There a few things that get me so excited I actually shake with glee. One of those things is tackling home improvement projects.
If my dad is reading this, he is shaking his head in disbelief. When I was younger he had to drag me kicking-and-screaming into a home improvement project. I guess I did not appreciate the knowledge I was gaining, I just felt that I was free labor.
I also understood that anytime he needed anything at a home improvement store, I had to go a long. The fact that I was a teenage girl in a store teaming with teenage boys looking to "help" someone, did not go unnoticed by my dad. If he needed to ask a question or needed something loaded into the truck, he would disappear around the corner. Seconds later, a young, helpful man would come running around the corner to assist me in my woes of home improvement. Later with the questions answered or materials loaded into the truck, we would drive back to my manual labor, no fun on the weekend, bonding experience with my dad.
I learned how to install ceiling fans, sprinkler systems, decks, wood flooring, tile and several other things that I can't think off of the top of my head. Some of you are thinking, "Wow! What an opportunity to learn things from your dad, I never had that chance." Yes, you would be right, I had a wonderful opportunity, however I was a teenager and did not understand that at the time. I was also an only child, so it didn't matter that I was his daughter or whether I was capable or not, I was simply there when tasks were needed.
With all this being said, now that I own my own home, I look forward to everything on our to-do list with so much excitement that I think it scares my husband. Maybe, even terrifies him.
Before we owned our own home, we fought over who got to put things together from places like IKEA. We would even go through the effort to make sure something was delivered when the other person wasn't home. Sad, I know.
Lately, with home ownership I have slowly been carving away at my husband's do-it-yourself insecurities. He helped install a new toilet for the kid's bathroom with hesitation, however, by the end he started looking around the house for new stuff to do. It was a proud moment in my life!
Moving ahead, we had Home Depot measure our entire house for flooring installation. I never planned on Home Depot doing all the installation, however I later realized this was exactly what MD had in mind. His do-it-yourself fears came flooding back due to his inexperience. I, on the other hand, had this wealth of knowledge, the right attitude and tons of YouTube videos at my fingertips...I was READY!
I started looking over Home Depot's estimates and doing a cost analysis of materials and labor that we could save if we did it ourselves. MD just wasn't buying this. After about a couple of weeks of begging and pleading, he changed his mind for some reason. I'm not sure if it was the constant ideas being thrown at him, the YouTube videos I made him watch ("see honey we can really do this, that guy with a mullet did it!"), or the professional massage package I told him he could have after we completed the project (no, I didn't really, but it makes the story better), but he hesitantly agreed to unleash me.
Now that I have been unleashed I kind of feel like that dog who is made to sit and watch their toy be thrown far away. They just sit their shaking and drooling, until they are told to go get it. I've been unleashed but I'm still waiting to go get my toys at the store and start. Maybe another week....
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