Well, the wonderful month of July is over, and with it goes my challenge of completing several projects that have been left undone for a long time. I'm sure you're wondering how I did and just how fantastic my house looks now. In self defense...
Ok, I already told you I wasn't home much in July because I was on vacation for 9 days. Add into that the days I worked or was at the cottage, it didn't give me many days. Add on top of that the fact that I was trying to get my upstairs apartment rented out, which required several projects as well that were not on the list, and you have (you guessed it) not many things crossed off my list. Here is what my list looked like at the beginning of July:
1. Finish touch-ups in my upstairs apartment so it's ready to rent (I'm 90% completed with this goal already)
2. Attach the screen to the south side of my porch that was removed 2 years ago
3. Repaint my front porch, hopefully with a paint that lasts longer than the Dutch Boy Porch Paint I used last time, only 2 summers ago
4. Touch up paint in my bedroom, living room and dining room
5. Hang my Gone with the Wind puzzle/movie posters/pictures on the walls in my spare bedroom
6. Vacuum my basement, including the million spider webs
7. Fix the pulley ropes that snapped in 2 of my windows, leaving them unopenable
8. Screw mesh over the holes the starlings made in my roof so they can't get in to build a nest in my attic again next spring
9. Clean out my gutter that caused the basement to flood 3 times in a week
Holy. Cow. I hadn't looked at this list in a long time, and it sickens me to realize I did ONLY ONE THING ON THIS LIST! This is the worst challenge I've done so far. I am a complete and utter failure. Boo hoo. I completely repainted 2 rooms in the upstairs apartment (including ceilings) and repainted the cabinet under the kitchen sink up there. All my hard work did lead to getting a tenant, so now I have reestablished the flow of income and I'm living high on the hog again (not quite, but it's nice to dream). I TRIED to reattach the grid to the bottom of my porch last night but didn't have the appropriate tools and I got frustrated, so I just quit. That is the summary of the projects I completed this month, and this concludes my presentation *head hung low*
That's enough dwelling on the failures of last month. Let's move on to this month. As some of you saw on Facebook, my friend Noli correctly predicted this month's challenge would be to, in her words, "ride a bajillion miles" on my bike. I had initially wanted to log 1,000 miles in a month. I got zero support on this goal. Everyone told me I was crazy, stupid and setting myself up for failure. Fine, I retuned my goal to 500 miles. That breaks down to about 16 miles a day, which is reasonable. So I set out on my bike this morning for a leisurely 16 mile ride. The ride sucked. I did well for about 8 miles and then I hit the wall, and by the end of the ride I had revised my goal to 250 miles for the month. I think it was the humidity, the GIANT hill I climbed on my bike and my under-inflated bike tires that conspired against me. Also, I think my blood sugar was low cause I just about passed out a couple times despite drinking plenty of water. I'm going to have to carry a snack with me from now on. So the goal is now 250 miles, and I've decided for every 25 additional miles above and beyond 250 that I do I am going to buy myself something really nice that I've wanted for a long time but have never spent the money on, like a comfortable lawn chair, a Wii, a new computer, a road bike, a DVR, or something along those lines. You notice most of those are fairly expensive. That's how confident I am that I won't exceed my goal! I think once I hit 250 I'll be DONE! I've created a little chart for myself to keep track of my miles, and I'll keep y'all up to date. This also means I am looking for biking partners so let me know if you want to go for a ride!
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