After only having the signs in the yard for one day, the real estate agent said she has already gotten a call on my property.

I was pleased to hear that, but also a bit concerned at the same time. The concern came from the fact that the house, while making leaps and bounds toward improvement, still looked like a wreck inside.

Upon starting to remedy this situation, a universal truth came to mind. Cleaning up always takes longer than messing up.

I suppose that “all I lack is finishing up” thing is still in progress. There were discarded pieces of trim stacked in the living room, drywall dust on the appliances, fireplace and floor, screws and tools and nails in most every room and a general sense of messiness most everywhere. While the work is going on, I never worry too much about keeping things neat. Bent screws and nails go in the floor, along with pieces pulled out of walls, cuts off pieces of trim and, of course, drywall dust and sawdust.

In saying such, it should be apparent that any place involved in a major remodeling project is no longer a home, but a job site. Having looked about in horror for a short time after the call, I decided on a new tack. Instead of working everywhere at once, I would instead get each room presentable from the back bedroom to the front door. That way, if someone came to see the place, they would see one or two messy areas and many more clean ones. That’s much better than one clean room and the rest messy.

I also opted to focus on that which is apparent and hold those less apparent needs until last. For instance, I still needed to repair the drain in the kitchen and test the well water, but those things don’t really show to a home shopper. However, dust and dirt and boards are very difficult to overlook.

Soon I had the two bedrooms and the hallway in ship shape, but as the excess and mess were cleaned from them, it had to go somewhere. So I moved it all forward, which means to the kitchen and living room in this case.

The bathroom is all but done, with just a few spots of paint needed on the door and trim left to go. The floor was soon cleaned, but I hadn’t realized how much in need of it. By the time I was finished, it literally looked like a different floor. Just for good measure, I replaced a couple of the tiles that were damaged with new ones that I had saved under the sink. I soon gave that room my seal of approval and ceremonially shut the door.

One of my good friends and I worked on Saturday together to paint the living room and kitchen ceilings, a job that was finished late that evening. As usual, we ran out of paint and had to make a run to the hardware store.

I went over after church Sunday to finish clearing the living room and to gather up my tools and materials that no longer would be needed. I also have a fear that someone might decide they need my expensive tools more than I do, so usually I don’t leave them there for very long. I also don’t lock the door, since I don’t want anyone to feel obliged to break in. I figure they will probably not want to stay there long if they do go inside, since there is no furniture other than one plastic lawn chair that I left in the kitchen for lunchtime and occasional rest breaks.

As I carried materials from the living room, I found that I had gathered up almost an entire load of furring strips — boards about three inches wide. They had been used for trim in one bedroom and were part of the ceiling, but were not needed with the drywall.

I don’t know yet what I might do with so many of them, but I think I might be able to put them to use at home to build a nice gate. Most likely they’ll rot away in the yard.

I had brought a number of fasteners from home, including three sizes of screws, five sizes of nails, caulking and staples. Most are housed in discarded coffee cans with duct-taped labels.

I also had several gallons of paint, some full, some less than full, sitting everywhere. I counted six buckets in various levels of use sitting in the kitchen.

I save all the paint from everything I do and sometimes mix several partial gallons of the same kind together to use for new jobs. As a for-instance, I mixed up a gallon of tan from three different gallons to paint one of the bedrooms. The only problem with this method is when you need to paint over a spot. Getting an exact match is next to impossible. Luckily, I don’t plan on needing to patch up any spots since I’ve already finished what work I was going to do in the bedroom. It never ceases to amaze me when I look at the collection of materials that I end up using on a job like this one. By the time I had the living room cleared, most of the kitchen was piled high with stuff, so much so that it was impossible to finish working.

I bagged up about six different bags and boxes of stuff, including a few things left there by the last inhabitants. Since I have a serious problem with discarding anything that looks remotely useful, this was difficult for me. I have decided to harden my outlook on this job, tossing things out that I might otherwise have kept if the storage space were to be available. That’s something else I’m losing here, a storage building that I have been using for the past 12 years or so. I suppose I will need to continue reducing my inventory, but my discarded ceiling fan collection, electric heater parts ensemble and three five-gallon buckets of “I wonder what this went to” are hard to part with.

I still don’t know what to do with all of it. By the way, do you have any extra room for some good junk at your house?p

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