But Monday was the final day. There were some projects that never got done and I would need another couple days to get them done, but the projects where I was destroying the house, seemed to have some end in sight.

But Wait… Let’s Destroy the Laundry Room mere hours before My Lovely and Talented Wife come home:

Here’s the caulking for the kitchen sink… at least the part that passed my test. I need to redo a section of caulking elsewhere.

Well, he might be a little rough on the edges and his hair a little shaggy, but he cleans up well:

In about 2 hours, I finished raking the leaves to the bottom of the hill. Had I done this earlier, I would have moved them to the curb via a tarp for pickup, but seeing that was a month ago… I was just going to mulch them and use them. I don’t know if I just have Mad Ninja Raking Skillz, but what took me essentially 3 hours, took a guy and his kid 2 days to finish raking our back yard. I dunno though… maybe hauling the leaves out to the curb would be another 8 hours of work… if my mower worked, I would be done in no time. However, a 4 foot pile of leaves decomposes in my backyard… as you read this!

All at the bottom:

The view from the bottom of the hill:

I emailed a response to “You still have leaves” with “yes, and there are still more on the trees!”

I raked so hard that I even broke the rake!

So, with it being lunchtime and the need for food, plus baking was on “The List”, I made my way inside to make some Gluten Free Hotdog Buns. Had I read the recipe, I would have seen that I need a hotdog bun pan... something which I didn’t know existed (nor a hamburger bun pan) but regardless, 4 ingredients into a recipe… I just went with the flow.

The result, a very tasty and very ugly hotdog bun.

Later in the afternoon, I started on the Garage and continued to destroy the kitchen. I started doing batches of laundry and also making myself some tea. I then got a call that my car was ready so around 2:30, I suited up and ran to Honda. It was a 4.12 mile run, and was cold. Despite rain in the forecast, I never saw any. After getting the Civic, I headed out to get more stuff from the stores that I needed. Target was definitely on the list since I needed a warm Starbucks!

Saturday Night I spent moving, rearranging, consolidating, throwing away stuff from the Garage and the Kitchen. I didn’t spend a whole lot of time doing much else. By about 11pm, I was starting to get tired and sure enough I was asleep around midnight.

Sunday I awoke around 8:15am and debated on whether I should go to church or not. I finally got in the shower around 8:25am and was out the door around 8:45 which coincided with the Service Start time. When I got there, I hadn’t missed anything but the beginning songs. So, I went to church and went to Sunday School as well. Once that was done, I headed to Wal-mart to avoid the large crowds and get some items that I needed. I knew that I would only have a short time to get stuff done as I was traveling to Chattanooga for an Investing meeting (very casual) and that was a 1.25 hour commute because it was on the other side of town. I also planned on going to the Home Depot there, but forgot that it was Sunday and so the hours were abbreviated.

I went to the meeting until 6pm then headed to Home Depot and got there with about 30 minutes to spare. I was looking for some more Closet Maid shelving to finish up the garage and was hoping they had the 84″ Rubbermaid Fast Track. I had put up a 48″ Fast Track and it’s VERY easy and fast too… but a 84″ flavor would work PERFECTLY for our tools. But Alas, they had the 48″ and a 56″ which together would fit, but I would rather have the one big track.

So, I made it home and put the new shelving in and cleaned up the garage to the point that it was about 80% done. I had a huge supply to go to the recycling center on Monday. I listened to the Green Bay packers lose their chance to go to the Football game which is really super and they play in a bowl shaped arena. I guess now I will root for New England so that I can say that I saw the Patriots during their perfect season.

I also discovered that the White Caulking I bought to recaulk was actually clear. Nice. So, I was a day behind on that. I decided to fill in gaps that were really big with the clear and then follow everything up with the white. But Monday was approaching fast and the Garage was under control (but not cleaned), the Kitchen was still a wreck, the clean laundry was piling up as I was not folding it yet, the floors were not vacuuming themselves ad the list seemed to not be getting completed.

Here are a couple of pictures of The State of Flux the Garage and Kitchen were in… if you hear something, that’s just My Lovely and Talented Wife seeing what her house looked like while she was gone. She didn’t like the comment I made Monday on her way home… “Wow, I can see the floor for the first time!”

The end result coming up SOON!

The Project list starts with taking the Odyssey to Honda for servicing in the morning. My Wife hadn’t left yet, so the plan is to go to Honda, then have her take me home. Once home, I help her pack and then go on to work in the Civic. Then after work, I take the Civic to Honda and get the Odyssey. I would then pick up the Odyssey on Saturday.

After getting off work, I went to get the Odyssey ASAP. I was racing against the sun with starting to rake the backyard. I figured that I had about an hour or so to get most of the raking done before sunset. Once the sun was set, then I would do stuff inside that needed some prep time.

I took this picture while the sun was still out getting ready for it’s nightly slumber. You can think of our backyard as one big hill will a slope, a small level off and then another hill to the bottom. Here, I raked the entire upper slope… eh, in about an hour or so. My plan was to get out here first thing in the morning to finish the yard before going to Honda.

Next, I proceeded indoors for some of the indoor stuff:

You can see that I pulled everything out of our “frequently” used storage containers. The Kitchen floor would remain cluttered until late Monday evening.

The caulking in the kitchen had shrunk for some reason, so without the kids getting in my way helping me.

But the big project for Friday was staining the doors… with the mess, the need to dry and the fumes, we didn’t need to have the kids helping me getting in my way.

