"Let's Start Over, Honey"

Well, it's been a long time since I've posted something on my blog. I guess I'm not as much of a writer as I thought. Or perhaps I just don't have as much time as I thought I did to blog as much as I thought I wanted. Or maybe I haven't experienced anything that I think is worth sharing with anyone who cares to read this. But, alas I have something!

My son was born in June, so that makes him a little over 5 months old now. The first few weeks we were home with him I had this strange and frantic feeling that I wouldn't have anything to do staying home with him.

So, in my new mom syndrome state of mind, I decided that I was going to fix up our 1st floor half bath. I made a list: new light fixture, new faucet, paint, molding, and pretty vinyl sticky-back floor tile. I was all gung-ho, and I had decided that I was going to do it all by myself and that I would have so much time on my hands because having a new baby to take care of doesn't take up that much time at all.

And, boy, was I wrong! Just ask how long those supplies sat in our hallway outside of the bathroom! Well, my husband and I got the energy to finally do everything that I had planned. And hubby would probably emphasize that it was all my plan. So, we painted and put of the fixtures and. . .ROAD BLOCK!

Supermommy: "Hmmm, hubby, how are we going to lay down the pretty vinyl tile I bought that's been sitting in the hallway for weeks? It's going to be difficult to figure out how to make those difficult cuts for it to fit around the toilet and the door frame molding"

Hubby: "Umm, I'm not really sure, Supermommy. Surely our useful Biology and Sociology degrees can help us. I mean, isn't this why we went to college?. . ."

So, the tiles were moved to a new home in the basement to sit. . . for 5 months.

Until last weekend.

I got the gumption (I just love that word!) to get out the handy dandy pry bar and start to chip away the old nasty laminate floor. I was chipping and peeling, chipping and peeling, and then when I got to the toilet I notice some black stuff. Hmm, I thought, this looks like the stuff on Extreme Home Makeover that makes people very sick. Maybe we could apply for the show and I wouldn't have to do this darn home improvement stuff myself.

Uhh. . .maybe not.

But that black stufff looked alot like mold. So I pulled out some bleach and attacked the mold with a scrub brush and it all came out. Ah, the power of bleach. But then I realized that it has probably spread under the adjacent tiles. So there I went, chipping and peeling, chipping and peeling. . . . chipping and peeling, chipping and peeling. . .man this is hard work! Maybe I should wait for hubby to help when he gets home from work.

So, I waited until he came home. We had an intellectual conversation about what we should do. Much like the one above. . .

Supermommy: "Look, hubby, at all the hard work I've done while baby is asleep."

Hubby: "Well I guess I know what we're doing this weekend."

Supermommy: "What, praytell, do you mean my darling hubby? I've decided that we are going to finally finish this bathroom this weekend. Isn't it going to be SO MUCH FUN?"

Well we finally finished laying the tile, after spending about 14 hours chipping up the rest of the tile, removing the old toilet, making several trips to Home Depot to buy supplies including a new toilet that needed to be installed because we were having company over the following day. And after several bouts of spousal bickering and saying "let's start over, honey" we were done!

I don't know about you, but for us, home improvement sure brings out the worst in us. We end up spending a third of the time fighting about how we should do things and who does what etc. etc. It would be a perfect world if we could just call a contractor and have them do it for free.

But what's the fun in that?!

Well. . .back to my mothering duties. Until next time. . .