Being A Homeowner Is A Lot Of Work

I decided to take the day off work yesterday, extending my weekend to three days.  While most people would take this much-needed break for rest and relaxation, apparently I don't work that way.  Here's how it went:

Friday morning I got up at 7 a.m. to do my long run for the week.  I did 9 miles from my condo through Edgewood and Fort Mitchell, then hurried home to quickly shower and change.  My dad was arriving at 10 a.m. to help with some repairs around my condo. (Ah, homeownership... there's always something.)  We headed out for what would be my first Home Depot trip of the day to get a new doorknob for my front door, paint, and spackle.  My dad also decided in the midst of our shopping trip that I needed a toolbox.  I really wanted a pink one (obviously), but they didn't have pink, so I settled for this black one:

We replaced the doorknob, spackled a hole in a closet door, then dear old dad left so that I could get to work on painting my downstairs bathroom.  I was about 3/4 of the way through the bathroom project when I removed the toilet tank top to paint under it.  I set it against my stepstool, but it didn't stay there long, instead deciding to come crashing to the ground, smashing into two pieces.  "Oh snap!" I said... or something like that.  So back to Home Depot I went, carrying with me two large shards of broken porcelein.  Turns out Home Depot doesn't sell just the toilet tank top, and so, while learning something new that I never cared to know, off to a specialty plumbing store I went.  A half hour and $38 later, I had a new toilet tank cover and was back to painting.

I finished painting at 5 p.m., met Heather for dinner at 6:30, then after dinner headed down to Ludlow-Bromley Yacht Club to celebrate my friend Kimmi's birthday.  I got home at 1 a.m., then rose early again this morning to work on an art project for my newly painted bathroom:

What do you think?  I not only made the bathroom pretty, but also strategically covered some holes left by the previous owner, so I am deeming it a success. With that project done, I moved on to painting the door where my dad patched a hole.  In case you were wondering, the hole was caused a few weeks ago by my treadmill, which unlatched suddenly and fell from the folded position while I was trying to move it.  Fortunately, I got out of the way this time...the last time it hit me in the head.  Better a hole in my closet door than a hole in my head.

After a few hours of door painting and sniffing paint fumes, I was off to the Avoca trailhead of the Loveland Bike Trail to meet my brother Maury for some biking. As I've mentioned in past posts, Maury is a very accomplished biker and this was only my third time biking as an adult.  (Unless you count the drunk biking I did on Sanibel Island a few years ago...haha, fun times.)  Since Maury knows I'm a marathoner and can handle it, I think he pushes me more than he would someone else.  Today we did about 25 miles, and while in past runs he has been holding back a little on his speed, today I felt like we were flying.  (Not sure if that's true or not, he has the pedometer.)

A successful bike outing under my belt, I headed back to put another coat of paint on the door.  Two hours later I was satisfied with the paint coverage, and I'm finally done with my home improvement projects for the weekend.  My famous Cincinnati chili is in the crockpot and there's football on tv... finally time to relax!