Wednesday, October 12, 2011

they're coming... :-)

so today . . . i thought i could do it all...

my dad is a painter--a house painter. actually my dad has done a lot of things. his main job was as a junior high science teacher, but he has also sold real estate, been a pastor, fished on his own boat commercially, and made gemstone jewelry, in addition to painting houses and probably a whole lot of other stuff that i can't think of right now. i don't recall ever helping him paint, but i was around him enough when he was painting, that i seemed to think that i could paint too. and i have painted. a lot!

but my dad does more than just paint. he can pretty much fix anything on a house. i can remember many times when someone would hire him to come in and repair a bad job they had already paid someone else to do. he seemed to always figure out a way to fix the mess. and so, for some reason, i think i can fix things too.

once, i almost electrocuted myself trying to fix something inside the washing machine with a screwdriver...

so today, when home depot called to tell me that our plantation shutters were ready to be installed, and could they DO IT ON FRIDAY, my plans for the next couple of days changed. because i hadn't really expected the shutters to be ready so soon. and there was some repair work that needed to be done around the windowsills...

so i texted rollie. "good news and bad news. our shutters are here :) but the walls aren't ready :( i guess i'll be going to home depot after school today to figure out how to mud the walls." yes, that was my plan. i was going to go online while my little dumplings napped and look for an instructional video on how to mud and texture walls. then after school i would go to home depot for supplies. and then tomorrow after school i would fix those walls, and by friday everything would be perfectly prepared for my new shutters! it seemed like a perfectly reasonable plan to me.

rollie did not respond to my text.

he was working from home today, so i got to meet him for lunch. "so," i said, "did you get my text about the shutters?" "yes," he said, "but i'm not sure you should try to fix the walls. why don't you just call jose'?"

i'll tell you why i wasn't going to call jose'--first of all, i needed the work done by tomorrow! you can't just call someone up and say hey, can you come do this job for me tomorrow?!? that's ridiculous! and secondly, i was pretty sure i didn't want to pay someone to do something that i was perfectly capable of doing--even if i'd never done it before and really didn't have the time to do it.

i patiently explained this to my husband. who responded by saying, "i don't know. i don't think i've got the skills to do it..." well that was ok. i wasn't asking him to do it. i was going to do it! my dad is a painter and general all purpose fix it guy. i was pretty sure i had inherited some sort of "fix it" gene. after all, i'd sprayed texture on a wall repair from an aerosol can before. i was pretty sure it wasn't going to be that hard. and besides, really this was just a precautionary repair. probably the frame around the shutters was going to cover it up anyway. i was just going to mud and texture and paint where the window trim had been, just in case the new trim wasn't quite big enough.

"really," rollie said, "just call jose'. you know he will do a good job." what i knew was that rollie did not want me to tackle this job. he was probably picturing what might happen. i'm sure he could just see me covered in mud, crying, at midnight when it was too late to call someone else, because i couldn't make the mud stick to the wall or make it smooth or get the texture right... i don't doubt that he knew i would give it a good try, but i'm pretty sure he also knew there was a slight possibility that i might just make a big mess. and my dad lives too far away to come and fix it by friday...

and truthfully, i was sort of picturing that possibility myself, because there have been more than a few nights when i have been buried in a project at midnight, bumping up against a deadline, crying because i knew there was no way i was going to finish on time. so i gave in. i called jose'. mostly because while i might be able to do what needed to be done, i knew it was going to take me waaaay longer than it would take someone like jose' who knew what they were doing. and i knew that while my results might be ok, jose's results would be really good. BUT, if he couldn't do it tomorrow, then i would just have to do it myself.

so i called him. and jose', bless his little pink heart, said he would come over tonight to take a look at what needed to be done. and he thought he could work it out to do it thursday morning. which means i can spend my thursday evening doing something much more fun, and still get my shutters installed on friday...

i am thankful for my mom who raised me to think i could do anything. and for my dad who showed me that there is no limit to what one person can do. but there are times when it is a good idea to step back and let the professionals do what they have been trained to do. and so i am also thankful for my husband who says, "call a professional..."

...because my "i can do it" attitude is sometimes a problem. i should NOT be allowed near the inner workings of a washing machine with a metal screwdriver!! i should NEVER stand on the very top rung of a ladder! and i should probably not try to mud, texture, and paint around my windows under such a tight schedule, when there is no room for error...

thankfully i don't have to. because i know jose' and i am pretty sure he can do anything :-)

2 comments:

Carroll said...

Oh Julie. Always good for a laugh. I can see it all now as I read through the blog. Julie at midnight, mud in hand, and all over her body, crying in the middle of what has become a job that looks less than satisfactory and Rollie thinking, as he towered over you, "I told you to get Jose to do it." He no doubt wouldn't say it but he wouldn't have to as you already know what he's thinking. Good for you to call Jose and good luck with the project. Nice new shutters! Great! Now if it just wasn't so hot........

Mom said...

I wish Dad would say, "Call a professional (actually I wish I had a Jose) but he keeps saying, "I can do it." Therefore I'm still waiting for the trim to be painted. I've about decided I could stand on the top rung of a ladder. So glad you are getting your shutters. I'm sure you will love them and then you can relax and enjoy. Be sure and email me a picture.