Returning back to the Blogosphere
Well, I'm back at work, and just in time. Boy do I need the rest. This was the week of home owner initiation by fire.
As a wonderful gift from my parents departing their landlord responsibilities with the house we live in, they bought us carpet for our living/dining room area. We picked out the carpet and they bought it back in June, but the soonest it could be installed was this week. It was a week we've been looking forward to for some time. Good-bye high traffic dirt paths and mashed dead fibers and stains that defy every attempt to remove them from our lives. Hello new beautiful.
Since we would be charged extra to have the installers remove the carpet, we decided to do that ourselves. This prompted us to lump in a goal we've had since we moved in 7+ years ago---to rent one of those big industrial construction garbage bins and do a heavy duty clean out. Get rid of all the stuff that had been left behind when we moved in, all the stuff we've been carrying around our whole married life that we don't need, and all the stuff that's built up over our stay here.
And while we were at it, I thought we might as well get to replacing the kitchen sink whose enamal had gotten a little chipped and rusty over the years, not to mention that it had a faucet that no longer could turn off completely.
I started work on Saturday, and took off the following Monday and Tuesday to prep. The weather decided to make my project a little more challenging and cooked up 104 degree temps for me to bask in as I cleaned out the garage and attic which were holding in the heat to the tune of probably 110 degrees F or better.
But I did it. I faced the challenge and emerged victorious. And I learned a few things on the way.
1. When you work in that kind of heat you need to drink a lot of water. My smart wife stayed on top of this for me, checking frequently to be sure that I was staying well hydrated. But I will tell you this, taking a drink on a day of heat like that is like pouring liquid in the bottom of a salt shaker. You no more than pour it in you than it is seeping out of you again. I kept a towl hanging from a nail in a rafter that I was constantly using to wipe my profusely sweating face.
2. Sharing your work day with 8 hours of podcasts is sugar that helps the medicine go down. Who said home improvements couldn't be geeky!
3. When planning home improvements, budget $100.00 and 8 hours more than you think you'll need. This is to allow for the zillion trips back and forth to the hardware store you'll make to get all the extra stuff you didn't know you needed and only discover as you go.
4. Plumbing is NOT plug and play. It should be, but it's not.
5. The T.V. image of the man half under the sink trying to be the do-it-yourself guy, clanging and banging and grumbling pseudo-swear words---that's all true. Completely. The iPod helps here too, so you don't have to listen to yourself being unpleasant.
6. On the last day where you are supposed to be working inside in the air conditioning, that will be the day when the cool weather moves in that you could have used 72 hours earlier.
7. Living in a house for any length of time you save up a whole lot of crap. And even though you are trying to pitch out everything in sight, you'll inevitably remember something you forgot to pitch in the bin after it's gone.
8. Getting all that junk out of your life still feels really liberating.
9. Having the kids over at Grandma's and Grandpa's while you work with your wife on the house is really a cool thing to do together. When it's just the two of you, it's almost like a date.
10. My wife get's a burning school girl crush twinkle in her eyes whenever I do home improvement work. I wish she got as jazzed when I hooked up electronics.
We had a couple little side adventures while we were doing all this too. This weekend was a scout camp for Robo that he was going to have to miss because of this huge project. Step up Grandpa the hero. Off they went and had a great time making great memories. And Robo came home with a tent that Grandpa is letting him use for scout camp-outs in future---and maybe even a few nights out with just dad or the family. Maybe.
At any rate, since all the furniture had been moved out in preparation for the carpet removal, Robo asked if he could set up the tent in the dining room area and sleep out there that night.
I couldn't think of a reason why not.
My "go ahead" caused Leemur to burst into an unrestrainable happy dance right there, akin to the moves Grandpa Joe did when Charlie found the golden ticket in the new Wonka movie. And by the time the tent was set up, the little Bear had generated so much raging internal hyperactivity that I didn't think we'd be able get him to sleep for a week. He was in the tent, he was out of the tent, he was doing laps around the tent. All of which got some protest from the other boys as they tried to set up a sleeping area.
