Except for a few little things like the inside of the microwave, my house is now as clean as it gets.

It only took a week.

I need new carpet, and a new kitchen floor. The carpet will probably have to wait.

I was thinking about putting in a bamboo floor in the kitchen, but I read in Consumer Reports that the edges can curl over time if they get wet. It’s the kitchen. Hmmm. I don’t really like tile – it still reminds me more of a beach restroom than an Italian villa. We currently have a kind of grey cobblestone lineoleum. It is textured and grabs grime. And it’s old. I’m not going to do the bucket-scrubbrush-on-my-knees thing anymore. After stripping and scrubbing and recoating it still looks grimy to me.

I wish that we could replace the windows. It’s a 1978-79 house, and the windows are those heavy metal things. Unfortunately, they are placed right into the frame of the house, so it is prohibitively expensive…

Also on my wish list – a bed frame with a headboard so that I can read in bed sitting up without making plaster creak behind my head. A kitchen table that wasn’t bought at a roadside stand for my single-status apartment. A new couch for the family room. If I throw away the couch (used to begin with, and more used, and more used) then all that’s left in there is my truly ancient, still perfectly good but very uncomfortable, futon.

I’d like to find and fix the leak in the hot tub.

And the water heater is leaking, so that’ll get done first.

I still have to deal with the garage, but that’s for the fall. It’s just too hot in Atlanta to try it now.

I love the house when it’s like this – I can see all the things I want to do. Paint the kitchen, for one.

What strikes me is that I now spend time actually thinking thoughts like this. I never saw it coming.