of didn’t want to hear that from someone else. Or at least that someone else.

The list making has started and over the next 10 days I will do some shopping and start working on various projects around the house. I think I will buy a new refrigerator because I want a larger freezer and an automatic ice maker. The one I have is 15 years old so it can be replaced. And my stove needs repair (it’s one of those old O’Keefee and Merit stoves). I need to figure out what part is bad and find the replacement. Not too big a job but it entails some work.

I also need tile for the kitchen, a new sink, and a new dishwasher. The dishwasher works fine, it’s just old.