What Got Done This Weekend

I figured I’d make a little jot note list of the things Brady worked on while I was gone, and I’m almost embarrassed at how extensive and impressive it is. That guy has such work ethic, and he does it all with such a happy heart. Yes, men like him do exist.

When I go away for a weekend, which happens a couple of times a year, he often uses that time as an opportunity to get stuff done. Sometimes its chores around the house, and sometimes its a project. He made me makeup lights once, and painted a new front door another time. The mug shelf was also a “weekend away” project. Its always pretty wonderful to see what he’s going to do. Not that he can’t do work while I’m home, but we tend to like to spend that time laying low together, not crushing all the jobs we can think of. I’m SO grateful for his work this last weekend. My goodness.

Let’s break that down now.

Brady finished the Christmas lights, but you guys know about that from his blog on Saturday.

Brady’s emptied out our basement (except for the furnace room, of course) and swept it to get it ALL ready for carpet. He patched a couple of holes in our concrete floor with a few layers of tile grout. I know thats not optimal, but it was our best option at the time, and it’ll be fine. Alongside that, he also did some more patching on the drywall, mostly in our entrance and the stairwell. It got pretty beat up a couple of years ago already when we brought materials downstairs, and then we added a light fixture in the entrance and needed to cut two holes in the ceiling, once which needed to be patched. So he did that. And two in our dining room from about a year ago when we took down Waverly’s name sign and it took some paint and drywall with it. Whoops. LOTS of patching.

Another big thing Brady worked on was our laundry area. We have a big beefy closet that encloses our machines, and a long time ago, we bought an industrial track system for the doors. It was annoyingly expensive, but it’ll be the perfect system for us. Brady took time this weekend to place the track on the floor so the carpet guy knew how far to go. He also called the place from where we ordered it, and ordered one more part that will make it perfect. That last part will make the area more versatile and there will be no dead space. It’ll even free up space for a small linen closet area maybe! We have a linen closet upstairs but with all of our people, we have a lot of linens. Having two spaces will be huge for us. Maybe one for towels and one for sheets, or maybe sheets and towels for each level? I’m not sure yet. But the freedom to actually have some cabinets in there is just awesome.

Speaking of laundry, Brady took it upon himself to try and get the smell out of my clothes that I foolishly washed with my post-op underwear. If you remember, I had a pair of underwear that I wore right after my D&C when I was still slathered with that orange anti-septic, and I washed them together with pretty much all of my finicky, slightly high maintenance laundry, and for the life of me, I cannot get the smell out. Brady worked at that for a full day, laundering them 5+ times. They still stink. Not as much, but some. Its ok, though. I know what I’ll try next. Unless someone has experienced this before??

Brady called the vacuum store we recently ordered a part from. Our vacuum broke a while back, and Brady ordered a new part, but it turned out to be the wrong size. As you know, our plate has been pretty full lately, and we haven’t gotten around to returning and reordering the part yet. But he called and made a plan with the vacuum store. Another thing off the list. Which is important, considering we’re gonna need a vacuum to get all the little bits out of the new carpet pretty quick here.

Some things Brady did outside, besides the Christmas lights, were based around the garage. First, we installed the garage key pad. I mentioned to him the other day how odd it was that everyone around us had one, but we didn’t. And he said “Oh, we do. I’ve just never installed it.” So he installed it! Haha! Easy peasy. And then he painted and replaced the door leading from the garage into the house. Thats a bit of a long story, but the Reader’s Digest version goes like this: When we built the house, we chose beautiful doors all through our house, including the entrance closet doors. When we actually got here, they took off the construction doors and put on the real exterior doors, and they looked SO BAD next to our beautiful closet doors. Almost immediately upon moving in, we ordered a new doors for our entrance. And then they sat forever, because it wasn’t a priority. Last year, Brady painted and installed the purple front door, and this weekend, painted the other one white and traded out the last ugly entrance door. Woot!

And because there was still time on Sunday afternoon, Brady kept on going. He got the tv mounted on the basement wall, which seems premature, but if you’ve spent time at our house, you know it isn’t. We don’t watch much tv, and we’re more eager to have it out of our main living room than anything.

Plus, as soon as the carpet is in downstairs, we have those beautiful, cozy couches to move down. We may accidentally start watching tv again, hahaha! Just as accidentally as we stopped! When the tv was on the wall, he decided to run the cables and get it working. And once it was working, he decided to be a sucker for punishment and move the whole big stand downstairs by himself and slip it into the furnace room, so we can have the storage space there as soon as carpet is in.

Can you guys tell we’re really excited about getting carpet installed? Where is that guy?? He’s late…

Beyond these things that I’m super excited about, Brady also worked on invoices and completed his quarterly GST report.

Aaaaand if that wasn’t enough, he was also a top notch, involved, loving dad to our children. Which shouldn’t be so unbelievable to so many, but is the thing I’m the most grateful for.

Brady took the kids outside to play. He bathed them all and took them to church.