When Things Don’t Go As Planned

As Naomi and I shared in our “blogging as a pair” post for our blogging anniversary back in January, one of the ways we stick to a consistent and (relatively) balanced posting schedule is that we plan things out far in advance. We end up moving content around based on when we actually get projects accomplished, but it’s a way to help us map out what we should each be focusing on.

Curious what today’s post was supposed to be about?

For a long time I’ve known that I want to add sconces to either side of the mirror in the living room, both to add visually (the mirror is a little too small for the space) and to add some light because the back corner gets dark and that’s where I most like to read.

So today’s post was supposed to be all about the new sconces I got. I put it on the calendar months ago and specifically remember saying to Naomi “that should be plenty of time to handle that project!”

Well friends, I have completed not a single step in the process. I haven’t even rounded up a list of sconces I like (though I may just piggyback off of Naomi’s legwork researching lighting for her bedroom — she has pretty good taste, right?).

I hate to make excuses. I hate to pass this off as a substantive blog post. I hate to sound even a little bit unhappy about the all around amazing and privileged life I have. But this blog is supposed to be about honesty and our real lives as homeowners and people, and the truth is that this has been a bit of a tough time and a lot of unexpected things have come up that have derailed some of my plans. So today is a round up of little updates in my life and house that don’t merit their own posts individually, but in the spirit of bringing you along in the journey I wanted to share. Before you tune out: those of you who were waiting with baited breath about the quest for me to find pants (and seriously, so many of you have asked me how that’s going): today I have an update for you!

The Kitchen Renovation: All is great on this front, phew! As I shared last week, we did some electrical work, got an engineering drawing done, and applied for our building permit. I just found out the permit was approved, so we’re ready to begin construction on April 11th! And I’m doing more prep work this weekend that I’ll post about next week. The one less positive thing with the kitchen reno is that as you know, we’ve encountered some unexpected additional costs (like maybe redoing the floors) — so that has made us cautious about spending money anywhere else in the house right now, like on sconces for the living room. But all considered, we’re still feeling pretty great about this project — and once the wall comes down we can really get cracking and I promise there will be endless content to share!

The Pants: As you may remember, one of my New Year’s goals was to buy a new pair of work pants.

The hunt was proving pretty challenging — but I’ve finally had success!

I got them through Stitch Fix (a monthly clothes delivery service which I use occasionally because I hate shopping). They were too long (as pants usually are for me), but I managed to master a blind hem (which is pretty easy to do by hand, I used this great tutorial) so they are now the right length and I think look pretty good. Phew!

The Boston Marathon: One of the big things that hasn’t been going so hot right now (and has been consuming most of my mental energy) is my goal to run the Boston Marathon. It’s just two weeks away, but three weeks ago I sustained a running injury that has prevented me from running (it’s a sciatic nerve inflammation from my hip all down my leg and into my foot on my right side). I am working with a chiropractor and I’m trying to stay hopeful, but the reality is that there’s a good chance I won’t be able to run the marathon because I’m not able to walk let alone run without pretty sharp pain — and having trained since December, gotten up to 20-miles for my long runs, and raised $7,500 for a charity I believe in (you can’t just register for Boston — you either have to qualify, which is pretty hard, or run for a charity team) it’s been hard to accept the fact that this might not happen for me.

But as is so often the case, things like this remind me of how many wonderful things I have in my life, most particularly my friends and family who have been an amazing support network. I am committed to coming back stronger than ever and still running my first ultramarathon in the fall. After two weeks of a major pity party, I am feeling at peace with the possibility that I may not be out there on Marathon Monday.

Sam’s 30th Birthday: Sam turned 30 this past weekend, and I have to confess that I was not a great wife about it. I have been so consumed by the leg pain and its implications that I’ve been pretty unpleasant to be around (not only is it bad news, but the way I normally cope with bad news is to run — so I’ve been trying to deal with stress and anxiety while going cold turkey on my complete and utter endorphin addiction, which has made for some serious mood control issues). SAM, I LOVE YOU AND CHERISH YOU.

We did celebrate both our birthdays with a trip to NYC earlier in March to see Hamilton the Musical — which is AMAZING. If you haven’t listed to it, you absolutely should — you can hear the entire cast recording on Spotify (or other streaming services), and just listening to it you can get 100% of the storyline. However, the show itself was incredible. It was a big splurge for us, but we were both turning 30 this winter and wanted to do something special. Since we had been obsessed with Hamilton since first hearing the soundtrack, we knew it would be worth it.

The Asbestos: Another not-so-stellar development has been the discovery that we have asbestos tiles in our basement. While asbestos can be left alone if it’s intact, our tiles are definitely breaking in some places so we know it’s something we need to deal with. Right now we’re trying to leave it alone (the broken tiles are around the outside edges), but this will be a big (and expensive) project to deal with sometime soonish.

In case you’re curious, we used a lab called Western Analytical Laboratory — we simply bagged up a sample of the various tiles we have in the basement as well as a ceiling tile sample, and mailed them off. Within a few days we received the results — good news that the ceiling tiles aren’t asbestos, but the floor most certainly is.

The Lead: We also conducted a lead test after we learned that our city has one of the highest percentages of lead pipes in the state of Massachusetts (thank you Naomi for alerting us to that…). For that we used a kit we bought at Home Depot made by Pro Lab, where you sample the water and then send it off for them to test. We were super relieved when that test came back negative — I don’t think I could have taken bad news on that front in such close proximity to the asbestos revelation.

So those are some updates — some good, some not-so-good. But that’s life, and I’m just trying to focus on what I can control (and take some more accountability for controlling things like my outlook and mood) and go one day at a time. Happy Friday, and I hope all of you are weathering the ups and downs that life is throwing your way!