I think that I've become overly attached the memes list thing this week. I can't write for shit this week and I'm not sure why. I suppose I could blame it on my cold. I mean, sleep deprivation and over-production of snot products can cause brain damage I suppose.

The bottom line is that nothing much is happening these days. We go to work, we come home. We decide if we're eating at home or going out. We eat. We watch Coronation Street on tape, do the dishes or whatever needs doing. We go to bed, cough, hack, blow noses, etc. Sleep. Repeat. Not exactly thrill-a-minute is it? Between it all, we're slowly getting out shit together as far as Mark's dad moving in with us goes.

During our lazy hazy dazy day yesterday we made up a list of things we have to do before he moves in.

1. New floor in the bathroom. Two years ago, we had the flooring ripped out of our bathroom because the sub-floor was deteriorated to a dangerous level. We had the sub-floor replaced but decided that we wanted to paint the bathroom before we had the flooring replaced. Because we were basically lazy fucks (although I like to think that we were just busy), we didn't paint the bathroom until June 2003. Of course, we still have not yet replaced the flooring and I just have rag rugs all over the place in the bathroom so that we don't have to walk around on the plywood. We thought about having someone come in and do it but yesterday we decided that we'd just suck it up and do it ourselves. Next weekend, the long weekend, we'll probably do it. At the same time, we'll put down baseboards in there too. We ripped out the old ones before painting (because the previous owners felt it appropriate to have different trim on each wall).

2. Additional fixtures in the bathroom. We need to install things like a new cabinet for the little old guy, an extra towel bar and some of those old people safety rail deals in the tub. The towel bar and cabinet, we can do ourselves but I know that the LOG is not going to feel too secure if we install the safety rails ourselves (because we are just dumb fucks who couldn't possibly do it write) so we'll have to have those nice folks from the Sh*ppers Drug mart health centre do it. Goodness knows that we wouldn't have clue one about how to find a stud!! On the upside, if they don't do a good job and he falls and injures himself, we can always sue the good folks at the health centre instead of suing ourselves.

3. Fixing up his closet. The bedroom he's moving into is the second largest in the house. It's at the front of the house and has two nice sized windows. It's a really nice room and, when we first moved in here, we used it as an office. The only weirdness in this room is the closet. The hot water heater is in the closet. Our house is about 60 years old and was built on a concrete slab so we don't have a basement. The furnace is under the stairs, in the middle of our kitchen, and the hot water heater is on the other side of the wall from the bath tub. It actually works out really well as it's easy to get to but it does sort of cut into the space in the closet. The closet itself needs a coat of paint and some new shelves. The shelves that are in there now look really craptacular. They don't look like they'd hold much and, because we don't really use the room much, it's been something that has been easy to ignore until now.

4. Throwing out / sorting through crap. He's got a tonne of crap that we'll be getting rid of, either in the garbage or to goodwill. We also have a bunch of crap that is piled up in there and it's all gotta go. Not having a basement has been a blessing and a curse. It's forced us to get rid of a lot of useless shit that we'd otherwise just pack into boxes and toss down there. Right now, our computer room / office is full of the stuff that would ordinarily live in a basement and we're slowly sifting through it. I mean, we're going to keep some of the shit but we're also going to be chucking a lot of it out. Later on this summer, we plan to put a new shed in the yard, at the end of our driveway, where I can store seasonal stuff and things that I need to have to access to but not all of the time. We have an old-school aluminum garden shed that we keep patio furniture, bikes, lawn mower, gardening tools, etc. in but is has stupid sliding doors that freeze up in the winter. The shed I've got my eye on is vinyl and the doors open out. If we put it at the end of the driveway, there will always been a clear path shoveled to it and I can keep stuff like Christmas decorations out there and it won't be a major task to haul them back into the house in December. Installing a shed will also allow us to make the computer room / office into a more pleasant space, possibly even a guest bedroom. We'll see.

5. New ceiling fan. Right now, there is this semi-crappy track lighting that we installed after we painted the room. I've never really cared for it but it was okay for what it was at the time. We want to install a hugger ceiling fan (like the one we put in our bedroom last year) as it really throws the light well and it's a great fan.

6. Doors. As it's been just the two of us, we haven't had any doors upstairs. No two doors matched in this house and they took up way too much space so we just ripped them out when we moved in. In the bathroom and the front bedroom (where LOG will be sleeping), we have curtains up but I'm thinking that we're gonna want doors again. Fortunately, this time, we can purchase doors that actually match and that aren't totally shitty cheap crap that has been pulled out of the dump.

We figure that most of this stuff can be done over the next couple of weekends. Originally, we wanted to rip out the disgusting yellow/gold/puke carpet that is on our stairs and the upstairs landing but we've decided to live with it until we can afford to have it all ripped out and replaced with something nicer. When we first started talking about him moving in last fall, we had a shit load of ideas of things that we were going to do and we've really scaled that down. Partly because of the cash but mostly because of the laziness.

The work will be totally worth it though because it'll mean that our bathroom is finally finished and we'll have a lot less running around to do as far as LOG goes. He currently lives about 7 minutes away from us, in an apartment building that is mostly full of seniors. On a purely cosmetic level, it's a beautiful building. It's well maintained and very safe. It's also about 5 million degrees in there and I don't know how any person can live in it. LOG is always complaining about being short of breath. I suggest, on a regular basis, that this is because there is no air in his home. He also doesn't do anything all day. He watches TV, makes his meals, and that's about it. He lives on the main floor, right next to the lobby, so he doesn't even have far to go to get his mail. When he moves in here, he's going to have to go up and down the stairs several times a day. Hopefully this exercise (and breathing fresh air instead of gross apartment air) will improve his circulation and he'll have more energy than he has now. I know that I'll have more energy. I won't miss running back and forth and back and forth to this apartment. I also think that, as crotchety and mean as we can be, it'll be good for him to have some company. It'll be better for all of us I think. I hope. If it's not, we'll have to figure out a way to deal with it but, I have to say, I won't miss going into the sauna that he lives in. Won't miss it a bit!