Steady As She Goes

One of the reasons that James was excited for us to finally move in to Southmore was the relative ease with which we could now do home repairs. He would no longer feel compelled to spend all of his after work and daylight hours over at the house by himself while I wondered when I should have supper ready for him at whatever house we were living at the time. He could patch a few boards here and there, would not need to transport tools from place to place, and could generally feel less stress than he had been feeling about the project.

Two months ago we worked hard getting ceilings ready for drywall installation.

While these benefits are generally true, I am starting to realize just how important it is to not focus on finishing projects, and to just focus on going one step at a time. We have been working diligently on patching up our walls, but some of these weeks have felt less productive and more discouraging than others.

Amazing what these white walls and ceilings do to brighten up the space and give it a more-finished feel

This past week, for instance, we both came down with a bit of a cold. The general lethargy that comes with coughs and sneezes meant that we were unable to accomplish as much as we had hoped we could.

We used long boards harvested from our ceilings to patch up the longer spaces on the walls. If we had to buy all of the shiplap that is currently in our house, we would easily spend tens of thousands of dollars. By recycling, we are able to use what we have and save money.

Still, we are fortunate that we have the resources to tackle our obstacles. A steady supply of dayquil shots and nine hours of sleep each night for almost a week gave us the burst of wellness and energy needed to make a noticeable difference in our living room. 

We have a whole room upstairs dedicated to organizing our recycled shiplap by size. This organization helps cut down on time used to patch other walls.

These pictures do a good job of making it seem like our whole house is more complete than it actually is, but it feels good to look at this one corner in this one room and feel like the rest of the house is doable.