Lists

At some point, probably pretty early in life and certainly before I left home, I gave up resisting the early Saturday morning projects and began to embrace them as a way of life. The proper, normal way to live was to make a list of things to do, then check them off as you do them. Preferable before lunch.

My dad and his wife Deb are visiting Seattle this week. As a course of habit my dad and I do small projects around my house during his visit. The running joke is a true story from his first visit to my new Seattle home: we worked seven consecutive, long days pulling out old knob-and-tube wiring and replacing with proper modern electrical work (to code, my dad is an electrician by trade); my father left Seattle having never seen the garage or back yard. Yes, we're driven. We had a list (actually, three) and everything was checked off at the end.

In subsequent visits we've made time for our other hobby, pool. We've eaten out more and seen the city. We've also updated attic insulation, built shelves, fixed a dryer, added lights, fixed plumbing, and painted. This time, we're working on three projects.

First, we're updating all the locks in the house. We're moving from the single cylinder deadbolts to double cylinder deadbolts, so that would-be robbers can't just break a window and unlock the door. We're adding electrical support to the newly installed sink garbage disposer. We're installing a wall mounted coat rack, hanging some heavy frames, and changing the bathroom vent to actually vent outside the building. We should have time for a few racks of pool on Friday. I put it on the list.

So far, we've done two trips to The Home Depot. We have one more planned tomorrow (we just made out BOM (bill of materials) for the rest of the projects). I bet we'll go at least one more time after that. Heck, it's only 25 blocks away. That's a lot closer than Pennsylvania. It's times like these that I can really appreciate how much advantage those who stay near home enjoy. Parents and other family members can add so much information, experience, and fun to mundane projects. Those of us who have chosen to move far away, well, we have it just a bit harder. Except when the dads visit.