House, Episode Seven

**Apologies for the delay in this broadcast. The broadcast station had internet issues.**

In this week’s episode, we take a look at a week in the life of Wendy, dating from the last episode.

Saturday – Wendy and her mom take an SUV full of stuff to Goodwill. Meanwhile, Wendy’s dad is very busy around the house. He fixes a dragging gate, installs new light fixtures and new house numbers to the exterior of the house, hangs mini blinds in the kitchen, and lays 14 bags of mulch. Wendy also paints over some spackled areas on the bedroom wall (where the old curtain rod was hung) and adds another coat of paint to a bathroom wall. Then, the family loads up another SUV full of things to bring back to Muscatine and heads to enjoy themselves at the World Food Festival, where Wendy is volunteering at an information booth set up by Animal Lifeline of Iowa. That evening, the crew heads for Letts.

Sunday – Wendy takes her SUV, loaded with totes of Brian’s clothes, to her aunt and uncle’s house. He is about Brian’s size, so will be able to use some of Brian’s things. She also goes through the sheet music Brian had kept in his guitar case before taking the guitar to his mom. This, along with seeing and holding the guitar again, makes her cry bittersweet tears. She loved his music, but the song was just too short. That afternoon, she attends her cousin Max’s football game and then heads back to Des Moines, dropping off the Christmas tree and ornaments at Brian‘s brother’s house on the way. Incidentally, he and his friends remove a non-functioning hot tub from Wendy’s house the same day.

Monday – Exhausted from the weekend, Wendy spends part of the morning reading in bed. However, much of the day is spent getting the house ready to show to the realtors she meets with that afternoon. Now that there are two fewer truckloads of stuff in the house, she is able to make every room in the house at least presentable. She meets with the realtors (a husband-wife team), signs a contract, and a “For Sale” sign goes in the yard!!!

Tuesday – Wendy attempts to stain the deck railings. First, she lays plastic down and tapes off the composite plastic floor of the deck (just the floor is plastic; the railings are wood). Then, she gets everything ready – the stain, a paintbrush, a wet rag, and a bottle of water – it is warm! She considers wearing a string bikini, but seeing as how most of her helpers are paid in pizza, which she has been eating right alongside them, she figures the neighbors would not appreciate the view. She stains most of one side, then realizes the stain isn’t really all that dark. She puts on another coat…then realizes that she was supposed to stir the stain before applying it! Honestly, she is clearly terrible at house projects. She thought stain was supposed to be a clear-ish, liquidy glaze. Surprised to find that it should look and go on more like paint, she starts over. There went almost two hours…and she doesn’t get very far before she gets rained out. Then she goes inside to work on the office. There are piles and piles of papers – stuff to sort, file, shred, etc. Amongst the papers, there is a stack of Christmas cards received in 2009, and a few other memory “triggers,” including the program to Sam & Jackie Langstaff’s funeral. This leads to a meltdown of sorts, and that’s about where Wendy calls it a day. That night, Wendy’s day turns from bad to worse when she spots a flea on Mittons.

Wednesday – Wendy takes Picaboo and Ellie to the vet for their annual visit and gets flea medication for all three girls. Ellie (the human friend) and her daughter Riley come over that morning. They vacuum and start washing cat beds and blankets the cats have been on. Wendy and Ellie also paint the ceiling in the garage and get the coat closet cleaned out and show-ready.

Thursday – Wendy, having neglected her running when she has new shoes to break in and a half-marathon around the corner, goes for an eight mile run in the morning and does resistence training in the afternoon. The rest of the day is spent on laundry, vacuuming, and shredding. Wendy attacks one room at a time, moving furniture, vaccumming the floor and all upholstered surfaces. Between each room, she goes to the office to shred more papers, stopping either when the shredder gets full or when it stops working (it is not designed to run for so many minutes straight). The vacuum attachment that she uses to do stairs and upholstery is not designed well, so it stops running several times and must be cleaned out. This sometimes entails a simple removal or untangling of hair or carpet fibers, but on a few occasions, she must bust out the tools and open the attachment head up to pull fuzzies out of many small compartments and between wheels and belts that should not have air flow (and, hence, carpet fuzzies) going there at all. Wendy is starting to wonder if ANYTHING can ever be simple and quick….alas, the entire day is spent vacuuming, doing laundry, and shredding documents.

Friday – Wendy has a doctor’s appointment in the morning, along with various other errands. Really, the only thing that happens around the house is that she buys a new kickplate for the front door (which she will install in next week’s episode). She also loads up a few more things to take “home” to Muscatine, and heads for that part of the state, where her marathon weekend (literally!) will begin.