Friday, September 22, 2006

Ha ha, I married him and you didn't

The Husband was home sick with the flu for the past two days. It was a mild flu, but a flu nonetheless. In spite of this, he spent Wednesday (the day before the water main broke) doing all the laundry in the house. He didn’t fold it, but he washed and dried it. Despite having the flu.

And yesterday he cleaned the living room. For those of you who have not been living in the chaos of The Bathroom Remodel for the past four or five months, the impact of this is probably lost. But trust me, this is a huge, huge deal. For, although there are still a few piles of papers and things that need to find permanent homes, these piles are tidy. This is a nice contrast from the previous organizational method of keeping things spread evenly over every horizontal surface in the room. We can see the whole rug now! Which meant that I could vacuum the rug for the first time in I don’t want to admit how long! As of last night, it is no longer stressful to sit in the living room. It is actually relaxing.

Finally, Father-in-law is going to come up this weekend and he and The Husband plan to get us to the point of hanging the pantry cabinets by the time the weekend is over. That means we will be able to put dishes in actual cabinets and get to reclaim our dining room table from The Bathroom Remodel. I, in turn, will attempt to organize the office/landing area so that we can move the excess furniture and books out of the nursery in order to make room for actual baby stuff. The Husband also informed me that he and Father-in-law are preparing a surprise of some sort for me, but he won’t tell me what it is. Under intense questioning, he admitted that, while it is not a thing, it is bigger than a breadbox. So figure that one out.

It is interesting that, as my due date draws nearer, the list of things I ask to be completed before the baby arrives grows shorter. And not because we are crossing them off. I have already given up on painted baseboards, and I recently decided that painted pantry walls are also a luxury. An installed bathroom vanity is no longer a requirement; neither is a clean kitchen floor. At this point, all I want is for stuff to be put away before October 21. If stuff gets put away before the baby comes, I will consider The Bathroom Remodel a success. And this is using the loosest possible definition of “put away.” I accept that a bunch of stuff will probably be stashed in the attic to be dealt with “later,” and that “later” will probably turn out to mean “until the next time we move.”

The Bathroom Remodel is weakening. I can hear it gasping for breath.

I hope it is suffering.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Did you have to tell him what a breadbox IS? I had to tell mine what it IS, then attempt to demonstrate the approximate SIZE of a breadbox, and then he had to think FOREVER about whether or not my gift was bigger or smaller. I can't wait to read what your "not a thing" is!

Anonymous said...

We need pictures!