Sad news, and a new direction

I haven't had a lot of time to update this lately. This is Primarily becuase of my father's health that started landsliding this summer, when he was diagnosed with esophogal cancer. Sadly, he didn't survive the treatment. T__T His heart was too weak for it, despite being able to walk into his appointments, and he faded within a week of starting chemotherapy. Long explanation short, his white and red blood cell counts went down to zero, and his heart stopped. Mid-sentance with a doctor, from what I understand. :( The house is very quiet without him. :( Mother and I have been picking up the pieces, though. We were able to refinance the house, so I'm now a co-owner, and the mortgage payment is something we can afford. We've already made a difference in the utilities; we no longer have a 8' flourecent light, a TV, a gaming computer, and a stereo all going at the same time almost every day, so the electricity bill has dropped almost $100. O_o The water bill has also gone down, but not nearly so dramatically; $25 is $25 though, and we'll take that. We've also started work on some long-needed house repairs, and we're going to be fine. My brother has been a big help in everything, which is greatly appreciated. Within all the busy-ness, Mother and I have switched rooms, so I am now in the upstairs bedroom (ie, the attic), and she's in my old one. The upside of this is I now have more space to be in, and should be able to get most of my belongings out of boxes. The down side is the house is more of a mess than it already was. If the cleaning progress was a staircase, with the top landing being total cleanliness and organization, we were somewhere in the middle of the stairs before Dad died. We are now somewhere around the first step, though still on the staircase. We are also still at least at the stair case, and trying to climb it. (I suppose a hoarder house would be someone who hasn't even looked at the stair case to know it's there, or if noticed, hasn't bothered trying to climb it - yet. I'm not quite certain how the anology would work there. O_o ) So, given that the house is in need or repair and general organization, I've decided to use this space to show how Mother and I are getting the house more organized and repairs done. She's already replaced the dining room chandelier with something that hasn't blown a CFL bulb yet (and I mean that literally, since the chandelier tended to melt the bases of the bulbs; seriously, it was freaky), and replaced the front exterior light that hasn't worked since I was a kid. Unfortunately, I don't have any before and after photos of those two projects, as both were done with the assistance of Aunt Sally (Mom's little sister) while I was at work. Both projects also took longer than they were anticipating, but that's besides the point. My plan is to start working on some of the repairs and organization items that we need to have done, and post before and after photos once the task is complete. This does mean that updates will be random, but that can't be helped (not to mention that I haven't been able to make updates in a timely manner, anyway). I plan to start with the kitchen and work my way out from there, but we're probably going to be skipping around a bit, given that it's getting colder out. Wish us luck! :)

Almost gone gone gone~!

I am pleased to report (and some might be pleased to hear) that the last few weeks have both been productive and very satisfying. Not that one would know it to look around the house, since laundry is piling up again, but all the same, it makes me feel quite happy to annouce - The pile of papers is all but gone! Ever since high school and college, I've had piles of mail and paper in my room. As in, covers-half-a-3x5-cart-table-two-feet-deep piles of paper. College notes, old pages from writing my book, credit card aps, 401(k) reports, mailings from my insurance company, credit card and bank statements, old paycheck stubs, receipes from friends, family, magazines and newspapers... They've all been saved for when I could get organized, and gathering dust. Since they're paper, they've also been making dust, as well. A few weeks ago, I decided, enough is enough. If I don't tackle it now, I'll be carting this stuff with me when I finally move out of my folk's home! So I did a bit of research online for what I *need* to keep, and what I can get rid of. General consensus said the following: Pay check stubs - keep for one year Credit card statements/payment printouts - keep for one month (long enough to make sure everything is square; from there, it's online anyway) Bank statements - file if desired, otherwise, same as payment printouts Instruction manuals/warranty information & receipts for similar - keep until you no longer own the product they go with So I went through the stack and basically purged everything. I borrowed my dad's shredder, and everything that I didn't need anymore, I got rid of! I had paycheck stubs dating back to 1995, for crying out loud! O_o Anything that was a payment dated last year or older went through the shredder. I also found a bunch of checking account statements that somehow didn't get sorted out when I went to find them all and re-create my long history on my old laptop; those will be punched and added to my binder. My college notes I have elected to keep, but I scanned them into my computer, just in case. I had a bunch of photo-copies for jewelry designs I was working on; those went through the shredder, since I still have the originals in a my design books. All that's left of the paper pile of doom is the few things I have left to file away, and the comic books that I need to get a box for. I recycled about 20 bags of shredded paper, counting the eight that are in the garage, to go out this week. Right now, I'm looking forward to the weather warming up to the point where we can open windows, because shredding all that paper made a heckuva lot of dust. ;P Meanwhile, I've laudry to take care of.

Some progress, and yet none

I am pleased to report that I have made some cleaning progress! First off, I have cleaned all three of my workbenched/tables down staits; I can find things again! I also rearranged how I had things set up, so I have a little bit more space at the moment. This is a good thing, as it makes it a bit easier to work down there. I have a floor in my bedroom, for all the good it does me; I have a large stack of papers to sort through, so I don't anticipate the floor remaining clean for long. I had consolidated all the stacks of papers and magazines onto the one table by my window, and it has kept Squeak from jumping up there. Then again, it's also to high for him to jump. This hasn't kept him fully out of mischief, of course, but it does help. The down side is, while I can still raise the blinds, I cannot really look out the window, and I'm sure our new neighbor doesn't like the view he/she gets (haven't met them yet). My idea of ironing 10 pieces of laundry when I get up and ten before bed has unfortunately fallen by the wayside for the time being; the ironing board being a flat surface, it has collected a pile of items on top that needs to be cleared off before any ironing can happen. Books, mostly. The iron is on there too. With the addition of a new bookshelf under the window in the living room, I hope we'll be able to get the books more contained, but everything is going slowly. In the meantime, I've decided to try making Sunday my cleaning day, for however long they decide to give me this day off. Thus far today, I have cleared off the dining room table and folded 4 baskets of laundry, swept the dining room floor, cleared off the stand-slone counter in the kitchen (which is a metal cabinet against the south wall, so cannot really be called an island), and sweep and scrubbed both the kitchen and the bathroom floors. The house is looking better, though progress is slow. Still, we're steady as she goes, and I can't really complain about that. :)