the domino effect

It started with a mouse in the shed.

We had almost written him off after a few weeks of empty traps, but yesterday we had a winner. Problem was, by the time we found him, so had the ants. Joe got a little crazy with the Raid, and the entire shed reeked.

It was a nice day, so we set the goal of clearing out the shed and making room for our bikes. Once everything was strewn across the lawn, we noticed another smell coming from the shed: piss. There were two big stains on one of the top shelves.

So after an hour sweeping up rodent poo, I had to scrub a piss-stain. Being a homeowner: It’s all about the glamour. But the smell wasn’t going away. Joe decided he could replace the shelves. And we might as well do them all, right?

A trip to Lowes later, we discover that all the shelves were not created equal, and four out of our six boards are the wrong width. We curse. We remember we have plywood left from the attic. We can cut it down, but we need the circular saw, which Joe’s dad has taken. We curse some more. We go pick up the saw.

Okay, we’re ready to start. Did I mention that it’s 8 p.m. on Sunday night on a non-holiday weekend? It is. We operate heavy machinery in near-dark, always a recipe for safety.

Luckily, we escape with all our limbs. Then we screw the shelves into place.

We get the top three shelves in and pack everything up. It is 10 p.m. We are dirty, exhausted, and feel unaccomplished despite all the work we did today.

No lie, this is what every single home project is like. I think if more people knew that, we would never have had a housing crisis. Because renting looks so attractive in comparison.