The last couple of months, Matt and I have been working on "his" and "hers" lists of household projects we'd like to get done before the baby comes. We've made quite a bit of headway on those projects, as well as a couple of others that popped up along the way.
Matt completed the shell of what will be a new shed in our backyard. He bought the parts of an old fireworks stand off of Craigslist and retrofitted them to make a small shed for gardening supplies and all the the kids' bicycles. He then roofed it. It still needs siding, a door and paint, but will function for its intended purpose as it is for awhile.
Another project Matt completed was the installation of a hand rail on our front porch. My mom has been bugging us to do this for several years. We found a hand rail we like on Etsy and had it shipped to us. When it arrived, the paint was damaged due to heat during transport. The business owner offered to replace it with a unpainted version or to refund us half of our money. We opted for the latter option. My mom loves the new rail and so do I. It's been well used in these last few weeks of pregnancy.
Matt replaced three ceiling lights in our front entry and down our hallway. A boy who shall remain nameless broke one of the lights about a year ago when he was testing a catapult with a marble. The bases of the original fixtures were covered in large drips of paint from a lazy-effort ceiling paint job done before we moved here. I looked for over a month at yard sales for new lights, but came up empty handed, so Matt and I went to Lowe's to look at their selection. I didn't like what they had to offer in our price range. A couple of weeks ago, I went to a yard sale down the road and found exactly three fixtures that the seller had taken out during her house remodel. Score! I found what I wanted for dirt cheap! You know me and bargains.
Matt also replaced the master bathroom exhaust fan. The old fan made a constant click-click-click-clicking noise when it was in use. It drove me nuts. The new fan is so quiet I sometimes have difficulty knowing whether or not it is on.
I repainted two exterior doors and five interior doors. Little boys and their toy weapons and shoes (kicking to get into rooms) leave a lot of marks and scratches on doors. Try as a might, this habit has been hard for the boys to break, but they are learning--finally. Mama doesn't like to repaint doors.
I also touched up the paint on the kitchen cabinets. This is a constant issue and really should be done every few months. I try to hit it once a year. Matt put new hardware on the two pull outs underneath the sink so that I'd have a place to hang kitchen towels. So handy!
I decluttered all round the house. The school room was my biggest project toward this effort. I worked for several days. I got rid of five boxes of duplicate and twaddle books and ancient used curricula, two bags of toys, a doll house and several bags of garbage. I also culled the bookshelves in the master bedroom, which is always a difficult task for me. I organized and decluttered several closets. The older girls have been bitten by the decluttering bug and have gone through their bedroom and dressing room. I've dropped so much stuff off at Goodwill that the guy recognizes me now. "Boy! You sure are busy!" Yeah, I'm pregnant.
We've tackled a lot of other tasks, too, but I'm most proud of the fact that Matt has repaired our refrigerator (which wouldn't hold its temperature), our washing machine (2 times--the drain kept getting clogged) and our dishwasher (it wouldn't stop running). These repairs have saved us a bunch of money and time we would have spent without the ability to use the appliances. Cause stuff can never break on a weekday. It has to break on Friday night after you've just had a birthday party for your sister and the dishes are stacked high on the kitchen counters and you have a big freezer cooking session planned for the next day.
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