House projects

Despite being unemployed for this long, and at least thinking about every dollar that goes out (and therefore knowing that it doesn't really get replaced), I am still keeping busy by mostly planning on what I can do around the house to make it just that little bit better. Since moving in, I have put in ceiling fans, replaced almost every bulb with low-power compact fluorescents, put in a back garden, overhaul the front garden, and hang some photographs.

What I would really like to do now is to hang some fluorescent shop lights in my garage. Not only are they low-power, high-output solutions to lighting my garage, should I need to work on a car or play darts, they work really well with the aesthetic of the place. Being much more manly of a look, knowing that at a flick of a switch, suddenly the place looks like the set of some automotive entertainment program on the television. So, today after a trip to Lowes, I replaced the single bulb in the garage with a double-outlet so when I get my lights, they have something to plug into.

This on the heels of helping Joe and Terri with their painting project and heater-repair, I've proven myself to be semi-useful around household works - something I would otherwise have shied away from with all the tension of a naked cat hung above a hot radiator. No, I'm just being senselessly silly there. I'm still not the most handy person with any sort of power tool, but baby steps.

What I have found most shocking, however, is how frugal one can be while still getting things done around the house. In fact, my most expensive project so far has probably been the acquisition of photo frames and hanging materials. All in all, my back garden was $60, including the fresh dirt and plants, the front was nigh on free, and with a donation or two of fluorescent lamps for my garage, it may indeed by a $10 project. I like this. Now, of course I am still working on gaining employment and being a productive member of society again, and there are long stretches of extreme boredom and the sense that my brain is withering away into a soupy mush not worthy of "Teen Jeopardy," but the actual amount of output in the last little while hasn't been too terribly low. Now the issue is actually finding things to do around the place that may or may not actually need doing, and doing them for the sake of doing them. Might that just border on the edge of insanity. Might it just.