Knocking Down Some Walls

Home improvement. Love it, hate it, but when you own a home, it has to get done. After ten years of living in our home, we're finally tackling some long overdue projects. In many ways, home improvement is a lot like my One Dream a Month project. They both represent taking ideas and making them into reality.

Take our bathroom, for example. And no, I won't launch into my Rodney Dangerfield impression. I've written about our second bathroom in my other blog and it having been awarded the "Ugliest Bathroom in Boulder County." This is not the bathroom I'd like you to take. The one I'm writing about is the one our family of five uses and one that has a bathtub, but no shower. Three young girls, one mother and no shower. 

But this weekend that all began to change. I came home from yoga Sunday morning to be greeted by my husband who was covered head to foot in dust and carrying out large pieces of plaster. I ran inside and threw open the bathroom door. 

Eureka. The walls had come tumbling down. 

As with our dreams, home improvement carries so much expectation and can fall in one of two categories. Domestic bliss or disaster. Money well spent and value added to your home, or dollars flushed down the toilet with no way to recoup the loss. It's the same thing with taking the leap into turning dreams into action. What happens if I spend this entire month, or the next year, on my current dream, only to find out that it isn't as solid as I thought? But what happens if I plan it out just right and that feeling that's been with me all month long only gets stronger? 

I stood in the bathroom and looked at the bare walls. And I thought, what the heck took us so long? Fear. Fear of the unknown had both of us imagining all sorts of horrors living behind the plastic tile and plaster. Spiders, rodents, mold, mummies, unsolved murders. 

What did I see? Clean, dry walls that were well made. I got to see where one of the septic pipes lived, as well as just how little space exists between the bathtub and the hallway. My husband and I laughed at how beautiful the bare walls looked and how maybe we'd just cover them with Plexiglass so we can continue to enjoy what we'd been so afraid of. 

I've a rough plan for our bathroom, which materials to use and how much time it might take. We're entering into new territory with this one - plumbing and I'm going to learn how to sweat some pipes and install the large  head water conserving shower we've been waiting so long for. I'm going to learn how to install hardy back drywall and brush up my nail gun skills for the bead board. 

The dream of this bathroom is a simple one, but it is one that has been waiting under the surface for a long time. 

The dream of my March One Dream a Month is not so simple, and it has also been waiting under the surface. 

The last 16 days have been about breathing the first sparks of life into the dream, but I've still been standing in front of the walls, more than slightly afraid of what I'd find behind this particular dream's walls. 

I might find mold, mummies or other creepy and crawly things. I might find the same dry and waiting surface, ready for me to transform. 

I won't know until I start. Tomorrow, I'm buying a hard hat and new work gloves. Time to knock down some walls.