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"The weekend after Peter moved out was my first official &amp;quot;kid-free&amp;quot; weekend. That first night, I walked around the house (which was uncomfortably quiet), cleaning, picking up, and just keeping busy. I slept that night in my daughter&amp;#039;s bed, clutching my son&amp;#039;s favorite stuffed kitty that was somehow left behind, and I managed not to cry much. The next morning, I realized I had the whole day ahead of me to do whatever I wanted to do. Wow! A whole day to do anything I felt like doing, whenever I wanted to do it, with no one to answer to but me. It was strangely exhilarating. I decided I wanted to paint. My house was badly in need of interior paint. The walls hadn&amp;#039;t been painted in five or six years. Time and two small kids made those walls look pretty grimy and tired. I figured I&amp;#039;d start small, so I overhauled the powder room, changing the mirror, adding some curios to a cabinet, some artwork on the wall, and fresh paint all over. I think the whole makeover was $40 with the cost of the paint, and when I put the last finishing touch on, I felt great! My powder room looked just like I wanted it to, and it was all new and all mine.  Every kid-free weekend since then has heralded some kind of remodel. I&amp;#039;ve painted most of the interior of the house, planted new flowers, torn out the garden and moved it, recycling the paving stones around it to frame out my mulch beds, and I have dozens more projects lined up depending on the weather. The house is looking very different, and it&amp;#039;s been incredibly cathartic. Like I&amp;#039;m exorcising bad spirits or something.  What projects do you throw yourself into, to forget the world for awhile? I never though home ownership could be so exhausting and rewarding at the same time. I even like mowing the lawn. Maybe the charm of all this work will wear off eventually, but for right now, it&amp;#039;s just what the doctor ordered. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.womansday.com/relationships/dating-marriage/a44819/making-it-mine-2411/>