A Little Ingenuity Goes a Long Way.

While I suppose your lives do carry on without me rambling on about this or that, it has been a Christmas/New Years while since I posted. But just because I've been busy, doesn't mean I haven't accomplished anything. It's a brand new year! I currently have three writing projects underway (one of which is book two of the SHINE series). 
But with a new year comes resolutions. A time when one resolves to make changes. A time to step something up a notch or fix a few things that need fixin'.  And since my specialty is writing, we will discuss Home Improvement projects. Your home is your haven. It's important to feel joy and happiness when you walk through the door at the end of a long day. Therefore, I do all I can to make our home fun. What better way to do this than with home improvement projects. If you are my husband, you will refer to these projects as "What the f@!#&# did you do??" casualties. 

Despite the colorful title my husband might deem more appropriate, he is an integral part of family project time. He and I both have important roles. My husband is in charge of quality control. He is a tried and true, reliable unwilling participant. He's an invaluable part of our "domestic upgrades" team because though he never starts these projects, he often adds those special finishing touches such as tying up loose ends or redoing the whole project completely. He is very passionate and vocal about his work and does his duty with a heart full of profane song.  
I'm the creative consultant. I survey the site deemed "un-fun" by me, and do my part to "fun" it up. I visualize the fun, gather necessary supplies and man power (usually a reluctant offspring or the twin) and I begin working. 
These spectacular creations can take several hours to complete and are therefore best started in the morning with several hours of daylight to work with. Waiting for my husband to leave for work is also recommended as he does tend to get excited at the prospect of upgrading. Working in his absence also assures the element of surprise once the project is complete. This is always fun. Never eliminate the element of surprise unless it is completely unavoidable.

Now I realize that some projects take longer than initially assessed. There have been days when my husband has come home before project completion. I do my best to conceal the end result so as to maintain that ever important "surprise" element. But darned if he isn't king of quality control. He can sniff out a project that needs his special touch like a woman in a shoe store. Mr. busy (and his song-filled heart) get right to work polishin' and a shinin'...cute little man.
Some undertakings are tougher than others. Being in charge of quality control causes my husband to over analyze certain projects and he will occasionally say "it can't be done." Lucky for him, he married me. The scientific infrastructure of our world doesn't apply to me, so once the hubby has crawled out the door- his hopes dashed, believing there is no way to construct a homemade roller coaster over the top of his house, I call up the twin, and together we rebuild his hopes and dreams.
The twin is always there to help perform the undoable. Her gusto for flying in the face of "can't be done" is as vibrant as mine, and if ignoring physical reality requires two hands, I know I can count on hers. We're magicians. I once helped her force a "mathematically-won't-fit" couch down her stairs. We "believed" that couch right through that left stairwell wall. That side of the kitchen wasn't a structural necessity, and screw physics. 

            
She helped me finagle our old refrigerator out the front door, along the side of the house, into the back yard and down to the sliding glass door in the basement so we could have cold drinks and snacks in the downstairs recreation room.

Now, the hubby did come home before we were able to get it through the basement door, but the timing was perfect. We needed a strong angry man to lift that fridge over the slider track and put it in place, and he showed up just in time to be that strong angry man. I will mention his accelerated Bruce Banner rage (that stems from not being able to do more to help) usually gives him that extra kick of adrenaline he needs to get the job done right.

So as we've shown above, a home improvement project is a great way to start a new year. The possibilities are endless and lives are always enriched with the finished product. I know when my husband is frazzled from a long day's work he enjoys nothing more than a dip in a hand constructed pool or a personalized roller coaster shuttle from his car to the kitchen door. Home improvement has given him a whole new lease on life! Before meeting me, my husband was a regular guy. I would say his life could best be described by Barry Manilow- No jolts, no surprises. No crisis arises his life went along as it should. It was all very nice. But not very good. He's a different person today because of me. With my fun-filled adventures and home improvement projects he now experiences plenty of jolts. There are always surprises, and his "along as it should" life is now a completely unpredictable side show of whimsy and wonder. All from a few minor home improvements. So grab a hammer and some duct tape and get to work. Ignore the nay-sayers and make that second story a reality. And if you're married, and get stuck midway through, don't worry! A strong angry man will invariably show up and pick up where you left off, and if he's anything like my husband he'll also serenade you until the project is complete...maybe longer!-