Wednesday, October 8, 2008

Weekend Assignment #236 Fourth Quarter Projections

Oh boy. Karen wants to know what we plan to finish up before the end of the year. Here is the Weekend Assignment.

Weekend Assignment #236: We're now in the fourth quarter of the year, the time when (if they're not on a different fiscal year) companies have their last chance to shore up any deficiencies and show a profit for the year. Let's skip lightly over the fact that some companies accomplish this by cooking the books, and apply the basic principle to people instead of companies. As the year winds down, what do you hope to accomplish so that 2008, on balance, represents some kind of progress for you personally? (No, this does not mean financially, unless you've somehow bucked the trend of the rest of the country. Tell me about the writing, the home repair, the wedding, or anything else you hope to accomplish in the next few months.)

I'm glad Karen put the word "hope" in that last sentence. I always plan to get things done; they just never get done. I do a good job of planning, not so good at completing. (Holy redundant sentence Batman! I'm going to leave it though.) I'm sure I'm not the only one. Right? I hope Karen didn't want only one thing.

One thing we need to get done is fix at least one of the back doors. I know, it makes the house sound so big because it has two back doors. Here's the deal, the doors are 3 feet apart. It's hard to explain, one goes to the laundry room, the other to the family room. There is a wall inside the house that separate the two, and there use to be a door that closed off the laundry room. That is why the doors are so close.

Back to the point. The door to the family room is trashed. It doesn't look too bad from the inside; except for the part where you can see light coming in around it. You get a nice breeze through the gap during the winter. The outside of the door is trashed, however. The frame is a mess and the door itself doesn't looks so hot.

The laundry room door looks fine, but it gets all wonky in the winter. When it is really cold outside the door shrinks, or something, and it doesn't shut properly. Sometimes it is nearly impossible to lock. Last winter wasn't a big deal since we didn't have a dog to let out to the backyard. This winter we will need to let Quincy out, unless we want to teach him to go in a litter box.

The question now is which one do we get done? Part of the money planned to fix the door(s) was spent on some car repairs, which cropped up after the last payment was sent in of course.

We also need to clean out the garage better. There is room for one car now, it would be nice to fit both in the two car garage. But hey, we've only been there 5 1/2 years without putting cars in there. Why rush?
 
The office needs some work too. There is a border along the top of the ceiling that is peeling away to reveal the older border that is underneath. We didn't put either of them up, but they need to come down. A fresh coat of paint would go a long way to make it look nice. We put some new blinds up, so it is not like we have done nothing in that room. It just looks that way.

I should probably stop now before I you all to death. Too late, I know! (Anyone know a good handyman to get this all done?)

Extra Credit: What is the best thing you've done so far this year?

Does it count if I didn't technically do it? It would be the work on our yard. It looks much better in the front of the house. It needs some touch-up work, but that can wait until spring.

What do you need to do before the year is out?








5 comments:

Anonymous said...

I guess I just need to get some stuff done around the house. I don't think I have a specific goal of something I wanted to get done before the end of the year.

Florinda said...

Homeownership: the American dream that eats up all your time and money :-).

I grew up in a house that had two back doors like that, only they were a little farther apart. I'd say that if you can't fix them both, fix whichever one lets in more of a draft - it gets COLD in the winter where you live! (Not that you asked for my opinion, of course. I just throw it in for free :-D.)

Mike said...

DC: Well, you'll need to take down the Halloween decorations and put up Christmas decorations. :)

Florinda: Tell me about it.

The worst one is the family room door, buy I like to use the laundry room door during the dirty, muddy season. :) It's easier to clean up that floor.

Karen Funk Blocher said...

Your laundry room back door sounds like out laundry room back door except your has a gaping hole ext to it where the doggy door was!

Mike said...

Karen: You know, I've never had a door with a pet door built in. The funny thing is that I didn't have one because I was afraid of cold air coming in.