Entering the Mess - Our First Project

You're about to get a rundown of what we've been up to recently for the next few posts, so if you bore easily and don't care about our life, there are plenty of other blogs out there. You'll probably come to realize though, as we have, that our kids seem to get into unique kinds of trouble and add the spice of life (humour) to the everyday. We don't know what the words "mundane" or "normal" mean anymore. Seeing a shrink might be a good start to correct some of this...

Anyway - we have been into about the same amount of insanity as usual. I (Mark) have two classes to finish before the end of the month and one coming up in June. That sounds reasonable compared to the five courses I took in three months. Yeah, even the smart people thought I was nuts. (Notice I didn't include myself in that group...) I think I can get all of my assignments done. But in the midst of all of the homework, we started something called "renovations".

I didn't do it entirely on purpose to begin with! I just bought the flooring at a great deal in Calgary. It's like being at an auction and raising your hand just for the rush when you see something you actually want, right Dad? He goes just for the atmosphere sometimes, but a good deal never hurts. So the flooring came home, Faith's mom came over, and when I came home from class - BOOM - no carpet in the entryway. That was this fall. We figured we might as well do the hallway as well since the carpet there was less than sanitary (the stuff smelled of 10 kids, 2 parents, a cat, and a dog living in the house at the same time plus numerous people before them PLUS millions of dead crickets). Yucky!

So in a matter of a weekend, we had new floors in the entryway and the hallway. Great! However, this shining improvement had a shadow side to it. First, it was incomplete because we were one box of laminate shy of a floor. Or was that three fries short of a Happy Meal? We had Faith's parents send a box to us on the bus. Second, well, have a look for yourself.


Brand new floors make you think about your whole colour scheme. I mean, what do you (or did they) match to teal baseboards and trim? That had to change. This was greatly perturbing Faith, so we thought we should paint the entryway. Rona had a paint sale on, and since it was a decent price, we got paint for the hallway, kitchen, and living room as well! (Again, see above - sucker for a great deal when it may improve our life somewhat). See what genes you passed down to me Mom and Dad? I've been told that this is a Mennonite thing, but we aren't the only ones - I've been told the Dutch and Jews have similar general tendencies. This brings up the question whether or not this kind of thing is hereditary or learned behaviour - I guess our kids will be the test of that, and as you already know, they're as normal as we are. I haven't gone garage sale hopping with them yet, but we'll be in Calgary this summer... Okay, enough!

We are no longer disturbed by teal baseboards. The entryway actually looks nice now. Faith told me that she wanted to do it first so it would actually get done and not left behind when we made our other home improvements. What other improvements you ask? Patience, please. I think she wanted to paint here first more for the incentive every time we (or I) left the house and returned. Now we have to paint the doors. Oh, and by the way, the teal trim still exists in our entry bathroom as you can see through the open door. It's been almost a month now (I think) and the door still hasn't gone back on the bathroom. It needs to be painted too, along with all the other five doors in the entry which we thought were white but now realize have peach tones to them along with missing paint, dart holes, and other abrasions. The front door should just be replaced. Who paints the front door dark red on a white and blue trailer?



For us, it's as much about the journey as it is about the destination - with us screaming at the top of our lungs "Are we there yet?" intermittently as the wipers sweep away the rain with the top down and windows wide open. That's my deep thought for the day...

- Mark