Pretending Not to Be Here
January 10, 2010 | "project!",Mr. Squirrel,the homestead
How much longer can I sit here at the computer after the kids have gone to bed until my husband comes upstairs from working on our basement remodel asking for help? I should go down there and help him, right? I mean, it’s a remodel on our house. For our kids. And our sanity. Clear out the toys, organize them in the basement, and have more (safe) room to run around and destroy.
I should be down there. I just hhhaaaaaattteee home improvement projects.
It just reminds me of when we bought the house over 7 years ago and had all this energy, two incomes, no kids and bucketloads of free time that we spent peeling wallpaper, scraping wallpaper glue, patching over holes made while scraping wallpaper and eventually, fighting over wall colors. Decisions, decisions, decisions: I hate making them. And fixing up your house? It’s full of decisions and back breaking work that is NOT FUN even though it looks like it on HGTV and TLC (when they used to show many more home improvement shows).
Several times I remember returning to our “new” house thinking how much I hated it. How much I didn’t want to return to it, because once inside, we’d have to return to scraping, painting, cleaning, clearing or (the WORST), drywalling.
The basement remodel currently underway? It was slated to be finished in October.
Of 2008.
Yes.
So. A little bitterness.
I cannot telllll you how many times we’ve had the following frustration conversation:
Me: We should/could look into having an electrician/plumber/contractor/fill-in-the-professional come out and finish out this project/portion of the project.
Husband: Nah, why should we spend the money when I can do it myself?
Me: When?
Husband: After the kids go to bed. I can also do it this weekend.
Yeah. Think of all the money we could have saved on therapy co-pays if you would have just called that electrician in to whip out some wiring?
And let me tell you something else about my husband: he does not think my eye-rolling is as charming and adorable as you would think.
What’s on the menu tonight? What am I trying so hard to avoid? Insulation. Rolllls of scratchy pink fluff that I need to roll out, measure, cut and hand off to the husband. I should be down there. I’ve done it before. It would really move the project along. I should quit being a douche and get downstairs.
Maybe if we get the insulation up, get the insulation inspector (more money spent — weeeee!) in here early next week, I can convince Mr. Squirrel to hire a drywaller, because seriously. Is there anything worse than sanding drywall seams? Tell me. No. You can’t. Because there isn’t.
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January 10th, 2010 at 8:47 pm, Jana Says:
Ugh. Sometimes I get a wild hair to redo a room, and halfway into it, I want to just throw the wet paintbrush right down onto the floor, close the door, and walk away. And that is just one room. I can’t even begin to feel the pain of remodeling an entire basement. Have you ever tried to estimate how much it would cost to have the whole thing done professionally. When I do that, I either decide that I can totally do it myself, or that my family really, really loves eating beans.
(Notice I say “I” when talking about home improvement projects? Yeah, if it were all up to the Mr., we’d still have white walls and an antique fireplace insert adorning our living room.)
January 10th, 2010 at 9:10 pm, Operation Pink Herring Says:
Omg, don’t do the drywall yourselves. We made that mistake 4 years ago when a pipe fromn the upstairs bathroom leaked all over the downstairs wall and we had to replace a piece of the drywall. “It’s just a small bit! We can totally replace it ourselves!” HAHHAHAHAHHAHAHAOMGTHREEMONTHSLATER we still had a dresser blocking the hole so that the cat couldn’t squeeze through and romp in the insulation under the floor (again). When we finally, FINALLY got around to patching it, it came out totally uneven. Every time I walk by I curse our money-saving, non-contractor-hiring ways.
January 10th, 2010 at 10:22 pm, velocibadgergirl Says:
Ohhhh, how I hate that pink insulation. I get itchy just looking at it
We’ve lived in our house since February 2008 and until last month we had not bothered to strip and paint a single room, even though the whole house has granny wallpaper.
I’m really glad we fixed up the baby’s room, but I now have ridiculous respect for people who have done whole houses. Because, yeah…it’ll be a while before we do that again, mostly because it makes my husband bitch and bitch and bitch.
So, good luck with that basement project, dude…I will send you sanity-saving vibes!
January 11th, 2010 at 8:36 am, Stephanie Says:
I think sanding drywall seams matches right up with tearing out tile. Not that I did that for New Years Eve or anything. But after it is done I always think, why did we wait so long to do this? Oh, right. Money.
January 11th, 2010 at 11:39 am, Isabel Says:
Wait, did I write this post? Because I could have!
January 11th, 2010 at 11:44 am, Jen R. Says:
Holy sh!t, has it really been 7 years??!!?
January 11th, 2010 at 4:02 pm, Eris Says:
When I was 11 my parents bought the fixer upper house of doom. My mom is also manic so periodically I’d come home to half painted walls and insane projects everywhere. To this day I twitch in horror if painting/sanding/wallpapering ANYTHING at all related to home “improvement” is mentioned because of years of being a child slave to renovations. I HATE HATE HATE picking out paint colors. I so, so, so feel your pain. Now, that being said yes your probably should suck it up and get downstairs and help the man because the longer it gets dragged out the more the resentment builds and you don’t want to find yourself hanging drywall just to hide the body, do you?