DIY may be in my future

I’m fairly handy.  I’ve replaced quite a few doorknobs (a bevy of roommates through the years required locks to be changed after each departure).  I’ve refinished furniture.  And I’ve painted multiple rooms, including a kitchen ceiling.  (I could barely hack a mere few hours of craning backward as I painted above me.  The breathtaking masterpiece that is the Sistine Chapel ceiling is of course an incomparable achievement.  How you were able to endure four years of it is beyond me,  Michelangelo.  I guess that devotion is part of what separates geniuses from mere mortals…)   But breaking up tile, pulling out cabinets, removing a wall-length mirror, and unwiring a massive flourescent light fixture?  Those sound like pretty involved activities, and ones where I may very well do more harm than good.  And so I contacted the professionals.  I tracked them down at a home show.  I asked friends and colleagues for referals.  They came to my house one by one.  And then they sent their estimates for  materials and labor.

The ability to speak the English language pretty much left me at that point.  And the sound of the ocean’s rushing waves filled my ears.  Huh?  What?  They did not seem to understand that this was a little bitty house, and not one of the very large ones in the near vicinity.  That as much as I adore my very first house, if I spent what they were proposing, it would be my one and only house ever.  Call me a dreamer, but someday, years down the road, I may just have a hankering to live elsewhere.  And it would be delightful if that was an option at that point.

Or, very possibly, I’m the one who does not understand.  That the masterpiece they will create for me is well worth every glowing penny.  The gleaming cabinets, sparkling countertops, and twinkling lights will be a worthwhile substitute.  To ever travelling anywhere again, or to eating food other than rice and beans.  Then again, maybe not.  So, I may just have to get that toolbelt ready, pull out a sledgehammer and a power drill, and DIM (do it myself).  Or, at least some of it…