Classic 90s kid here checking in to see if anyone has binged Rugrats, Boy Meets World, Home Improvement, or the like lately? We have been living life in a perpetual home improvement since quarantine began. I remember looking at my husband and declaring that we have just been given the ‘gift of time’ and what a ‘blessing’ this will be that we can do these projects together!
I get why Wilson stood on the other side of the fence watching from afar all of Tim’s projects. First, these projects are far more complicated in reality than they play out in my mind. ALWAYS. Especially now that I chase around a 10-month-old between paint drying times. I recently painted my utility room. Side note: why do we call it the utility room? Let’s all call it what it is: mom’s room. Dads get the bathroom, and the deep dive on that room will be saved for another blog post. I spend so much time in our laundry/utility room that I decided to make it a sacred space for myself. Cue my order of a chandelier on Amazon #happyinhiding. I just can’t step into that space with its dark brown paneled walls and dimly lit can light anymore, and my family needs clean clothes so it had to get painted. In my mind, it was a simple prime, paint, redecorate job. In reality, it turned into two days of priming with many pauses for snacks and diaper changes. With the priming complete, I had my eye on the prize of painting.
Which brings me to my second understanding of why Wilson stood on the other side of the fence. Wilson could see the bigger picture and give his wisdom from afar. I painted the door to the sunroom and the door to my husband’s man-cave shut. You’re either laughing with me or at me at this point. I will take either because this project happened during week 1 of the quarantine, and I have yet to re-sand, re-prime, or re-paint either door. My chandelier has been shipped from Amazon so don’t doubt my priorities.
Professionally, I am a Realtor and pride myself on the helpfulness of my home improvement tips for my Sellers. My husband kindly reminded me of this after prying the doors open. This being the third reason why Wilson lived NEXT DOOR and not in the same house as the home improvement project. Wilson could comment after the error had been realized and processed. I stood in shock that my beautiful paint job on both doors had just been ripped to shreds in the name of entering and exiting; aka actually using the doors for their purpose. Great, now my sacred space isn’t perfectly painted just the way I always envisioned it. At this point, I have succumbed to the motto of “you get what you get, and you won’t throw a fit.” White walls over brown paneling is a win any day of the week.
This experience can pretty much sum up how working from home during COVID-19 is going. Everything is seemingly great and perfectly painted until one of us cracks and then it turns into hurt feelings cut just as deep as these gashes my dried paint left in the doors. More regularly it is business on top and jammies on bottom. Almost done, but not quite there.
