House -- Episode 1

I'm thinking I'll keep a weekly post (or "episode") going about the progress I'm making with the house. Episodes will air every Friday afternoon, unless the station manager changes the schedule.

In this week's episode:

Wendy and Ellie (whose fiance, Shannon, worked with Brian at ING) clean out Wendy's kitchen cupboards, pulling every item out (one cupboard at a time), cleaning the shelves with a bleach & water mixture, and sort through items in order to both de-clutter the house before listing it for sale and to minimize what is going to be packed up and moved to Austin. Meanwhile, Ellie's 3-year-old daughter Riley has a ball playing with cat toys and pretending -- quite convincingly -- to be a cat all day.

The next day, Wendy converts the dining room into a craiglist room by laying a sheet on the dining room table for a photo backdrop and putting all the items for sale into that room with notes about prices and names. While photographing and posting kitchen items for sale (some of which she sells during this week's episode!), she simultaneously copies her CDs to her computer so she'll have her entire music library at her fingertips in the future. She smiles a lot, thinking of Brian and his musical stylings.

Wendy gets on the computer and puts out a cry for help. Soon, the offers are rolling in and things are looking less daunting!

In response to the cry for help, Roxane (who worked with Brian at Sears) and Ellie come over to spend a morning painting walls. There are several walls needing to be completely repainted because Wendy and Brian tried doing "touch up" work with fresh paint once and it didn't look the same as the rest of the walls when it dried! Roxane arrives first; she and Wendy tape trim, remove light fixtures and outlet covers, and finally begin painting after a couple of epic battles with the paint can lids and the "miracle ladder" that adjusts for use on the stairs! Ellie arrives as the major painting work is getting underway and the three of them cover several walls (and half of Wendy's body) in no time! The ladies manage to paint a wall in the dining room, 2 walls in the hallway, 2 walls in the living room, and the entryway from the garage into the house.