Houseguests

Have you had house guests who stayed three weeks? IF you did, I bet they didn't do this:

1. Organize the basement and garage
2. Overhaul two large built-in cabinets (including scraping off old wallpaper, puttying/spackling/whatever all the holes and cracks, priming, painting, cleaning hardware, etc.)
3. Remove an old TV antenna from the roof
4. Build and install a new chimney cap
5. Install a motion sensor light on the garage
6. Remove and close up the mail slot and install a new mailbox
7. Weatherstrip the back door
8. Replace a showerhead
9. Replace a bathroom fan
10. Install a towel rack
11. Install new baseboards in the kitchen (and scrap and sand off the residue from the old brown vinyl baseboard)
12. Replace the thermostat
13. Clean or replace all the switchplates
14. Correct the basement bathroom venting (this involved cutting a hole in the side of the house)
15. Seal the bottoms of two overhanging parts of the house (this involved removing the existing "sealing" of multiple empty large plastic bags that formerly held steer manure)
16. Make 5 thousand trips to various hardware stores to find all the materials to do the above (and one trip into a dumpster to retrieve some nice plywood)
17. Umpteen other pesky things you wouldn't have gotten around to for at least five years, if ever.

We had houseguests. That's what they did. Also, they did some pinch-hitting baby-sitting, played with the kids, did lots of dishes, and were generally helpful and pleasant to have around. We miss them.