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Barely skimming LJ
Aug. 21st, 2009 03:43 amJust a heads up that I'm totally wrapped up in the house project; even when I'm not working on it, I'm thinking about it, making lists, doing research... Really, that's been the case since the whole house hunt came up to begin with. I'm trying to be careful with my energy and my flares, so I'm also sleeping and recuperating a hell of a lot. This is why I chose a job that doesn't involve project work; I have great fun with projects, but they do eat my life, and I didn't want my job doing that anymore (speaking of which, desktop support was headhunting me again; I told GreatNewBoss I wasn't interested). And speaking of work, that's going wonderfully, too. NewBoss has figured out that I'm IdeaGirl, and has not only been taking my suggestions seriously, and actually acting on them, but has started going out of his way to ask my perspective on things. It's a wonderful change from the past couple years with HellBoss, and I'm enjoying work at a level I haven't for quite a while. Really, life is incredibly good right now, but very focused on those two elements of my life -- household and work (oh, and there're major changes going on with the escort group, and I've got that going on too, although I'm having some trouble focusing on it; thankfully Casey and Bill are taking the lead there).
I'm really enjoying my role in the household project, too. It's sort of my job to herd cats, both literally and figuratively. I coordinate, organize, arrange for supplies, handle the paperwork and reservations and loans and finances and such. At the moment, I'm working the old place side of the move, and will continue to do that until we're totally out and all cleaning/final tie-up is done. Since Grafton's already moved, he's totally focused on the new house side of things, and like I've mentioned, he and Liv and Bec have gotten huge amounts done. Having a team of sensible and skilled people means I can delegate and not worry; it's great! Also, they've got skills I don't, or at least not to anywhere near that level (I'm competent with tools, but that's all). And given my full-time job and my energy limitations, none of this would be possible for me to be doing this intensely. We're also pulling together about once a day for planning/check-in sessions. It took an extra two weeks for the upstairs back tenant to move out, so we're just starting to tackle that space now. And when we arrived, after the downstairs tenants moved out, we discovered a pest problem, a rusted-out kitchen cabinet (metal, with the plumbing running _through_ a metal plate -- we're going to have to cut it all away *eyeroll*), a bad wall in the bathroom, filthy carpeting and damaged subfloor underneath, and vents containing old french fries and other nasty smelling crap. So we've got a lot of work to do in order to get all of us moved into our final spaces. Luckily, we've got wiggle room on that; we want to do the downstairs _right_, and save ourselves hassle in the long-run, as well as being positive that the pest problem is truly resolved. With the other spaces we have for temporary storage, we can still move Liv in entirely, and she can just crash in my room until we get it finished. Luckily, the upstairs won't require anywhere near as much work to get it ready for Bec and Jer. Thanks to the appliance deal with Missy, we've got all the appliances, and although the carpet isn't great, a steam-cleaning will get it through until we're ready to make plans to replace it. Front house is the same deal -- now that we've got the flooring in on the first floor, everything else is "want to", not "have to". We can move in and function at this point, with the addition of a few more window a/c units (the upstairs gets too hot not to have a/c up there, and we only inherited one known working unit from the previous owner). And the yard fencing is already set for the dogs, except for fixing the front gate gap (Leroy can wiggle under it). We're going to install the gate for Jeremy's parking soon, but again, we're in functional "live there" shape already.
I was talking to Grafton the other day about how much my brain is on the old house side of the project, and how that focus will change once we get done here and I actually move over. Then I get to be all obsessed about new place projects and unpacking, too! It's going to be a lot like Christmas, honestly. Between rediscovering all the stuff I have that's been packed away over the years, exploring what we got from Tara, and what we got from Mom and Dad, it's going to be a crazy and fun process.
And on a purely psychological level, this is just awesome. One of my big mushy-happy topics is "people working together", and every day something manages to hit that "oh, look what we're doing that we couldn't do alone" button for me. I feel like we're doing a good job of matching people and skillsets to tasks and projects, and staying very much within my ideals about "come as you are" for my household... Many communal and group housing experiments are heavily rule-based as a way to maintain function. it's sensible, and often very productive to ask everyone to follow the same clear-cut rules. But that's really not how my households have ever functioned. We're much more about figuring out the strengths/weaknesses/preferences/quirks of people who move in, and weaving them into the overall pattern. It's chaotic and unpredictable, but that's a lot of what I like about it.
Oh, reminder to self -- I want to replace all the cat collars, and the dog tags, in case anyone gets out in the chaos of the move over there.
