I Need Another Crowbar…

It’s Wednesday and time to check in on the sewing machines and see what I’m really working on:

While this looks great, there hasn’t been any new progress over the weekend or this week. I got home from my workshop on Saturday and the urge to pick up my power tools was just overwhelming!

I believe this has something to do with my typical pendulum swing of creativity. I swing wildly in the direct of creating and quilt until I drop for a solid week and make huge amounts of progress, then when the house is so far out of whack, when the junk piling up just cannot be ignored, I swing wildly to the other side and my organization crazy comes out in full force.

So yesterday I took a crowbar and saw to a room that has been driving me insane since we moved into this house 6 years ago: the Pipe Room.

I unfortunately don’t have a “before” picture of this room, probably because it would be like taking a picture of your kitchen sink when it’s full of dirty dishes (completely illogical). This room was basically designed to house all the major pipes in my house and it’s always been three things: badly organized, dimly lit, and absolutely filthy.

A few months ago we finally broke down and had all the pipes in this room replaced from the old cast iron pipes to new PVC. This was an expensive change, but it had to happen because all our drains were continually clogging and the cast iron was beginning to leak.

Ever since, Josh and I have been planning to rip out the old, nasty shelving and install decent shelving, clean up the room, and use this space for storage of books and DVDs for the quilt shop. I decided it was high time to stop waiting and just get on with it!

So at this point we have nicely finished walls (polystyrene insulation sheathing makes for a simple, lightweight, and easy to install wall material), and a nicely covered floor (cheap carpet cut to size and finished edges with duck tape), and the shelves are ready to go up!

Not all remodels need to be expensive or perfect. This room will never be perfect because of the pipes and hot water heater, but it can still find a solid function as a better designed and organized closet.

What was the holdup with this fix? Mostly I just needed to push myself to start it, but I also needed Josh to at least be on board to see the benefit from this remodel. Yesterday the entire office was filled to the brim with all the junk tools and odds and ends that moved out of the pipe room so I could tear out the old boards. It made for a chaotic afternoon for everyone to say the least!

But I’m never one to need to wait for my husband to pick up a power drill or “do it for me.” I really can’t stand that line of thinking, mostly because I saw it play out so much between my parents growing up. When something irritates ME, I should be the one to go work on it and fix it!

Would I rather be quilting today? Absolutely. But there is a certain satisfaction in knowing I’ve made a great improvement to my home that I will enjoy using on a daily basis.

Now I’d better put down my crowbar and pick up a mallet to get these shelves together!

Let’s go build something useful,

Leah