We live in a fixer upper.

This has been true for, um, seven years now, but it seems to just finally be sinking in for me.  When Ben set up a table saw and miter saw and a big stack of lumber in one of our downstairs rooms just before Thanksgiving, I walked in the front door one day, saw it, and something in me really shifted.  It changed from, “We live in a crappily built house” to “We live in a fixer upper.”  Funny how sometimes your perspective shifts.

We’ve been fixing lots of things these past seven years we’ve been here – sealing air leaks, replacing windows, painting, taking down walls . . . You would think I might have noticed, when we started tearing down walls, that this was a fixer upper.  But this was the tipping point for me – Thanksgiving guests about to arrive, and a pile of lumber and a chop saw set up in the doorway, as my husband gallantly attempted to put down flooring in the upstairs (correct- there is no floor upstairs, only subflooring).  He did manage to finish the landing, and a beautiful job he did.

For now, it’s part of my job as the homemaker to make peace with all this fixing-up.  Winter always brings on the urge to do more fixing, since we spend much more time inside.  I (finally) put some decorations up on the walls in our sewing room/homeschool room.  So simple, and yet it made a big difference.  I reorganized, remembering that just because I did organize the craft supplies once, doesn’t mean that I never have to do it again.  This coming year, with the help of some experienced carpenters, we hope to take down more walls, change over to composting toilets, and rebuild our dangerously steep staircase.    Wish us luck.