Why I'm Not Home

Call me crazy. I'm not at home, I took the kids and left to my parents' for the afternoon (and evening). I think I'm a pretty reasonable person, and think I have been a very supportive wife lately. Our house is under some major construction and my darling husband has been doing most of the work himself. He's a busy guy. If you've been reading long you know he's a firefighter, which he does on top of his "real" job. So he's busy. He's also a carpenter and does residential remodeling for said "real" job. He goes into people's homes, tears out ugly and icky things, and replaces them with pretty and nice things. This is where the conflict comes in.

I'm a saver. I'll admit it. I prefer "saver" over "pack rat", because I'm not quite to pack rat level, I get in moods where more things end up in the trash, but reusing whenever possible is important to me, for budget and environmental reasons. Dh isn't a saver. He's a thrower. "What is this, I don't know, I'm just gonna throw it and pretend like I've never seen it if she asks." Part of this I think is because he's used to doing what's easier, and he doesn't foot the bill. And there's something to be said about the price of labor, it often costs more in labor to have a guy reuse a door in a new location than it does to put a brand new one in because reinstalling a used door is labor-intensive. Well, labor is free in our case, materials are what we're paying for, which really is beside the point. The only way this is relevant to why I'm not at home is because he's a carpenter and used to ripping people's houses apart and they're okay, and even excited about it.

Me... not always. I was okay with him waking me and the baby up early this morning with noise. I dealt with him ripping man-sized holes in every level of my house.

I even quietly went out to our (detached) garage and found the fan, opened up windows, and ventilated the house when we couldn't breathe from all the exhaust from the gas powered cement saw. I got a little frustrated when I was sweeping up 40 years worth of dust that fell out of the ceiling into my living room after he tore the drywall out (overhead in the picture above), but the last straw was when he started ripping the stairs off. Yes folks, ripping the stairs completely off to rebuild the stringers. With 2 small kids home. See, when you're working on someone else's house, you communicate with the homeowner on what is going on. They're given a schedule and the lead carpenter tells them what's going on. "So, Mrs. George, this week we'll be breaking holes from the house into the addition so we can get things prepped for the electricians. Oh, they'll be here next week." The problem is, Mr. George is both lead carpenter AND homeowner. This means the homeowner is fully apprised of all aspects of the project, but many of these details elude Mrs. George. Why, might you ask? Because she's busy caring for 2 small children, working part time, trying to run her own small business, and frankly just can't nurse a sleepy baby while hanging siding.

They'll supposedly be done by tonight. If I have to walk on stringers (the part that the treads sit on) to get up to my bed tonight I'll not be a happy lady. You still think I'm reasonable, right?