Retirement Changes in a Big House

In Tracy, we had a cleaning service every other week and a gardener every week.  We also had a weekly pool guy.  Those services were luxuries that we covered in our household budget as a trade off for the crazy jobs and commutes we had.  Even when I started working less than 2 miles from our house, we kept them because I knew the job with the school district was way more than a 40 hour a week job.  (WAY!).  

In our new home, we're managing to take care of things on our own so far.  I joke with myself about finding inspiration in doing simple things well - but truthfully, there is no joy or zen involved in cleaning toilets.  

J. says 'make a detailed list by room and I will follow the list'.  This sounds good in theory but...in practice, not so much.  Example:  the list for bathroom cleaning would say 'clean the toilet'.  J. will do that.  He will clean the bowl.  He won't clean the seats, under the seat, the back where the seat meats the tank, the top and sides of the tank, the toilet base.  None of that will even register as needing to be done.  He'll swish cleaner in the bowls and call it done.  

I'm thinking the idea of a list isn't really going to work unless it includes every possible item to be done with detailed precision.  And crafting that level of detail on a multi-page Excel spreadsheet with a check-list component feels exhausting. 

So I try to clean the toilets myself.  See what I mean about no joy in toilet cleaning?  

We can definitely afford to hire a cleaning lady again.  Our monthly budget is perfectly fine and we can wedge in that expense again if we'd like.  I just keep thinking we're two retired people with a lot of time on our hands so we ought to be able to do this.  

Same with the yard.  It's beautiful but I'm realizing it's also going to be super high maintenance.  Very low maintenance during Winter - so that's three months of not having to do anything at all - but when Spring comes, the next 3 seasons are going to be intense.  And that's just the general maintenance - doesn't include the vigilance required for mole prevention.  

Winter is coming and I envision lots of days holed up in our house baking bread, making soups and puttering around the house.  There should be lots of time for puttering.  

It's been in the low 20's nightly for the past few nights so we've had to turn off the drip irrigation and remove all the hoses from the hose bibs outside.  No rain means we have to water the plants at least every other day or so to ensure they head into their winter dormancy state alive.  (NOTE:  we've lost about 5 plants so far and our landscaper has already promised to replant them in the Spring.  Some of the plants he purchased just didn't survive being transplanted).  

We gauge the nightly level of freezing by the state of the water in the bird baths outside.  Frozen solid this morning but they will warm up in the sun.