The project fondly code named "Can of Worms"

OK, we all know that having a baby requires more than just a few articles of clothing, a crib, and a blanket. It's hard to convince guys of this, but truly there is a lot more that needs to be done when preparing for a baby. I had started my project list about 2 years ago, have since revised and prioritized, and came up with the 3 projects that I wanted completed before we had a baby.

• Closet organizer in baby room/spare bedroom
• New carpets
• Clean out/replace air ducts

So the first on the list, closet organizer. Seems simple enough, right? Clearing out the closet proved to be the equivalent of opening a time capsule circa 1982. How to talk Rick into parting with his green acid washed knee high jeans? I kid, but we did end up with some items that could be entered into the Smithsonian. One complete truckload to Goodwill later, we are rewarded with a cleared out closet. Now we have to organize the 1) office closet, 2) two hall closets, not to mention 3) the entire garage, to find room for the stuff that once fit into a one medium sized walk-in closet. We then rip out the existing rod and structure, only to find that it had been glued to the wall, which now needs to be re textured and painted. Hmm, new cedar floors in the closet too? Why not! And finally, we get to the actual closet organizer install which takes an amazing amount of consultation time between us. No wonder The Container Store makes so much money with their storage systems just by offering free design consultants.

Next we have the new carpets, 3 months into the making. For anyone who has seen the lovely sea foam green carpets in our house, you may wonder how it could possibly have taken us this long to replace the carpets. Well, they say you marry your father. In this case, I married my father and grandfather. I have been hearing that the carpet is perfectly fine, in great shape, and "Do you know how expensive this carpet is? Top of the line!" for the last 3 years. I eventually was worn down, and also sort of accepting that I didn't love the carpet once I realized the amount of damage one landscape contractor (Rick), one dog, and one cat can do to a carpet. So this project had been put on the back burner until the thought that a brand spankin' new baby would be crawling around on all the god-awfulness that is the carpet. First comment from the aforementioned landscape contractor went something like this when I told him the carpet had to go--"How do people in 3rd world countries have babies? You don't see them running around on new carpet, do you?" Um, sweetheart, do not get me started on health care and life expectancy of babies in 3rd world countries. The 3rd world country comment has been brought up a few times since, related to other "necessities" for the baby. But I digress. Back to the carpet. After a very long process of consulting on the type, color, and distributor, we finally order the carpet. The other day we received a phone call that the carpet has arrived and will be installed on blah-blah date (today). I start to realize that there is a spot in the master bedroom that slopes down....oh yeah, we should fix that. We move the furniture out of the office, only to find mildew has taken up residency behind everything. Carpet installation coming tomorrow? It's 6:00 pm the night before our 8 am appointment? No Problem, we can clean off the mildew, re texture, prime, and paint the whole office and trim. Hmm, maybe we should move the cabinet in the master bedroom nook so that they can take the old carpet from under that too--uh, oh there's water damage under this carpet...

So really, I'm wondering if I should move on to project 3, cleaning the air ducts, because Rick thought perhaps instead of having the air ducts cleaned, we should replace the whole thing and also relocate the central heating unit to another part of the house so that it's not as noisy. Do you see my hesitation here?