Speaking of critters, that's one little sad point... Lucy and Spike will be going home in a week or so. I like Lucy, but I think she'll be happier in a place that's less crazy. I'm really going to miss Spike, though; we've bonded, and I'm totally enamored of his weird personality. He's talkative, and interactive, and seems to constantly being thinking and exploring. He's a troublemaker, and a nosebiter, but he also sleeps on my back when I sleep. And I think his little stubby-butt is one of the funniest, cutest things I've seen. He's settled in here quite comfortably, and I plan to make it very clear when I send them home that if they ever need housing again, they're absolutely welcome back, and I'd love to have them.
OK, back to sleep. Fell asleep before 8pm tonight, I was so exhausted.
I'm really enjoying my role in the household project, too. It's sort of my job to herd cats, both literally and figuratively. I coordinate, organize, arrange for supplies, handle the paperwork and reservations and loans and finances and such. At the moment, I'm working the old place side of the move, and will continue to do that until we're totally out and all cleaning/final tie-up is done. Since Grafton's already moved, he's totally focused on the new house side of things, and like I've mentioned, he and Liv and Bec have gotten huge amounts done. Having a team of sensible and skilled people means I can delegate and not worry; it's great! Also, they've got skills I don't, or at least not to anywhere near that level (I'm competent with tools, but that's all). And given my full-time job and my energy limitations, none of this would be possible for me to be doing this intensely. We're also pulling together about once a day for planning/check-in sessions. It took an extra two weeks for the upstairs back tenant to move out, so we're just starting to tackle that space now. And when we arrived, after the downstairs tenants moved out, we discovered a pest problem, a rusted-out kitchen cabinet (metal, with the plumbing running _through_ a metal plate -- we're going to have to cut it all away *eyeroll*), a bad wall in the bathroom, filthy carpeting and damaged subfloor underneath, and vents containing old french fries and other nasty smelling crap. So we've got a lot of work to do in order to get all of us moved into our final spaces. Luckily, we've got wiggle room on that; we want to do the downstairs _right_, and save ourselves hassle in the long-run, as well as being positive that the pest problem is truly resolved. With the other spaces we have for temporary storage, we can still move Liv in entirely, and she can just crash in my room until we get it finished. Luckily, the upstairs won't require anywhere near as much work to get it ready for Bec and Jer. Thanks to the appliance deal with Missy, we've got all the appliances, and although the carpet isn't great, a steam-cleaning will get it through until we're ready to make plans to replace it. Front house is the same deal -- now that we've got the flooring in on the first floor, everything else is "want to", not "have to". We can move in and function at this point, with the addition of a few more window a/c units (the upstairs gets too hot not to have a/c up there, and we only inherited one known working unit from the previous owner). And the yard fencing is already set for the dogs, except for fixing the front gate gap (Leroy can wiggle under it). We're going to install the gate for Jeremy's parking soon, but again, we're in functional "live there" shape already.
I was talking to Grafton the other day about how much my brain is on the old house side of the project, and how that focus will change once we get done here and I actually move over. Then I get to be all obsessed about new place projects and unpacking, too! It's going to be a lot like Christmas, honestly. Between rediscovering all the stuff I have that's been packed away over the years, exploring what we got from Tara, and what we got from Mom and Dad, it's going to be a crazy and fun process.
And on a purely psychological level, this is just awesome. One of my big mushy-happy topics is "people working together", and every day something manages to hit that "oh, look what we're doing that we couldn't do alone" button for me. I feel like we're doing a good job of matching people and skillsets to tasks and projects, and staying very much within my ideals about "come as you are" for my household... Many communal and group housing experiments are heavily rule-based as a way to maintain function. it's sensible, and often very productive to ask everyone to follow the same clear-cut rules. But that's really not how my households have ever functioned. We're much more about figuring out the strengths/weaknesses/preferences/quirks of people who move in, and weaving them into the overall pattern. It's chaotic and unpredictable, but that's a lot of what I like about it.
Oh, reminder to self -- I want to replace all the cat collars, and the dog tags, in case anyone gets out in the chaos of the move over there.
Speaking of critters, that's one little sad point... Lucy and Spike will be going home in a week or so. I like Lucy, but I think she'll be happier in a place that's less crazy. I'm really going to miss Spike, though; we've bonded, and I'm totally enamored of his weird personality. He's talkative, and interactive, and seems to constantly being thinking and exploring. He's a troublemaker, and a nosebiter, but he also sleeps on my back when I sleep. And I think his little stubby-butt is one of the funniest, cutest things I've seen. He's settled in here quite comfortably, and I plan to make it very clear when I send them home that if they ever need housing again, they're absolutely welcome back, and I'd love to have them.
OK, back to sleep. Fell asleep before 8pm tonight, I was so exhausted.