We did finally all get to sleep that night though. Even Lemur, who moved from the tent to his bed and back a couple of times during the night, trying to decided which was worse, giving up comfort or giving up a night in the tent.
Then the next day, with the kids tucked away at Grandma's house, I spent the day cleaning out the attic and got all sweaty and unpleasant for a second day. That evening I then thought I'd just change out that sink real fast before going to bed.
Yeah, change out the sinkbefore bed---real fast no less. Right.
Around midnight when I realized that I wasn't going to get this done before sleep, even after multiple trips to the hardware store trying all kinds of solutions, I also realized that in my current condition my wife wouldn't even be able to sleep in the same room with me. I also realized that we had no way of turning on the water for even a moment with the state the sink was in.
So I did what any loving husband would do. I put on some shorts, grabbed the shampoo bottle and went out to soap off in the only place with available water-----the kid's pool in the back yard. And let me tell you, after the rain had added 3 cold inches over the last 12 hours, that was one brisk experience.
But we've gotten all projects accomplished---the carpet is in and looks wonderful (thanks Mom and Dad), and thanks to wonderful help and some improvised on the spot creative thinking from my Dad we have a sink that works and doesn't leak. We even got it all done in time for the important furniture to be moved back into place on Wednesday night---the T.V. and couch--so we didn't miss our family T.V. night watching "Lost".
So now that I've got all this work behind me---it happens.
I think there is something in males after a project that is like the hormone that is released in women after the experience of pregnancy and childbirth so they can still think, "I wonder what the next one will look like?"
I sit in my living room now, looking at my wonderful new carpet and think, "You know what we could do with those walls. . ."
Heaven help me.
As a wonderful gift from my parents departing their landlord responsibilities with the house we live in, they bought us carpet for our living/dining room area. We picked out the carpet and they bought it back in June, but the soonest it could be installed was this week. It was a week we've been looking forward to for some time. Good-bye high traffic dirt paths and mashed dead fibers and stains that defy every attempt to remove them from our lives. Hello new beautiful.
Since we would be charged extra to have the installers remove the carpet, we decided to do that ourselves. This prompted us to lump in a goal we've had since we moved in 7+ years ago---to rent one of those big industrial construction garbage bins and do a heavy duty clean out. Get rid of all the stuff that had been left behind when we moved in, all the stuff we've been carrying around our whole married life that we don't need, and all the stuff that's built up over our stay here.
And while we were at it, I thought we might as well get to replacing the kitchen sink whose enamal had gotten a little chipped and rusty over the years, not to mention that it had a faucet that no longer could turn off completely.
I started work on Saturday, and took off the following Monday and Tuesday to prep. The weather decided to make my project a little more challenging and cooked up 104 degree temps for me to bask in as I cleaned out the garage and attic which were holding in the heat to the tune of probably 110 degrees F or better.
But I did it. I faced the challenge and emerged victorious. And I learned a few things on the way.
1. When you work in that kind of heat you need to drink a lot of water. My smart wife stayed on top of this for me, checking frequently to be sure that I was staying well hydrated. But I will tell you this, taking a drink on a day of heat like that is like pouring liquid in the bottom of a salt shaker. You no more than pour it in you than it is seeping out of you again. I kept a towl hanging from a nail in a rafter that I was constantly using to wipe my profusely sweating face.
2. Sharing your work day with 8 hours of podcasts is sugar that helps the medicine go down. Who said home improvements couldn't be geeky!
3. When planning home improvements, budget $100.00 and 8 hours more than you think you'll need. This is to allow for the zillion trips back and forth to the hardware store you'll make to get all the extra stuff you didn't know you needed and only discover as you go.
4. Plumbing is NOT plug and play. It should be, but it's not.
5. The T.V. image of the man half under the sink trying to be the do-it-yourself guy, clanging and banging and grumbling pseudo-swear words---that's all true. Completely. The iPod helps here too, so you don't have to listen to yourself being unpleasant.
