How to Stay Married While Remodeling

(I don't presume to be anything even close to an expert on this subject. These are just some observations I made while we remodeled our Family Room.)

1. Keep your strengths strong, accept your weaknesses and be patient with the weaknesses of others.

I have always had a pretty good head for math. I also have a talent for being able to visualize things. I can picture things in my head and be pretty close to how they will turn out.

When we started laying the wood flooring, it was hard to imaging EXACTLY how it would look but we did our best to imagine it, snapped our chalk lines and started gluing down the edge pieces. Jim was nice enough to "let" me figure out the measurements and angles. We had to let the glue set over night. Then the work began!

The two of us started gluing the boards together, making cuts at the angle and around the doors. There was a bit of a learning curve but once we both figured out each others strengths, we were on a roll.

2. Know when to ask for help.

It took us about 6 hours to get this little hall done. There were so many cuts! By the time we got into the bedroom/office we were on each others nerves just a little. Thankfully our friends, "B" and "A", came over to see the progress. "A" was kind enough to let "B" stay. She also took Austin to Tae Kwon Do and picked up the pizza I had ordered so I could stay and finish helping. What a great help that was! "B" stayed as long as he could and was an awesome helper!

It took us 15 hours, but we got all the wood flooring down before the carpet had to come the next morning.

3. Choose your battles or You don't have to get your way ALL the time.

I have written several times about how much I don't like carpet. You can go back and read about it if you'd like or you can just take my word for it. I REALLY didn't want carpet until I started figuring out how much it was going to cost to do something other than carpet. I could have begged and pleaded for something else. I do know how to get my way when I really want it. This time it wasn't as important to get my way. I wanted some new furniture and I knew the only way to get that was to save some money on flooring.

It actually turned out pretty good. The boys seemed to like the coziness of the carpet. Before I was able to get the camera, Josh was rolling back and forth on the new carpet and making "carpet angels".

4. Sometimes you have got to take the good with the bad.

We got the tape pulled up and got Kyle's room put back together. He was happy to have it back for a couple nights before he had to give it back up so Grammy could stay in it while visiting for Thanksgiving. He's a good sport for sharing. But sometimes when you have the biggest room and your own bathroom you have to give it up when visitors are in town.

5. If you hang in there, It usually turns out well in the end.

We were able to make a run it Ikea and get a little couch for the boys and their new TV area. We moved the flat screen from our room and put it in its new home. We also moved the Xbox and Wii up from the Theater. Of course, the boys love it! We still need a few other pieces of furniture to make the room cozy, but it will do until we can save up some more funds.

And now, sometime soon, we will get a new flat screen TV for our bedroom. I thought we would have some time without a TV in our room but Jim thinks we need one. So we have the old clunker 27" giant tube balancing on our dresser for now.

I am pretty happy with how it turned out. We still have a ways to go. There will be new rock around the fireplace and Jim is going to make built in bookshelves on either side of the fireplace. Eventually we want to replace the French doors. They are pretty bad! I would like a soft chair by the fire that I can sit in while I knit or read.

I imagine sitting there, knitting in front off the fire, while one of the boys plays soft music on the piano but I know, in reality, I will probably be sitting there watching them killing each other on some Xbox game, while yelling at them periodically, "Would you PLEASE turn it down!"

What was #4? Oh, yes, sometimes you have to take the good with the bad...