Many Hands Make More Work

Those of you who have kids know the challenges of home improvement on a more, shall we say, relaxed agenda.  Ours are 8 and 5, and they have their own ideas about how family time should be spent.  Sometimes the projects take a back burner while kids practice riding their bikes and enjoy all the other parent-child pleasures.  On the other hand, some projects just seem to go hand-in-hand with childhood…like when we get a truckload of dirt and they just want to climb all over it.  Or wallpaper removal (what kid could resist the lure of peeling those long strips, like so much sunburned skin?).

The girls have really impressed me with their willingness to work hard with us and endure some discomforts.  One-and-a-half winters without a reliable furnace, during which we kept the house at 55 degrees (the front room with fireplace could reach up to 68), they learned how to dress in many layers.  Rather than complaining, they became grateful for the things they had.  They help around the house more, and some work has become play to them.  I think it’ll be really fun for them to look back someday when the house is fixed up and realize how many projects they were involved in.

There’s more work to do, but because of that we’ve been home more, doing the work.  And so the home improvement has really turned out to be somewhat of a family improvement.