We’re adding an addition onto our house and we’re doing the finish out (i.e. everything after the drywall) ourselves. Scott’s currently working on the staircase, building the railing, making the treads, etc, and I’m tiling the bathroom. We’ve been working on the addition for about a year and nine months, and living in it for a year of that (or it will be a year next week). Scott’s a real trooper about working; I must admit I’m less enthusiastic. Now that it’s summer vacation, though I’m trying to be more helpful. Hence, I’m tiling the bathroom. My in-laws, who LOVE house renovation so much that they own several rental houses so they can spend their lives knee deep in sawdust, seemed very pleased with my tiling. I love them dearly, but I think they’re crazy.

There are several things I have learned from this experience.

1. Painting the exterior of an all wooden house is approximately as painful as paying for a college education. Is it then coincidence that the likely next time the house will need painting is about when our not-yet-conceived children will be wanting to attend college? I think not.
2. If painting an interior wall is excrutiatingly painful, you’re painting it the wrong color. Stop, get your color chips, and refigure before you waste more time.
3. Avoid your husband when he thinks he’s made a mistake that costs money. It doesn’t matter if it’s $500 or $0.05. Your marriage will be better for an hour long wide berth.
4. If somebody says it’ll take four months, they mean something closer to four years.
5. Sawdust does come out of carpet, but if you vacuum it up every time you see it, you will spend your life with a nozzle attached to your hand and mental cats. Just deal.
6. Cement does come off your kneecaps. With enough scrubbing.