Closed For Repair

If you've ever owned an older home - or even if you own a newer home - you've probably found that the maintenance never ends. Something breaks, something wears out, something floods or starts to sound funny .... endless possibilities, especially if your house is like ours, a 1950's era bungalow (sounds better than "ranch," doesn't it?) I'm blessed with a husband who can tackle any home improvement project, given the right power tools and a little bit of free time. The project this week is our bathroom: hang a small pendant light over the sink (we've had it for 2 years, just never put it up during the original remodeling phase); install an additional vent over the shower; and re-paint the ceiling over the shower once items 1 and 2 are done. As usual, the parts of the project that he thought would be easy are a Pain, and the vent (which he thought would be the Pain) went pretty smoothly. He's spent the past 2 days running up and down the attic stairs as he's rigged up the box for the pendant light - up and down, up and down, mumbling, swearing (just a little ...), yelling for help, then whistling to himself when it's going smoothly for a minute, then more mumbling, etc. You get the picture. But now the light is in, the vent is installed and he's sanding down the ceiling - door closed, mask on, sander humming loudly. (Cats and dogs hiding downstairs because of the noise.) Progress! I'll say it again - I'm so glad I have a husband who has the skills and is driven to do these projects. He's so good at figuring out how to do anything around the house - electrical, plumbing, painting, plastering - whatever. And because he's a bit of a perfectionist (it's OK for me to say that - we all know it by now!) the job always ends up looking wonderful. We've saved hundreds (probably thousands) of dollars over the last 6 years by not having to pay people to do these jobs. Life is good with a "can-do" hubster - all things are possible for him and his trusty DeWalt!