I can’t remember if it was Friday or Saturday that I watched Evil Dead II

Clean Out Garage – DONE
Organize Garage – Partially Done
Rake Leaves – DONE (Will Post Pictures)
Mulch Leaves – INCOMPLETE: Mower Wouldn’t Start
Consolidate extraneous piles of sticks and branches in backyard – PARTIAL: At least 4 piles of Sticks Remain
Clean Out Laundry Room – DONE (Will Post Pictures)
Organize Laundry Room – PARTIAL
Normal Laundry – DONE
Wash Kids’ Sheets – DONE
Wash Adult Sheets – DONE
Strip and Recaulk Kitchen Counter – DONE (will Post Pictures)
Purge and Reorganize Container Cabinet – DONE
Purge and Reorganize Cup Cabinet – INCOMPLETE
Rearrange Baking Dishes to only those used most often – DONE
Purge and Reorganize Pantry – PARTIAL
Reorganize Cupboard – PARTIAL
Consolidate Flour with Storage Containers – PARTIAL
Make Ham Soup – DONE
Make Gluten Free Hot Dog Buns – DONE (Will Post Pictures)
Make Gluten Free Donuts – INCOMPLETE: And I was sad too
Make Margaritas and finish Pepe Lopez Bottle – PARTIAL
Vacuum Kitchen Floor – DONE
Clean Kitchen Floor with Murphy’s Oil Soap – INCOMPLETE
Stain Doors to My Lovely and Talented Wife’s Office – DONE (Will Post Picture)
Clean Master Bath – PARTIAL
Recaulk Kid’s Tub – DONE
Purge and Clean Workshop – INCOMPLETE: In fact, added to the chaos
Clean Downstairs Living Room – INCOMPLETE
Vacuum Downstairs – INCOMPLETE
Backup Computers – INCOMPLETE
Organize Pictures on Terry’s Laptop – INCOMPLETE
Construct Picture Albums relevant to Planet3rry’s Blog – INCOMPLETE
Record audio for upcoming Episode of Gravity@1053? – INCOMPLETE
Take Recyclables to Recycling Center – DONE
Go to Church and Sunday School – DONE
Replace casual Shoes – INCOMPLETE
Take Books and CDs to McKay’s – DONE

Added Since Original Post

Go to Ecowater and Get new filters – DONE
Put Stuff on eBay – INCOMPLETE
Get Oil Change in Civic and Odyssey – DONE
Watch Zombie, Action or Zombie Action Movies – PARTIAL

• Clean Out Garage
• Organize Garage
• Rake Leaves
• Mulch Leaves
• Consolidate extraneous piles of sticks and branches in backyard
• Clean Out Laundry Room
• Organize Laundry Room
• Normal Laundry
• Wash Kids’ Sheets
• Wash Adult Sheets
• Strip and Recaulk Kitchen Counter
• Purge and Reorganize Container Cabinet
• Purge and Reorganize Cup Cabinet
• Rearrange Baking Dishes to only those used most often
• Purge and Reorganize Pantry
• Reorganize Cupboard
• Consolidate Flour with Storage Containers
• Make Ham Soup
• Make Gluten Free Hot Dog Buns
• Make Gluten Free Donuts
• Make Margaritas and finish Pepe Lopez Bottle
• Vacuum Kitchen Floor
• Clean Kitchen Floor with Murphy’s Oil Soap
• Stain Doors to My Lovely and Talented Wife’s Office
• Clean Master Bath
• Recaulk Kid’s Tub
• Purge and Clean Workshop
• Clean Downstairs Living Room
• Vacuum Downstairs
• Backup Computers
• Organize Pictures on Terry’s Laptop
• Construct Picture Albums relevant to Planet3rry’s Blog
• Record audio for upcoming Episode of Gravity@1053′
• Take Recyclables to Recycling Center
• Go to Church and Sunday School
• Replace casual Shoes
• Take Books and CDs to McKay’s

There’s a couple more, but those were really incidental or came up as a result of something else… UNfortunately, some of my pictures are on my laptop at home and some I have here… I don’t have the before and after pictures of most thins, so I might go ahead and make a comment on what I completed and what I didn’t and then do another post of before and after.

Now, when My Lovely and Talented Wife was leaving she said “In a Perfect World, when I get home… the house would be perfect” and that’s what I had to go by…

This is how I am feeling right now… a mixture of two pop culture icons about ready to blow up! HA!

If this weekend was supposed to be about relaxing, I did NOT get the memo… I am about worn out. I have been going non-stop for the last 48+ hours… and there is tomorrow as well. I need my family back to slow me down!

There’s lots of projects that I am currently doing and I plan to touch on them when I get a chance. Unfortunately, I think one of my bigger projects is not going to get done. I have had a hardware malfunction and so I might not be able to get it done… which is a shame, because it’s one of the projects that wore me out Fri and Sat.

But I have less than 24 hours to turn my house (really just the kitchen at this point) from Hurricane Terry to a normal household. I’ll be highlighting what I have done these past few days and hopefully include some pictures.

For those of you make sure you enjoy your Martin Luther King Jr holiday…

Oh, and I found out tonight that I won an award! I’ll have all that in the next few days. Oh yeah, and I have to fit in my Podcast recording for the next episode of Gravity@1053′, I even used a mind mapping technique to layout out what I am going to say.