Tuesday and no Cohen yet. Only two more days before the “official” due-date, but who’s counting?
I spent the better part of each day of the three-day weekend working on fabricating a closet (where there was no closet) in what will be Cohen’s nursery. It was a long project, and at the outset it fought me every step of the way, descending into the familiar comedy of errors that belies most all my attempts at carpentry or home-improvement. But with only minor cussing and swearing I worked through the kinks and managed to get the thing “done.” “Done” in this sense means the hard part is done, but that the project as a whole is still incomplete – I’m just going through the do-something-then-wait phases of mudding the new wall, sanding, priming, texturing, and painting and each step has some “OK now let it dry” period before you can move to the next step.
Looking at the results, I do feel a sense of pride in my work and I’m happy I save the $400-$600 someone would’ve charged to do it (based on Craigslist estimates), but honestly in the end I’d have rather paid that $400-$600 than burned ~30 hours of my holiday weekend with my arms over my head. Looking at it in that light $400-$600 seems a pittance for the time it would’ve saved me. Time I could have used to clean the house for Cohen’s pending arrival as opposed to the messing it up more I actually did. Heck, even if I value an hour of my time with family at a measly $25, $400-$600 for 30+ hours of work is a steal. In fact, $25/hour might be a good “measuring stick” figure to use in the future when considering these “DIY or pay” kind of tasks. If I can answer “yes” to the question “Would I pay $25/hr to not be doing task-x?,” then I hire someone.
Yup; this project has simply helped me rationalize my laziness as a lot less lazy a a lot more prudent use of time and energy.
Until later.
Also written on this day...
- family ties - 2006