My husband and I (mostly my husband's) latest home pandemic project is demolishing and replacing our kitchen floor and adding radiant floor heating, and getting rid of our wall radiators. Yesterday, he needed assistance with some screws. He was in the crawl space directly beneath me; he would drill up and I would mark where the drill bit came through. He also needed me to remove hundreds of screws from the subfloor, while he installed metal plates underneath me to run the new floor heating.
It felt great to be doing manual labor and to be working together with my husband to get something very tangible accomplished. It was also delightful to see our cat Sanders follow the sound of drill coming from beneath the floor, and then watch Fela follow him. It was like a cute game of follow the leader. The cats seriously had no idea what was going on, and I'm sure they thought there were mice in the floor. Sanders is definitely the more curious one, always exploring whatever new thing is happening, like jumping onto the cabinet that we moved that no longer had a counter top on it (surprise!), exploring under the sink when the cabinets were gone where I'm sure there were like a million new smells, getting into the drawers we removed, etc etc. I enjoy watching him learn, experiment, and exercise his curiosity, almost like a child would.
I am also very much looking forward to the completion of this project, which will result in a gorgeous brand new dark gray floor (as opposed to an old, beat up, scuffed and damaged white linoleum floor) that is heated! The project might also result in some new cabinets, because as we demo the floor, we are moving the cabinets around and seeing just how terrible their condition is, so I might end up getting a whole new kitchen out of this. I delight in owning a home and making it our own, whether it be with funky colors or functional cabinetry. I also delight in my husband knowing how (or learning how via youtube or advice from his family) to do all of this construction work. When I was a kid, my dad built exactly two things my entire life: a deck around our pool and a white picket fence around our yard. That was it for construction work, and I was not invited to participate or to learn in any way. Meanwhile, my husband's dad built their entire house and continued to renovate and to work on it throughout his life, and he taught my husband while he worked. I am immensely grateful that he experienced such a fruitful upbringing that is now benefitting our life together. He really is quite amazing and I thank the universe everyday that we found each other.
With delight,
♥Jamie
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