6. On the last day where you are supposed to be working inside in the air conditioning, that will be the day when the cool weather moves in that you could have used 72 hours earlier.
7. Living in a house for any length of time you save up a whole lot of crap. And even though you are trying to pitch out everything in sight, you'll inevitably remember something you forgot to pitch in the bin after it's gone.
8. Getting all that junk out of your life still feels really liberating.
9. Having the kids over at Grandma's and Grandpa's while you work with your wife on the house is really a cool thing to do together. When it's just the two of you, it's almost like a date.
10. My wife get's a burning school girl crush twinkle in her eyes whenever I do home improvement work. I wish she got as jazzed when I hooked up electronics.
We had a couple little side adventures while we were doing all this too. This weekend was a scout camp for Robo that he was going to have to miss because of this huge project. Step up Grandpa the hero. Off they went and had a great time making great memories. And Robo came home with a tent that Grandpa is letting him use for scout camp-outs in future---and maybe even a few nights out with just dad or the family. Maybe.
At any rate, since all the furniture had been moved out in preparation for the carpet removal, Robo asked if he could set up the tent in the dining room area and sleep out there that night.
I couldn't think of a reason why not.
My "go ahead" caused Leemur to burst into an unrestrainable happy dance right there, akin to the moves Grandpa Joe did when Charlie found the golden ticket in the new Wonka movie. And by the time the tent was set up, the little Bear had generated so much raging internal hyperactivity that I didn't think we'd be able get him to sleep for a week. He was in the tent, he was out of the tent, he was doing laps around the tent. All of which got some protest from the other boys as they tried to set up a sleeping area.
We did finally all get to sleep that night though. Even Lemur, who moved from the tent to his bed and back a couple of times during the night, trying to decided which was worse, giving up comfort or giving up a night in the tent.
Then the next day, with the kids tucked away at Grandma's house, I spent the day cleaning out the attic and got all sweaty and unpleasant for a second day. That evening I then thought I'd just change out that sink real fast before going to bed.
Yeah, change out the sinkbefore bed---real fast no less. Right.
Around midnight when I realized that I wasn't going to get this done before sleep, even after multiple trips to the hardware store trying all kinds of solutions, I also realized that in my current condition my wife wouldn't even be able to sleep in the same room with me. I also realized that we had no way of turning on the water for even a moment with the state the sink was in.
So I did what any loving husband would do. I put on some shorts, grabbed the shampoo bottle and went out to soap off in the only place with available water-----the kid's pool in the back yard. And let me tell you, after the rain had added 3 cold inches over the last 12 hours, that was one brisk experience.
But we've gotten all projects accomplished---the carpet is in and looks wonderful (thanks Mom and Dad), and thanks to wonderful help and some improvised on the spot creative thinking from my Dad we have a sink that works and doesn't leak. We even got it all done in time for the important furniture to be moved back into place on Wednesday night---the T.V. and couch--so we didn't miss our family T.V. night watching "Lost".
So now that I've got all this work behind me---it happens.
I think there is something in males after a project that is like the hormone that is released in women after the experience of pregnancy and childbirth so they can still think, "I wonder what the next one will look like?"
I sit in my living room now, looking at my wonderful new carpet and think, "You know what we could do with those walls. . ."
Heaven help me.
posted by Will at 2:50 PM
2 Comments:
What, no photos?! :) Your wife's leering looks reminded me of the "Raymond" episode where Ray buys a vacuum from some hottie who shows up on his doorstep. Later he's showing Debra how the attachment works on the drapes. As she's watching him vacuum, she says, "I have never wanted you more." :)
Sounds like it was quite the productive 'vacation' ... new rug, less stuff to weigh you down, and a boatload of little epiphanies. Welcome to the world of never-ending home improvement projects! You may want to load up on some Home Depot or Lowe's stock ...
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