Never-ending Stuff to Do

With newly purchased houses comes great responsibility. Star Wars, right? Um, I mean Spider Man. No, that’s not right. Just us, in our ordinary, non-heroic, average homeowner lives. The last several weeks have involved project after project for Steve. I specify that he’s doing everything, because, well, he is. I watch Samantha, he does house projects. The painting of the interior has been put on hold for a while (considering he’d been painting non-stop since before we moved in, can you blame him?), in favor of lawn-mowing, weeding, flowerbox planting, power-washing, paint-stripping and fence repairing. Not to mention, we discovered two huge cracks in the exterior cement wall that go all the way through to the interior unfinished portion of the basement. This was discovered during a particularly rainy two-week period of time. Not just any rain, but the hardest, most torrential downpours we’ve ever seen, day after day. The water soaks down the side of the house to the foundation, then seeps in through the crack and all over the floor. He’s been gathering estimates from contractors for the repair. Ugh. Can someone please tell me how the inspector missed these during our home inspection?

Then there’s always work for the Mr. Clean Magic Eraser (see photo above). I had hidden all of Samantha’s crayons in a box long before we moved, to be brought out under supervision. However, when we moved, Mommy dumped a bunch of art supplies (coloring books & some packaged things) into one of the toy bins in her room and didn’t think to go through them once we settled, completely forgetting about another pack of crayons lurking there. Last week Samantha found them, and decided that the wall was an excellent canvas for her art. Steve discovered her handiwork when he went in after her nap, and I know exactly what he said to her, as she repeats it every time she looks at the wall (no, we haven’t removed it yet): “No walls!” That’s right. No worries, though, the Magic Eraser can clean anything.