What Were We Thinking??

Most people who find themselves with a weekend with no kids would go to a movie, hang out with friends, maybe even work on a little project.
Apparently Lynn and I have some sort of deep desire to overwork ourselves. We recently finished remodeling the house I lived in before we were married. It took us over a year and a half, but we did a LOT of work. When you consider soccer games every Saturday and 3 jobs between the 2 of us...2 kids, 2 pregnancies and a new baby in the mix, I'd say we got a lot done in a very short amount of time.

I was very glad to be done with that house, and even more thrilled to hear Lynn say that the house we're living in really doesn't need that much work. Some paint. A new fence. New carpet. Maybe some cabinets. Not much at all really.
But there's something you need to know about my dear husband. He can do anything...and he's a perfectionist who's not afraid to work. That can be a bad combination. Now, you must understand, I'm not complaining. I myself do not mind work. I thrive on projects. I love to acccomplish things. I truly believe that Lynn and I were made for each other! It would be really bad if he were lazy...I know this from experience.
BUT there is no such thing as a small project in our house. One of my first impressions of Lynn was his tendency to overachieve.
We had just started dating and Bryce and Evyn were going to be at their dad's house for the weekend. So, I mentioned that I wanted to repaint the bathroom in my house. I was teaching at the time, so I got off work an hour before he did. I told him I was going to rest and he could let himself in and wake me up so we could start painting. He didn't wake me up, but the sound of walls being knocked down did! He decided that instead of just painting, we should really remodel the whole bathroom. So, that's what we did. It looked awesome when we got finished, but it was completely unplanned. And that began our journey together down the road of Nothing Minimal.
Remember a couple of paragraphs ago when I mentioned that we would have minimal work to do on this house. Yeah, right! We had planned on painting the outside of the house today after painting the hallway because the kids would be at grandma's house. Sounds easy...
We live in Lubbock, and that means high winds. So, painting outside was not an option. We have plenty we could have done after painting the hallway this morning. However, somehow, we decided to redo tile in the kitchen(which was not on our list, by the way!). That turned into, 'we might as well redo the tile in the bathrooms, too'. And of course, 'we can't leave out the entry way'.
I can't put all the blame on my dear husband! As soon as we talked about tile, I got excited. Most women would be excited to have new tile in her kitchen. But what really made my heart flip was the idea of using an air chisel. I'm not kidding! If you've never used one, you should try it. You may find you have a new hobby. Or you may just realize how weird I am...as if you didn't already know. As a matter of fact, the strangest gift Lynn has ever gotten me was a new air compressor for the purpose of using the air chisel. It's a gift I loved and appreciated, and will never forget.
In case you've never had the opportunity to use one of these fun gadgets, when you put new tile in, you have to first take old tile out. To do this, you use a really loud, strong tool that's like a tiny little jack hammer. It pounds away at the tile and grout until it all breaks up and flies everywhere. Fun! Fun!
I'm not really sure why I like it so much. Maybe because it is just difficult enough to feel like I've accomplished something. I was thinking of how much my sister likes to pick at things. How we used to get in trouble for tearing up the concrete on the back porch. To this day I enjoy peeling things that really aren't supposed to be peeled...like someone's wallpaper or the bark off of a poor defensless tree. It may be a big reason why I like it. It's like picking with lots of power! Not to mention it sounds like a motorcycle running in your house. Very loud!
Plus, you get to destroy something on purpose. Little shards of concrete fly around you at incredible speeds. Of course, it also creates a fine dust out of an entire floor. It's like someone takes that dust and throws it in the air to see where it will land. wee!
I'll tell you where it lands: the couch, the coffee maker, the counters, dishes in the cabinets, every surface in your clean, previously dust-free house. The big plastic sheet that you hang to prevent the floating dust really doesn't keep it out of the rest of the house. I had forgotten about that part when I got so excited about my tiny little power tool.
At 8 months pregnant, it's hard enough to breathe without dirt constricting every airway in your face. So, even though I made trips outside every few minutes to get fresh air, I started to feel a little light-headed. And that leaves my poor husband to finish ripping out tile, while I sit comfortably in bed, blogging away.