Been in a very “home repairs” kind of mode for the last couple of weeks: having the upstairs primed and repainted and recarpeted to get rid of a lingering cigarette smoke smell left by the townhouse’s previous tenants, brushing multiple layers of sealant into a stinky kitchen island cabinet that was previously used as a garbage receptacle, installing a standing bathroom cabinet for the half-bath (and sawing the corner trim cuts myself since very few of these cheaper bathroom space savers go flush against a wall with trim), installing and caulking bathtub splash guards, replacing an HVAC return vent grille, and getting nursery furniture for Project Wallaby, now due in just 7 weeks.

The third floor repainting was the most strenuous part, even though we hired painters to take care of it. Furniture had to be disassembled and moved into the future-nursery (already repainted back in December) and the cats were locked downstairs to keep out of the way. We lived out of the guest room (really still mostly a post-moving storage room with a bed) in the meantime. At the end of it the master bedroom looked great, with no more cigarette smell, a new light fixture replacing an old unused ceiling fan, and soft blue walls, definitely an improvement over the old default off-white.

In the process we had to clear the clothes out of our closets and dump a bunch of them on the couch, which of course became a new cat bed.

Most important is that the nursery is ready for its new resident, coming this summer.

After all this work on a relatively small 3BR/2.5BA townhouse, I don’t know how anyone handles having anything bigger.