My Remodeling Blinders

I have come to realize something through the process of remodeling our home. Well, I have come to realize and learn LOTS of things but one thing in particular is really amusing to me. The longer I live with something unfinished, the more normal it becomes. I just stop noticing things that horrify other people.

We’ve been through the what’s-wrong-with-having-a-blue-tarp-as-our-kitchen-wall? phase. We’ve been through the who-needs-a/c-in-the-south-in-the-summer? phase. And many other uncomfortable and atrocious things that make other people look at us like we have 5 heads each. And there is still stuff that is less than desirable if I really look around. It mostly becomes a concern when we’re about to have people over. I start thinking “oh my gosh, do you think they’ll notice that the bathroom doesn’t have a door?” That one has been taken care of but that is a true story. Well, no…an embellished story. It had a door. A glass one. Not the frosted kind. We avoided any awkwardness by using a sticky note leading to the bathroom door that said “occupied” when someone was in there. It worked well.

I have learned through this process not to take things for granted around my home. First, it was stuff like bedrooms – our beds were in the living room for a while – and as the bigger stuff got done, it became trim and baseboards. I really never knew how much I’d appreciate a few pieces of trim around a few windows until I lived without it for so long. And I didn’t realize how much I’d appreciate hot water, a dishwasher, and a bedroom of my own until I didn’t have any of those things for a while.

And because the house has come so far at this point, it’s hard for me to remember when others see it today, they still see exposed doors with no trim, lots of places that need paint and eeek we won’t even talk about the outside. So I find myself having a friend or family member over and having to restrain myself from beaming and being giddy that, say, we have a bathroom door now. “Hey, check out this door! It’s solid and has hinges and opens and closes!”

Blinders. Blissfully content with just having a home. A work in progress. So it has it’s imperfections, it’s flaws, and it’s got a ways to go before things aren’t so scary to others when they come over anymore. But it’s a great way to find out that my friends love me for me and not just my bathroom door. And really, how cool is that?