My new year's resolution was to get our apartment in order. The kids are getting older, their needs are changing, and their room freaks me out. Having two kids and a dog, our apartment takes on some serious wear and tear. We renovated 8 years ago, now things are falling apart around me.
Not Zac isn't Mr. Fix It, nor does he want or attempt to be. His answer is to have someone else do it. The problem is that it is easier said than done. Our job is too small for a contractor and too big for a handy man, it still has to get done.
I hit my breaking point, I want the job done. I can do this. In my grand design I have to remove the wallpaper and the chair rail from Thing 1's room. I try my hand at the chair rail, how hard can it be? The answer is a lot, my attempt results in a hole through the wall and the chair rail still in tact. I move on to the wallpaper. I start to pull it off, what's that fuzzy stuff left behind on the wall? I go to Home Depot, I look for my helpful orange apron authority. I find Mr. Nasty who informs me that they no longer carry any products related to wallpaper, seriously. This isn't the smiley faced helper that wants to make my foray into home improvement a pleasurable and problem free experience. After I recover from my defeat at the Depot, I plot on.
I go to the local paint store, they have what I need and assure me, no problem. I'm empowered, ready to tackle the task at hand. I get to work. Within 5 minutes I realize that this sucks and is so not easy. Note to self, ballet flats are definitely not the proper footwear for this activity. Well, there is no turning back, I keep on trucking. It takes me 3 hours to remove about 8 feet of wallpaper and quite a bit of the actual wall. This is definitely not part of my grand plan. The special glue remover that is supposed to make this easy breezy, is also removing the out layer of the epidermis on my hands along with some of the glue.
I am standing in my son's room looking around at the disaster that I have created. Did I just destroy the little boy's room that I spent my entire pregnancy designing? Can I actually pull this off? The kids are in for a surprise.
Turns out I am the one that is surprised. Thing 1 walks into his room and breaks down. What did I do to his room? He loved his wallpaper. He loved his disaster room. This is completely unexpected, crap. I thought he would be so excited. Now I am trying to bribe an 8 year old with my plans of grandeur. After shedding his crocodile tears of guilt, he finally concedes that he will get over it. It didn't hurt that he told Thing 2 that his room is going to be so way cooler than hers, great. Thing 2 then freaks out that I am going to ruin her room next. I must be missing something here.
To sum up my progress so far; I have unsuccessfully removed the char rail molding, removed a mere 8 feet of wallpaper, removed at least 3 layers of sheet rock, and no longer have any extra epidermis on my fingers, and destroyed my child's beloved room.
Did I mention that not only can I not turn back, but I can't move forward. Thing 2's day of destruction will have to wait until I have regenerated some skin on my fingers.
and then you can come help us do our kitchen, pleeeze.
Posted by: Boris | January 22, 2009 at 04:33 PM
Haven't you ever heard of work gloves? They'll save your hands. I guess the kids learned to douse you with guilt earlier than expected. Have no fear, they'll love the end result, whenever that may be. Your plans of granduer will succeed. I have faith in you to finish this project and it'll be incredible.
Posted by: Mom | January 18, 2009 at 10:53 AM