It's been a while since we posted an update on our remodeling progress. Who could have expected that we would be hunkered down at home, rarely leaving, with Bill participating in lots of community meetings via video calls and me working from home since early March 2020.
Projects that we had thought we would tackle during Summer 2020 were put on hold so we could instead expand our garden to feed ourselves (and the neighbors, it turns out, with the extra bounty). We have been dealing okay with the added stress that is the last 12+ months and feel grateful for much in our lives, including being fully vaccinated. With working at home full time, I get the opportunity to snap a photo or two of fun projects underway, and at the same time remember how far we have come. Some of those photos are posted in Instagram, @annettemboyer.
Today's project is especially fun, since it involves making lemonade out of lemons. Bill has been saving these two narrow doors for a wide closet opening next to our treadmill. He refinished the front side but could not easily strip the very old paint off the back side without using seriously icky chemicals or a *lot* of time hand sanding them (not a great option since it might be lead paint). We were out on a hike recently when we started chatting about the doors and an idea popped into my head -- why not make it a feature, not a bug? In the software business, that means that you make something that could look like a problem into an intentional engineering choice. Hey, I meant for it to turn out like that! The feature that we decided upon is to put chalkboard paint on the interior side of the doors so that when they are open, we could scribble notes about our workouts.
This last year has been one long journey of seeking out what we are learning about our world and ourselves and finding any possible bits of light along the way. So, these doors are a metaphor for the entire COVID + social and cultural unrest/upheaval of the last 13 months. Do what we can to let go of the stress around decisions and focus on making something positive out of a lemony situation.
