Thursday, May 10, 2012

Thankful Thursday:"The Flip Side"

My post yesterday was a somewhat veiled bitchfest about the major daily life disruption the remodeling work my husband has been doing on our house. To my chagrine, I humbly offer the flip-side today.

WELCOME TO OUR DIP!
(Dream In Progress!)
 I want to clarify how very thankful I am that my husband is not only knowledgeable enough & physically able but motivated and WILLING to dedicate himself to the massive challenging, difficult, tedious, time-consuming task of doing all of this work, basically all by himself, in addition to working 8-15 hours a day at his job which supports us (as well as enables us to purchase the supplies and items necessary for the remodel). I am so thankful for my husbands insaitable thirst to KNOW something everything. It drives him crazy when we are out driving somewhere and he sees street repairs going on and he doesn't know what they are doing/working on! This serves him well when faced with an unfamiliar home repair/remodeling task. His tenacity and drive to figure out how to do something he has no idea about or exerience with is truly a thing of wonder and awe. Seriously, I have seen him work on a perplexing problem non-stop for hours and hours and hours...and HOURS! I have never known anyone who possess such focus and determination. He just will NOT take no for an answer (or, as he says, "I will not be defeated by that wall/pipe/fixture/etc.")
He also has the ability to visualize the end result, when all I see is a huge endless chaotic mess!
He's much better at spatial relations and organization of the abstract than I am. On the other hand, he is also precise (and dare I say a perfectionist, almost to a fault!) when it comes to measuring and designing and laying things out...which both fascinates and frightens me...so many numbers and math and all of those types of concrete factual things which make my head spin and my stomach lurch. I just cannot relate. Thankfully, he can, or else our house would be like one of those carnival funhouses!
All in all, despite the mess and stress that home remodeling creates, I am more thankful than annoyed to share my life with a man who cares enough about our home and surroundings to dedicate himself to doing what it takes to make it even better and closer to what we dream of. I have lived with others who couldn't even be bothered to change a lightbulb (or didn't even know how to!) and were less able (or willing) to perform basic repairs than my dog was! There have only been a handful of things he has chosen to pay a professional to do on our house, so I am also thankful that we are saving literally thousands and thousands of dollars but still getting professional results...sometimes even better than professional results...as evidenced by all of the originally-crappily-done-by-professionals things he has fixed in our custom-built home!
So today, my grateful heart is focused on my amazing husband, who has already done almost 15 years of work on the transformation of this house into our dream home. There are a limited number of things I can actually do (physically) to assist him with all of the work that we both want done, so the biggest help I can be is to him during this huge project is by supporting him, encouraging him, believing in him and trusting him.
I have faith in his ability to do anything. And I have faith that someday soon, all of the hard work he has done will pay off with our ability to just sit in our beautiful home and relax and soak in the satisfaction of the completion of a dream come true. And really, our house is already our dream home because we live here together, secure and happy to just be together, surrounded by our love. How thankful I am for that!

Can you find "the flip side" today? A thankfulness for something which also often causes annoyance or stress?!

Happy Me-Laurie Z!




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