Domestic Psychology

But they were nice

// January 25th, 2012 // No Comments » // home

Despite my obviously high expectations about what clean-up should include, I do not have any complaints about the workers that the contractor tasked with repairing our house. They sang and danced to cheesy 80′s tunes. They joked with me. They played ball with the dogs. They were extremely interested in my 18-y-o daughter.

Okay, EXCEPT for the interest in my teenager, the workers were great. They didn’t even get upset with me when the contractor scolded them for leaving the house without a single exterior light. That wasn’t their fault. The house has no porch lights, flood lights, doorbell, or house numbers because I took forever to choose the new lighting and hardware. There are sooo many different options to choose from and I struggled with finding a balance between my desire for whimsy and not wanting an accidental homage to Prince Mongo.

All of this is a roundabout way of saying that I am very thankful and slightly apologetic to the workers who are responsible for making our home sturdier, safer, and infinitely more attractive.

clean up, clean up

// January 24th, 2012 // 1 Comment » // home

Lacking experience with professionals working on the house, I don’t know what I should reasonably expect from various home repair specialists when it comes to cleaning up the mess after repairs are completed. I understand the billions of bits of broken glass in the yard. I am less understanding of the broken glass on the street in front of the house. I expected the neatly gathered pile of old light fixtures, doorbell, and other discards. I did not expect light bulbs shoved under bushes. Occasional stray nails in the yard are accidents. An entire box of spilled nails that has been lightly hidden under a pile of mulch is deliberate.

If we are ever again fortunate enough to hire help with the house, I am going to add a detailed clean-up page to the contract before we sign it.

almost completed

// January 16th, 2012 // 1 Comment » // flickr, home

Side of house before:

Side of house after:

Other side before:

Other side after:

Sorry, squirrels

// January 16th, 2012 // 1 Comment » // animals, home

Before:

Now:

Evan says:

// January 13th, 2012 // 1 Comment » // home, kid quotes

“We are never moving to Texas or anywhere. I never want to leave our house.”

Prior to this week’s construction, Evan would periodically claim that our house is “too broken.” It was. In the winter, you could stand outside and watch the heat escaping the house. Inside the house, there was a noticeable breeze from the cracked and broken windows. One window flapped open and shut every time the front door opened or closed. Duct tape covered the cracks and gaping holes. It was atrocious.

In the grand scheme of everything that is broken in our 1940s house that is bursting at the seams with twice the number of people and far more “stuff” than it was designed to hold, new roof, siding, and windows might seem like they are only the exterior repairs. They are proving to be so much more than superficial. It is repairing something deep inside of us that we didn’t know was broken.

I can’t fathom what Evan would say if we painted and repaired the Lego storage and assembly area aka Evan’s room.

More siding today

// January 12th, 2012 // No Comments » // flickr, home

Back of house before:

And after:

Side of house before:

And now:

no progress today

// January 11th, 2012 // No Comments » // home

The crew didn’t show up today. They missed four hours of bright sunshine, but they also missed a mean hail storm with excessive thunder and lightning. Tomorrow’s forecast looks equally ominous, so I don’t expect the crew to return until Friday. Unfortunately, the house is currently less prepared for bad weather than when the construction began.

Repair Progress

// January 10th, 2012 // 2 Comments » // flickr, home

First, there were a series of storms.

So, we removed the old shutters.

New windows replaced the broken, leaky windows.

New siding replaced the hail dented siding.

windows

// January 9th, 2012 // No Comments » // home

Before and after

Before and after

This story is background for another story

// January 3rd, 2012 // 1 Comment » // animals, Doug, home

The weekend before Christmas, I asked everyone to help me scrub a layer of dust and dog hair off of everything in the house. Let me be more specific. My exact words were, “I need everyone to help clean the house this weekend. We have company coming over and there is dog hair and dust everywhere.”

Apparently, what they heard was, ‘Mom wants something done around here.’ Their application of this interpretation was to spend the December weekend putting out grass seed and aerating our very large lot.

The aerating machine completely covered the yard in giant dirt plugs. The short bus dog believed those dirt plugs were snacks from the cat and spent an entire day trying to eat all the dirt plugs. I don’t know if the dog forgot that it tasted like dirt after each and every bite or if she was eternally optimistic that the next one would taste like something other than dirt. I only know that I am a sympathetic puker and the mere thought of the dog barfing up mud puddles made my stomach hurt.

A few days later, it was the evening before Doug’s parents arrived and I repeated my request for help with the cleaning. Let be more specific. I said, “Please help me scrub the floors.” I have no idea what anyone actually heard. Their response was to completely empty the bathroom contents all over the living room floor and start working on the floor trim that has been ignored since last January. They weren’t making the bathroom sink functional. They were putting a row of tile on the walls.

It’s impossible to get upset with well-intentioned efforts, but if eye-rolling created muscles, I would be able to see the craters on the moon without a telescope.