The First Renovation
The first renovation took me by surprise. I didn’t expect an overflowed toilet to lead to a gut job. Thirty minutes of flowing water causes quite a bit of damage.
About five years ago, my oldest and I went to a meeting for a camo he was going to attend that summer. The younger two boys were home with my husband. Scott went out to the garage to do q quick workout leaving the boys in the house. One of the boys, who shall remain nameless, went to the bathroom in his older brother’s room, flushed the toilet (thankfully, but not), and left the room not knowing what was about to transpire.
This bathroom is upstairs and in the center of the house. The water flowed for what we think was thirty minutes before my husband came in to water gushing down the walls and through the ceiling on the lower level. The two boys were playing in their playroom which was situated just so in a corner of the house where they would be none the wiser to what was going on. My oldest and I get home to chaos. The hubs yelling for more towels and the shop vac. Me not knowing quite yet what was going on but grabbing things anyway.
Needless to say, that water created quite a bit of damage. Walls torn down, wood floors pulled up, carpet gone, and fans and dehumidifiers going for month would send anyone into a spiral. Me, however, it awakened something in me that had been dormant far too long.
That season of frustration, chaos, and, I’m not gonna lie, some tears introduced me to something I didn’t realize I was missing. I loved home renovation and design. I always have. I look back on my childhood and see so many instances of rearranging my room, painting, and begging my mom to let me hang things on the walls. It was no different when I moved out. I can still remember the bedding I chose in the two apartments I lived in when I was in college. I remember our couch and coffee table and all the throw pillows that drove Scott mad in our first apartment as a married couple. I loved when we moved and I got to redesign a brand new space oftentimes turning an old home into our new space.
I type all this out because I know there are many out there who have something inside them dormant waiting to get out. A piece of yourself you stuffed down deep not thinking you are good enough to share it with the world. You’ve convinced yourself that you need more experience, a degree, or some type of outside validation before you step into your truest self doing what you were meant to do. I am here to tell you to just do it.
Love you.
Mean it.
Meg