Tracking Home Improvement

Tracking home improvement might sound dull and totally unnecessary.  But, I believe it is very useful, in many ways.

At our last house, I didn't bother to track what home improvement projects we completed. When we went to sell the house, the agent wanted us to provide prospective buyers a list of what was done and when we completed the projects.  I had to scour through notes, QuickBooks, and emails to try and put this list together. It was a pain. I am sure I missed items.

I decided that at our new house, I would definitely keep a list. I didn't want to be caught off guard again - if/when we go to sell the house.

What do I track?  Pretty much anything above and beyond normal daily house maintenance. 

For example, my list includes:

• Remodeling projects
• Painting projects
• Window replacements
• Tree removals and plantings
• Flooring replacement
• Water heater replacement
• Landscape renewal
• Ventless fireplace install
• Insulation added to attic

There are more items on my list, but this gives you the idea. 

I track the items by location, item, and year.  This allows me to be able to sort my list in various ways.  

• I can see what all has been done for a certain areas of the house.  
• I can tell what I might need to do in upcoming years. 
• For instance, if I haven't painted the hallways in a decade, it might be time to start thinking about that project and budgeting for a painter.  
• It also really helps if I have to pull paperwork for a particular item. I can see the year and this helps me narrow down my search for warranty, invoice or user guide information.

I don't track when I change light bulbs or complete other minimal tasks, but most other items...I track.  After all - I can always delete unneeded items.  It is much harder to track down information years later - than add a line item to a spreadsheet at the time I complete the project.

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Staying in Touch

Staying in touch is necessary for everyday life. For work, we need to reach out to a variety of people all day long.  For our social health, staying in touch keeps us connected to our friends and family.  To obtain goods and services, we need to communicate with others and sometimes follow-up to achieve what we need.

To be good at staying in touch, you must recognize your audience and understand their requirements to stay engaged.  As I discussed in my blog "Know Your Email Audience", there is an art to engaging others.  I use a variety of communication tools, depending on my needs and/or my audience.

• 
  Email:  I like the record that is created, using email. I like that I can search them and refer back to old emails for information. I like that I can deal with them when I have time.  I like sending pictures, smiles, memes, etc. to help keep my readers engaged. This is my preferred method and I tend to use it most often. 
• Text:  This is certainly the quicker way to stay in touch. People (myself included) tend to reply faster to a text than an email. I also have some family and friends that enjoy playing "guess what we are doing" via text. They send a picture and we all pipe in with fun replies.  It helps keep the group active and engaged.
• IM: Instant messaging or chats is also a very quick way to get in touch with someone. Like texts, most people reply to an IM or chat very quickly.  And, like texts, you can use this for groups and keep a lot of people engaged at the same time. With companies using this for their customer service issues, this is becoming a much more widely used form of communications.  
• Phone: Certainly one of the fastest ways to stay in touch, if the other person picks up your call. When you have a lot to communicate, it is much easier than typing or texting. I am not very good on the phone, but I try hard to embrace it when someone calls me or when I know I need to "use my words" to explain my thoughts or needs.
• In-person: This is certainly my favorite ways to get to carry on longer conversations, if I have time available to spend with others.  There is something very rewarding about using this more social form of being engaged.
• Letters: Yes, sometimes it is good to still write a letter. Some people are not computer literate. Some situations just require a hand written note. And, people still enjoy getting snail mail.
• Social Media Posts: Posting about your life, thoughts or links to your blogs, allows you to reach a larger audience, on a very casual level.  This method does not ensure you reach everyone, given that some people don't follow social media regularly.  But, this does allow some social interaction - sometimes with people you haven't heard from in a long time.  It can be a nice surprise to see a comment from someone you hadn't thought of in awhile.

I have some friends that generally only communicate through Facebook IM or Google Chat.  I have some that will only text with me. Some only email two or three times a week, but will pick up the phone if I need them quickly.  Some email in the morning and others email in the afternoon.  To stay connected, you have to learn how your friends, family, co-workers, etc. like to communicate. If you engage them in their favorite way, you can show them you care and want to engage with them.  This should even help strengthen your relationship with them.  It might seem like a pain to manage multiple communication platforms, but I believe staying in touch is worth the effort.  

Magic Eraser Love

If you never heard of them, or like me, you forgot about Magic Eraser sponges, I highly recommend them.  

A couple of years ago, I was talking with a friend of mine about needing to clean my vinyl outdoor fence.  I was talking about dragging out my power washer and spending all weekend trying to clean the gunk off the panels.  My friend looked at me like I was crazy and asked why I didn't just use a Magic Eraser sponge.  

HUH?  I had totally forgotten about these.  I remember the commercials from years ago. I used them off and on to clean things in my kitchen, but honestly, I hadn't bought any in years and never thought about them in regards to cleaning something outside.  

I promptly ordered a bunch of them and set to work.  They made easy work of the gunk on my fence.  I could sit on a stool, with a bucket of water and the sponges, and go to town.  I could do a little at a time without having to drag the power washer in and out.  It made the job so much easier and allowed me to work on the fence when I had even small blocks of time.

This winter, it came time to deep clean the kitchen tile floors. Usually, for this chore, I would drag out the clothes steamer and steam the tiles a few at a time, and then scrub them.  This time, I pulled out my bucket and my Magic Eraser sponges. The floor looks cleaner than it has following any of my past cleanings with the steamer.

I have used them for other smaller projects and am loving them.

Funny how sometimes you forget about something wonderful, and then a friend helps you out. I thank my friend very much for reminding me of these little miracle workers. 

Lesson Learned - Weeding

I enjoy weeding.  Yes, I realize how crazy this sounds. Trust me, I didn't always love weeding. I used to dread it. At our first house, John and I had almost no landscaping. During our time at the house, we removed most of the landscaping and let grass grow.  Neither of us enjoyed having to care for flowers, bushes or any general landscaping.  

Then, we moved into our new home.  The house had landscaping that consisted of rock areas with bushes and some flowering hostas.  It was not complicated landscaping, but it did require more work than we were used to.  We could tell that the new neighborhood was not really going to embrace the all-grass concept, so we needed to embrace doing some yard work.  

As luck would have it, we were fortunate to enjoy a trip to Japan.  During our time there, we visited a palace, where the gardeners were working meticulously on the grounds. They were pruning bushes with the smallest of shears, almost like they were pruning small bonsai trees.  They were carefully weeding the landscaping.  They were trimming the grass with shears (pictured). We even saw one man weeding the grass with what looked like chop sticks.  

We learned that they take extreme pride in ensuring the grounds look amazing. They have such reverence for the gardens and the joy they bring to everyone.  You could tell this was not a chore for them, but a dignified way for them to work. They were Zen while working and found peace in the tasks.

When I returned from this trip, I realized that I should take pride in my home and my yard. I should be honored to own a home in a good neighborhood that embraced beauty. I should find Zen in yardwork.

So, I did.  I downloaded a good book on tape and set to work. I bought a nice gardening mat at a garage sale. I got myself some good weeding gloves and set out to learn to be Zen with the weeds.  I started out small.  I worked through the rocky landscaping areas, pulling weeds, grasses and sticks.  I sat in the rocks, sometimes for hours, just enjoying my book.  When I would be done, I could marvel at how much better the area looked. It really was a Zen way to spend an afternoon.

Now, to be honest, if I am busy, I don't always take this Zen approach.  Sometimes I just spray the weeds and pick up the larger sticks. Sometimes I pay someone to clean the landscaping.  But, when I have time, I still enjoy the simplicity of sitting in the rocks and enjoying nature.