This past weekend, my wife and I vowed that we would actually get some things done around this old house. (We didn't pinky swear, or put our hands on a Bible, but we swore.)

Over the course of the winter, we don't do much work here. But now that spring is around the corner, we started thinking about all the stuff that we had let go. This past weekend was going to be our big kickoff weekend. (We didn't actually call it that. That would be weird.)

I vowed, at a minimum, to do something about the sink in our powder room on the first floor. It's a tiny little space, really just the landing at the top of the basement stairs, and the sink in there is so small, when the kids spit after brushing their teeth in the morning, they often miss.

It's so bad, it looks like we keep pigeons in the powder room. This past fall, the ancient faucet rusted through, so it shoots water in both directions. Our kids know to be careful, but if we forget to tell guests they get squirted in the eye when they try to wash their hands.

We've tried to tackle this issue before, but the space is so small that we can't just buy a new sink off the shelf, and have to special order something. That means looking at pictures in a catalog, which leads to a lot of discussion, which ends up with us telling the plumbing guy at the home store that we'd think about it. (I know the exact pattern because we've done this 18 times so far. The plumbing guy now sighs and pulls out the sink catalog when he sees us coming.)

Together, we also were going to pick out a new color for our bedroom. I painted our bedroom twice last summer, the first time in a sickish green lime color, and the second time in a lighter yellow. The new yellow is kind of like reading in a moving car -- you won't actually throw up, but you'll feel your stomach sliding around a bit in your belly. It was so bad, I never actually finished. A year later, there are still some spots of sickish green left in one corner.

We spent most of Saturday running around on errands, so that day was shot. We spent half of Sunday wandering indecisively around our local home megastore, talking about projects we'd do this summer. We'd turn that storage room into a big walk-in closet. We'd rearrange furniture. We'd put up a fence, repair the side porch. There were tons of things we'd get done. We planned a lot, but in the end, all we did was buy a light bulb for our kitchen.

By late Sunday, I realized that another weekend had passed with lots and lots of talk, but no action, with our vow to get something done fading fast on the horizon.

I was not going down without a fight. I marched up to the storage room that would soon be a walk-in closet. Stuff was piled so high it was hard to get the door open. I stared at the mess for a moment, started to hyperventilate, and then shut the door again.

I marched downstairs to the powder room. Maybe if I removed the old sink, and our kids couldn't brush their teeth, it would force us to pick out a new sink. Luckily for everyone, I couldn't find my wrenches.

The sun was setting. Remembering my vow at the beginning of the weekend, I scanned the house for something, anything I could put down as an actual accomplishment, proof I hadn't wasted yet another weekend.

I spotted a coat hook on the hall table, and set my jaw. We have two coat hooks in the front hall, not enough for a house with five people. Months ago, I went out and bought an extra coat hook. Since then, I haven't been able to find my drill, or any screws, so it's been sitting there, mocking me, ever since.

I spent the next hour cursing and yelling, going through closets and five-gallon buckets, but I found my drill and two (mismatched) screws. When the battery died on my drill halfway through, I spent another half hour searching for the plug-in drill.

I was going to do it. As God was my witness, I was going to put up a coat hook! Just as the sun's last rays were disappearing over the hill, I stepped back and admired my newly installed coat hook. Maybe, I realized, setting small attainable goals is the way to get things done.

I plan on setting aside all next weekend to install that light bulb in the kitchen.

First Published: April 2, 2011, 4:00 a.m.