Mary C's Profile

I absolutely agree with treating oneself in compensation for one's own hard work, labor, stress, and worry.
I don't have a house to renovate, but I do have a small business that has been off and running since I opened fifteen months ago. It's been insanely busy (which, as I hear ten times a day, is a good thing, yes, yes), and during the busiest months, I'm at work seventy to ninety hours a week. It's difficult. I don't get to see friends much, I don't have many hours during which to make it to stores while they are open (even grocery stores!), and I buy extra pairs of underwear here and there because I don't have a spare three hours to do a load or two of laundry. Small-business-owning is not for those to want it easy!
So to compensate for the late nights and backache, I make sure to schedule a long weekend off every few months. I turn on auto-reply on the email, text all my clients who might try to contact me while I'm gone, turn off the lights, and LEAVE.
Other little things that keep me sane in the midst of it: a glass of wine after closing time, streaming It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia and back episodes of This American Life while working, and asking the boyfriend to pick me up rather than cab it home.
Things could be a lot worse than having too much incoming work. But my goal right now is fifty hours and one day off each week. I'm working my way there!

In the past eight years, living in Chicago rentals, I've never had a bathroom vent/fan, and was shocked (shocked!) when I learned a year or two ago that building codes DO require ventilation in bathrooms. But then, all my bathrooms have had good-sized windows (in the tub/shower area) that were fully usable. Perhaps some landlords can reason to themselves that any old window (or even door) can be considered "ventilation"?
Either way, I second the ideas of hanging towels to dry elsewhere on a rack, and turning on some sort of fan in the vicinity. Surely circulating air (even if it doesn't draw moisture elsewhere) is better than stagnant air?

I live directly above a residential street that has a bar a block away, and there are medium-loud radiators that I've gotten used to. Some night noise is normal and comforting to me.
But when little changes in volume perk up my ears and I'm trying to sleep, I have a little fan that makes enough noise to smooth all sounds out, and melatonin tablets that, instead of sleeping pills, leave me much more refreshed and not at all groggy in the morning.
For travel - which can be a much much bigger issue, esp. when traveling with a snoring boyfriend - I have an app on my Android phone called Lightning Bug, which has a million different sounds and volumes that you can combine or amplify to your preference. I love the "rain" sound, the "roaring fireplace" sound and sometimes the "wind-in-pine-trees" sound. Highly recommended!

princessavi: YES. Every time I have to clean the stovetop or anything else that might otherwise need scrubbing, I spray vinegar and water on it liberally and go do something else. By the time I come back (if it's not too late), I can wipe up with a minimum of scrubbing.
And it's so so nice to be able to flip a mattress - it feels like you just bought a brand-new bed! Can't wait to get rid of my crappy, unflippable pillow-top.

The Moving Day is happening in about six weeks for me -- though (what a luxury!) I've got the option of moving some things during the two weeks before that date.
Keepsakes, most books, warm-weather stuff like fans, anything that hangs on the walls gets packed up now, early March. In a couple weeks I'll start more hard-core: linens, most clothes, baking stuff. Second-to-last to go are my favorite books/authors. Last to go is always the stuff on the bedside table!
I always think of packing for travel when it comes to the intensive, final-few-days round of packing - what will I want with me when I am (literally) living out of a suitcase for a few days while things get unsettled and then re-settled? Several changes of clothes, sturdy shoes, toothpaste etc -- and bank stuff too -- anything I don't want to lose track of.

I scored a heavy cherry-wood bookcase many years ago for thirty bucks, and immediately took out the shelves and painted the back panel a bright peach. I never ever get tired of looking at it.

Ha ha this is three years old!