Conversations & Home Improvement in 2020

Just snippets of actual conversations that have taken place in my house recently…

Me, after finding the scale in our bedroom closet: “Hey babe, I’ve lost eight pounds!”

Husband: “That’s what happens when you don’t eat for three days.”

(I had a nasty migraine over the weekend. Literally from Friday afternoon until I woke up on Tuesday, I was sick as a dog with really evil nausea to top off the sound/light/smell sensitivities.)

Me, checking my phone: “Guess what? B’s mom got a stimulus check in the mail.”

Husband, baffled and a little horrified: “Didn’t she die last year?”

(Yep. My friend got a stimulus check for his dead mom. Apparently the IRS doesn’t want it back either, so he’s donating it to her favorite charity.)

Meanwhile, despite my migraine-induced uselessness, my husband has been a home improvement machine. He started by rebuilding the deck railings (the ones the previous owner had put in were crap), then he pressure washed and stained the entire deck. He bought a paint sprayer for the stain, and said we could use it inside the house, so I had a friend who’s a designer help me pick some paint colors and we moved everything out of the living and dining room and painted the walls. The sprayer was great, but the overspray got on the carpet, which was pretty crappy anyway as a result of having four dogs (including a puppy who is now housebroken, but wasn’t when we got her), so he decided to pull the carpet up and install laminate hardwood. That took three days, but it looks amazing now - it’s practically like having a new house! Not sure what he wants to do next, he’s been talking about building a shed in the back yard but he’s also thinking of pulling the carpet off the stairs and seeing if he could stain them. Less carpet is better, in my opinion, though I might need to get an area rug for the dining room eventually.

He’s not going back to work until the first week of June. I’m going back next week - the library is planning to open for curbside pickup only, as it would be difficult if not impossible to maintain appropriate social distancing if we let people into the building. It will be interesting working out the kinks, but I’m looking forward to the challenge. I’ll be working three days a week, maybe picking up an extra shift here and there because they’re short two people on the circulation desk (one had quit just before the lockdown, and the other is moving to tech services because that department relied heavily on volunteers and we aren’t allowed to have volunteers in the building yet).

The kids are basically done with their school year. Next week is their final week to turn in any assignments, but the last quarter is just pass/fail and they know they’re passing so there is literally no sense of urgency. I’m so, so glad they’re self-entertaining; my friends with younger kids are struggling intensely to keep them entertained, but I’m just letting mine go enjoy technology and occasionally making them read a book (the goal is one hour a day, but I don’t enforce that every day). I wish there was more for them to do. There will be no camps this summer, and I’m not even sure the community pool will get to open. Honestly, I’m just hoping that schools reopen in the fall, because my son in particular is so looking forward to high school.

But you know what? My house looks great, and I get to go back to work at least in some capacity next week. I need to start thinking positively. It’s just hard when so much is still so uncertain!