Five Years in the Making

First off - I wanted to say thank you to everyone who responded to my post of yesterday.  One thing I wanted to make clear is I wasn't saying that there was anyone who shouldn't be reading my blog.  I really just wondered why people read it.  So thank you to everyone who either posted a comment or sent me an e-mail.  I appreciate all the feedback I received.

Earlier this week I alluded to "big plans" for the weekend.  My big plans weren't anything truly earth shattering to anyone but me.  The "big plans" were to get my garage cleaned out so that I could at least get one car in the garage.  This might not seem like a big deal but given it has been almost 5 years since I moved into this house and this would be the first time I got a car into the garage it is a very big deal to me.

The job is done.  My original plan was to be at work in the garage very early this morning.  My plan strayed a bit as I realized I needed a few things from Home Depot, so first thing this morning I headed out to Home Depot.  While there I realized I needed a bunch of other things.  So what first started out as a journey to buy $30 worth of storage containers turned into a $210 shopping trip as I bought a new sink disposal, a bunch of light bulbs and new numbers for the front of my house.

Almost as soon as I arrived back home, my brother Tim was knocking on the front door.  He had to drop his son off at a house near ours for a scout activity, so he stopped by.  As soon as he saw the sink disposal sitting on the counter - we were off getting the thing installed.  Normally when Tim helps he with a project like this he does most of the work.  This time I insisted on doing the work with him providing the guidance.  It took about an hour but the new sink disposal is in place and working like a champ.  I got a 3/4 of a horse power one so it has some serious grinding potential behind it.  No more clogged drains because I put too much stuff down the disposal!

I didn't get started on the garage as a result of the work on the disposal until about 10:30AM.  I took one look at what I had a head of me and just sighed.  The garage filled up with stuff even before we moved into the house in November of 2004.  The house was purchased in July of 2004 but we didn't move in until November.  Between July and November we had a lot of renovation done and we also had Nancy's entire household moved out from Pennsylvania to Colorado.  When the moving truck arrived in the middle of August, we put eighty percent of the stuff directly into the garage.  And there it stayed.

When we finally moved into the house in November of 2004 we didn't start attacking the garage because we were still in the midst of renovating the house.  That took priority and we didn't get any chance to work on the garage.  When the renovation was finally complete in the spring of 2005, I immediately went on a project that had me out of the country for extended periods of time.  By the time things calmed down and we started addressing the garage it was the spring of 2006.  Patty was already sick by this point but hadn't yet been diagnosed with Leukemia.  Shortly after we started the project, Patty was diagnosed and work on the garage came to a screeching halt.

I had planned to resume this work at some point, but I never got to it.  When Shelly moved into the house in May of 2010, we began to work on this project.  She was a great help in getting things cleaned up and organized.  We did a bunch of work and sold a ton of things through a garage sale.  But as the summer proceeded we got caught in doing many other things and never got a chance to return to the garage.

Once I started this morning one of my key things was to get my bikes out of the way as I have both a road bike and a mountain bike.  I managed to get the bikes hung from the ceiling in pretty quick order.  After that it was all about clearing out crap.  The garbage man is not going to be happy with me on Monday!  I pitched and pitched and I pitched.  There is a ton of stuff that is getting thrown away on Monday.  On top of that I totally filled up the back of the Explorer with stuff that is to go to Goodwill.

(Nancy's car, nestled in the now pseudo-clean garage!)

After it was all said and done - there it was - a completely cleaned out parking bay in the garage!  This obviously isn't the end as I need to finish the other half.  But given I have lived here for almost 5 years and I have never had a car in the garage this is a major accomplishment for me.  I will spend some time working on the other half of the garage tomorrow but I do not expect to finish it as there are a number of big items that I need to sell.  I may have another garage sale one of these coming weekends if the weather holds.  My goal is to complete the other half of the garage by the end of Zack's fall break.

It has been a busy day for us.  I really didn't have a heck of a lot of motivation to do anything but I really forced myself.  I figure if I can get busy and accomplish things then things will be better for all of us.

Zack had a fun day.  This morning for him was all about getting work done.  He had to clean his room as he had a friend coming over and then he had to get first drafts of a bunch of homework done.  In the afternoon he had one of his friends over and they hung out and played until almost 5:30PM.  After that we ran out and got a quick dinner and went to the movies.  

We hope everyone is having a great weekend so far!

Thanks and peace to all! ~J.