How do I log this?

I wear a HRM and cut that in half, typically, depending on time and intensity. In the past, I've gone off of lifting books like New Rules, which suggests you eat back 250 for an intense, 30-minute work out. Again, you're young and just must not need to count things like that. I'm getting old and fat and hungry, and like to eat back some of my workouts. I also have a pretty low calorie goal, so I like to eat back something for each exercise. I don't at all care to debate my workouts.

I do care about giving caloric credit to myself for a decent expenditure of energy. For example, like where this started, I consider the way I clean a decent expenditure of energy and think people deserve at least a little bit of a break on their calorie restriction if they've earned it.

If you're cleaning vigorously on a regular basis, I wouldn't count this as exercise since it's part of what you normally do, and your lifestyle selection (sedentary, light, etc) is already including effort like this. It would not be above and beyond your normal activity level.

If it's working for you, then great! What works for you doesn't necessarily work for other people though, so there WILL be people who disagree with you.

Sheesh. First time back in a long while and I see some are still throwing their toys out their pram! Personally, if the work is well over and above what would form part of your "normal" routine, then I would most certainly count it. If, on the other hand it formed part of your "normal" routine (say lugging 50 lbs bags of mulch) then I would NOT count it. However, someone with a normal daily active lifestyle would and should have a much higher calorie allowance to cover their basic needs. For instance, because of health issues, I am normally very sedentary, but - because I am currently on high dose steroids - I am bouncing around like a 20 year old (I'm in my 60s). So - yes - I fully intend to take exercise credit for the additional movement I am doing whilst my steroid head is on.

Clearly opinions will lean both ways on this subject...

Since you are newish I will share a general truth about MFP that most folks do tend to agree on:

The calorie estimates are often way off and normally run on the high side of what a lot of people actually think they burn.

I tend to ride two or three hours a day and it puts that down as about 2000 calories burned at my weight and pace. It's most certainly not 2000 calories burned for me so I take them with sort of a grain of salt.

Personally I don't add every little thing because I don't want to imagine I am going to lose more and then be disappointed when it doesn't happen. Some people like to imagine that a heart rate monitor will tell them how many calories they burn and that might be good for some cardio stuff but even then it's not a factual number, just an estimate based on averages of which you may or may not be a part.

There's nothing at all wrong with logging every bit of movement, just keep in mind that the numbers will often be higher than the actual number burned.

Not trying to discourage you from logging, I still put in my bike rides, but I don't eat an extra pound of bacon after the ride even though it says that would be dandy.

I have 1290 calories. On the weekends I will take 6 mile walks. I don't try to eat back my
Calories for the sake of eating them back but if I'm hungry and want a small snack that may put me over by 50-100 calories I will allow myself to have it because I know that a 6 mile walk has to atleast be over that 100.

I hope you scored some credit points with your friend for helping with that. You are a better friend than I am hahaha

Well this question spiraled off topic quickly.

Actually, compared to most.... it's stayed remarkably close to the original topic.

In my opinion I do think you should log your remodeling. The general rule I go by, is, if I did it regularly before counting calories, I'm not going to log it now. So I will not log things like washing the dishes or normal cleaning. But vigorous, sweaty remodeling really is an exercise, in my opinion. And it's not something you do daily unless it's your job so it wouldn't be something normally figured into your TDEE.

I don't care how vigorous (or how much lack of vigor there is), I log 100 calories for every 30 minutes of intentional exercise. Often, this means I am way under because a vigorous spin class for an hour logs me 200 calories, but I know I burn closer to 500 in that time. But, when I do gentle, peaceful, just-before-bed yoga, I also log 100 calories for 30 minutes.

This might not feel good to others who really care about being super accurate, but it works for me, and I know that on the whole, I am underestimating calories burned and I'm losing weight at a page that seems decent for me, and it feel sustainable.

On the other hand, I don't log activities that I don't feel are exercise (e.g. I don't log cleaning, I don't log for parking in the spot farthest away from the door so I have to walk the extra distance, or for taking the stairs at work instead of the elevator. I DO log for intense yard work - not weeding, but moving mulch, and really feeling it's an intense workout, and I log for parking over a mile away for sporting events that I attend). I'm only putting this much detail in here because I think it reflects that everyone does things a little differently - we all have our "standards" - what we feel we want to count, what we don't count - how we count it, etc.

We all just have to find the right combination that works for us (physically and mentally) and go with that. If you're not getting the results you want, you need to do it differently, but if you're getting results you're happy with, who cares?