A Perpetual State of Construction

My husband is a big DIY guy, and he's quite good at it.  He has almost every tool imaginable, useful for building or fixing anything, from cabinets to cars.

He enjoys looking at what's around him, and seeing how he can make it better or more efficient.  Therefore, he always has multiple projects going on.  I joke that we have lived in a perpetual state of construction for 32 years.

We lived in our first house for 22 years.  I thought we'd likely live there forever, until one day when my husband asked, "Do you think that we might move someday, or do you think we'll be here forever?  Because if you think we'll be here forever, I'd like to build us a master suite (we didn't have one).  But if you think we might move someday, I'll just finish all my projects I've got going on."

Well, all I had to hear was, "I'll finish all my projects."  I responded, "Oh, I'm not wedded to this house!  Who knows?  The perfect house for us might be out there right now, for sale, and we just don't know it."

So for fun, I pulled up realtor.com.  I figured I'd look at a house with an extra bedroom (so the boys wouldn't have to share anymore) and a little more land.  Lo and behold, the first house that popped up was right next door to my daughter's middle school and a mile from the boys' high school.  It even had a screened-in back porch and a third bay in the garage, perfect for fixing cars.  Plus, the price was a good $100,000 less than homes of a similar size in that area.

The house had been built in 1989 as a spec home, and it didn't look like there had been too many updates since then:  green striped wallpaper in the entrance hall, a parquet floor in an alternating "checkerboard" pattern in a very large room, the original kitchen cabinets with uppers over a peninsula, etc.

I'm sure many people would have looked at those pictures and said, "Um, no thanks... too much work to update."  But my husband saw them and exclaimed, "Look at this house!  It has everything we want, but I can just make it BETTER!"

I saw another long stretch of "perpetual construction" stretched out before my eyes.  However, after 22 years I was quite used to it, and for me, the location of this house alone was worth the price.

My husband finished all the projects he had in the old house, including a built-in bookcase that we never got to use.  I told him the one stipulation I had for this new house is that he has to finish a project before beginning a new one.  I want to be able to enjoy the fruits of his labor; not have him complete it for someone else.  He's done quite well with that, for the most part.  Our latest home improvement project is adding a front porch.  The process has taken a little longer than we thought, mainly due to a rainy summer 2022 and adult children (our helpers) moving away in 2023.  We hope we will be able to finish by the end of this summer, and then we'll move on to the next project... probably re-siding the house.

Isn't that kind of how life is?  I don't know if I've ever felt "done."  As I age (just like my house), I find my body and mind need constant attention and improvement.  I've created new habits (or revived old ones) to relax my mind, stimulate my intellect, and improve my physical health.  

My latest plan is to run the 2024 Steamtown Marathon in Scranton, PA.  I registered this morning.  The training process will be long and there will likely be a few unexpected bumps or delays along the way, just like with the front porch.

Our house may never look completely finished, since we'll probably always be improving something, and I suppose I will always have new personal goals for the rest of my life.  Yet, a perpetual state of construction doesn't have to be a frustrating thing.  The key is to enjoy the process, whether it's self- or home improvement.  I look at the positives, the beauty, the accomplishments, and imagine that the best is yet to come.