Some Days are Diamonds...
Things are moving along right on schedule; and life has managed to flow in a somewhat normal fashion through the chaos ... 'somewhat' being the operative word here!
Anyone who knows me knows that I have routines, I have daily rituals; and I am happiest, and most productive when those things are respected; I have a shiny new 'just roll with it' practice that has been put to the test these passed three weeks - so far no casualties to speak of!
February was so calm, the planning of this renovation happened over the kitchen table, coffee and baileys as we chose the tiles and talked about having the work contracted out; we looked at my amazing Pinterest boards for inspiration and were very excited to get started ... how bad could it be, I mean people renovate two rooms at a time... right?
I'm sure they do, but I'm betting those people don't have tendencies towards OCD, and they didn't add two major school programs to their schedule in perfect alignment with said renovations.
I bet they didn't have a 12 year old grandson come stay in the 'pile' for a week; and they damn sure weren't trying to build an online community in the midst of a 4 week Nutritional Challenge? Or maybe they were and I'm just a drama queen?
For what it's worth I hate camping, ok I don't hate it ... I don't like camping in my home! The shower has been gone almost a week, I have an amazing giant copper tub that I couldn't love more ... but it isn't a shower! It doesn't matter how many times I lose myself in the delightful bubbles and aromatherapy, the minute I walk through my home I feel dirty!
Things are piled everywhere out of the two rooms being renovated into the two rooms we are currently living in, and did you know that tiles are ridiculously dusty? I mean everything is coated in dust! A cement like dust that when wiped with a wet cloth creates a glue like paste ... just sayin.
My garage was an organized disaster, to say the least, before they started, they set up shop just inside the door for mixing, cutting and storing all their stuff ... and to make matters worse as we rip things out of the house they are being added to the organized disaster in a way that is to say the least, hazardous ... a stealth ninja like warrior skill is required to make it through the garage at this point ... I don't possess those skills; but am required to make that pass three to four times a day in order to get to the barn!
Last night we attempted to re-plumb the shower; everything looked easy enough in the YouTube videos, and in fairness of the 12 joints that required soldering, we sealed 10, 2 continued to leak despite our best efforts (in plumbing anything less than 100% is a fail) - which ended at about 12:30 this morning. Everything looks better in the morning right?
Morning brought surrender, and we called the plumber to come and finish/fix what we had started! The tiler, an amazing man who happens to be a Syrian refugee, who arrived in Canada a year and a half ago with his wife and 7 children (1 on the way) arrived bright and early to get started, fortunately there was more to be done than what we hadn't finished :(
Ron left for his lunch meeting, Ahmad got to work on tiling, I cleaned the barn and waited for the plumber to arrive ... it was all good, the dogs were barricaded in the kitchen and everything was happening as it should, the end result was taking me closer to what I wanted and I was doing my best to breathe through whatever discomfort was arising from having my schedule disrupted!
At two o'clock all hell broke lose!
My phone and Ahmad's have the same ringtone, they both sounded off!
I answered my phone to a distraught daughter telling me that her car was smoking, possibly on fire and she was afraid it might blow up; I got the beep that I had an incoming call - Ron was on the other end; I frantically told him about Melissa's car, he cut me off to say the plumber had just called and was on his way and told me to have Melissa call him ... end call, told Melissa to call her dad, end call.
While I tried to mentally assess what could be causing her car to smoke, and smell like it's burning I wondered if it could actually explode? No, of course not don't be silly!
Ahmad interrupted telling me that he had to leave, he was needed at another job; he was packing up as the plumber was coming in and my phone began again, Ron and Melissa had formulated a plan and both were calling me to bring me up to speed ... actually they needed me to call CAA and arrange a tow... while I did that the trades exchanged pleasantries and continued on with their work, and somewhere in all those phone calls I hit 'ignore' on two calls from my mom.
The smoke detector sounded as the plumber soldered, I stood in the hallway fanning to try and get it stopped, as the dogs howled in chorus, and the cat ran like it was on fire through the house ... I started laughing, that silly, nervous laugh that is just purely emotion that has no explanation, I knew if I didn't laugh I was surely going to cry.
Ron arrived home to gather the CAA card, head to meet Melissa at her car to wait for the tow truck - they had decided that she would take my truck, which was fine because I really didn't want to go anywhere anyway - I have come to love being stranded in my life, At Home!
The plumber corrected and repaired, in under 5 minutes what we had spent just shy of 5 hours doing last night; funny but not funny, and if I wasn't so tired, and feeling so incredibly grungy, I might have seen the humour in it all.
The house emptied for what felt like the first time in weeks, I was alone with the dogs, who I promptly released from barricade, which made them really happy, and I laughed again; I should be more like the dogs is what was running though my head - they just roll with it and when they hit a spot that suits them they get excited and celebrate with happy dances, simple and effective!
I didn't celebrate, or happy dance though, I got out the vacuum and started cleaning today's pile ... every night I vacuum and wash floors like a crazy person, because I hate camping and right now my house feels like a camp site! I'm not complaining, I am laughing - which totally flies in the face of how I might have handled this day 5 years ago ... I have grown, I know all of my 'quirks' and I know how to handle them; they don't go away but they are sitting in the back seat these days ... I'm in charge and I choose laughter in the face of overwhelm!
Everything is figureoutable; the mantra of the B-School class has found its way into practice in my life!
The clean up is done, dinner was amazing, I enjoyed a few breath breaks, expressions of emotion, stealth ninja training on my way to bring the horses in and a deep red glass of chocolate shiraz as I call my mom back and recounted my day to her... and we laugh, because everything is figureoutable, tomorrow is another day closer to my goals, and there is always, always, always something to be grateful for!
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