Friday, September 3, 2010

Crazy little thing called "nesting."

Nesting - wherein a pregnant woman goes totally crazy cleaning, organizing and becoming completely focused on eradicating every single dust bunny and piece of dog hair before her baby arrives. You know, the baby that won't even be able to see more than 6 inches in front of its face. Yeah, that one.

When we bought this house, it was said to have a half bath. Well, it did, only it didn't have a toilet or a sink in it. Had the plumbing, just not the fixtures. And oddly, it was directly across the hall from one of the two full baths. Like, you could reach out and touch someone in the other bathroom. Seemed unnecessary to finish it, so we made it into Otis' room. This was perfect because we could keep the litter box, his food and water and all the other random dog and cat food and supplies out of sight (and smell). Susan installed a little cat door so we could keep the door closed and he could go in and out. I installed a night light and a little plaque that says "A house without a cat is not a home." Tried to make it homey for him. This room served us really well for 4 years and it was just a perfect solution for a cat owner.

Well, obviously, we no longer need the room as a cat room. So, it was decided that we would clean it out and make it into a large storage closet that we desperately need. Susan put herself in charge of throwing away Otis' stuff, little by little (thankfully, it would have been hard for me) and finding a place in the garage for the dog stuff. Today I decided I was ready to clean it. I vacuumed it all out and then set to work washing the walls. Well, after 4 years of it being closed up with a litter box, the dust from the litter had really made the walls dirty. I scrubbed one wall and decided it just didn't seem clean, so what's a crazy, pregnant nesting lady to do? Paint the walls, of course. Yes, it's a closet and no one will see it, but to my hormonal brain, it made perfect sense. I went to the garage and rooted through all the cans of leftover paint we have out there. The heaviest can was the one that our whole downstairs is painted, nice and neutral. We had everything but a roller, so I set out doing the cutting in while Susan went off to buy a roller (she's learned not to argue with a nesting woman).

It didn't take long and wasn't too bad. I only needed the step stool and had just enough of the leftover paint and now it looks much cleaner and nicer in there. I picked one wall and cleaned up Otis' plaque and hung it back up. I have ordered a nice 8x10 of him which I will hang on the same wall with his collar/tag. It's always been his room, so I thought we should keep his memory in there. Tomorrow, I will start organizing it as a closet and Susan is going to install some new shelves. And then, I will be able to rest - until the next project. :)

And, after some thought - I put the night light back in there where it's always been. That crazy night light has been on for 4 years and has never burned out. True story. Susan thought we didn't need it in there anymore. I put it back because if Otis decides to come visit, well, I just want him to know we left the light on for him.

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