mek.highcroft.com

The Joys of Home Ownership

You'd think I would learn to take a break once in a while.

Since we moved into our house, I've been engaged in home improvement projects. Besides the bathroom remodel, none of them needed to be done, but I've plunged in nonetheless. Recently, we finished the nursery and I immediately started moving furniture from the master bedroom into the nursery in preparation for some work to be done.

We found, as we started removing wallpaper, that there were three layers of wallpaper and two coats of paint on the wall, and estimated it would take more than a week of solid days to remove all the wallpaper. So we decided to take down all the sheetrock and replace it with new, insulate the interior walls, and maybe replace the windows. It only took about 5 hard hours to take down all the existing sheetrock, and so far, only about 6 hours to hang the new rock.

Now comes the fun part.

This weekend will be spent taping and mudding (joint compound) the walls. Granted, it will not take up the whole weekend, as each layer must be allowed to dry then sanded, but I'm expecting to be covered with sheetrock materials most of the weekend. Do I enjoy all the work? Absolutely. Would I enjoy a break from all the home improvement? Probably, but there is a great feeling of satisfaction in finishing a project, improving the appearance and value of the house, and making things better than they were before.

We've been keeping track of all the home improvement expenses, and have been pleased that the costs are not really that high, but I have to keep reminding myself that it's because we're not paying contractors to do the dirty work. It may take a little longer when I do it myself, but I love the learning experience, like taking pride in the completion of a project, and don't mind getting dirt under my fingernails in the process.

So, when the master bedroom is done will I stop and take a break? Not likely. The kitchen is the next big project. I won't do that one alone, though. I'll have to call in some help from friends and family for that one. When that project gets underway, you can be sure that I'll be writing all about it here!

The scale said "oooof!"

Without much of a thought, I stepped on the scale the other day. I think I heard it complain, much like in Garfield cartoons.

I'm not really very overweight. I'm 6'5" and weigh about 250lbs. The doctor says I could stand to lose some weight, and I agree, but I'm still well within the "OK" range. The main issue for me is the motivation to start and keep up with a fitness program. As I've said before, I'm not keen on joining a health club, mainly because they always seem to be overrun with 1)people like me who desperately need to get in shape, and 2) people who are in such great shape that their photos are showing up spontaneously on the cover of magazines like I'm Clearly In Better Shape Than You, and Hans and Franz Degrade the Cubicle Vegetable.

I've been attending a Ju Jitsu class nearby. I've been jogging a few times, but so far, nothing has been habit-forming, and the hoped-for fitness continues to be fitness-less. Perhaps something more drastic is necessary, but I'm not in a position to hire a personal trainer.

I don't generally run or workout to music, although I'm coming to the conclusion that it may help. When I jogged with my dad (up through High School, when I even competed in cross-country meets), we chatted, pushed each other to go further and faster, it made jogging fun. Although dad graduated from the US Military Academy at West Point, we never ran to cadences or anything, but consistent pacing kept up by working out and running together makes a huge difference.

I recently came across a series of cadence cds on Amazon.com. I've seen these before, but I'm actually thinking of buying a couple of them this time around. If I can make a habit of doing some structured exercise each day (not including shoveling snow, or mowing the lawn or whatever), it should only take me a couple months to start seeing results. I've always expected, wrongfully, that the results would start to show after only a couple weeks. I've got to remember that all good things take time and effort to achieve.

Maybe I need to have a chat with the scale, asking it to be more positive in it's commentary. Or maybe I should just get on with exercising and stop obsessing about the number on the scale.

Singing in the Car

I am not afraid to admit that I sing REALLY loud when I am in the car alone. I am, however, quite embarrassed when I am caught singing really loud in the car... and playing "air drums."

The advantage I have is that my car has fairly good soundproofing, meaning that road and wind noise is kept to a minimum inside the passenger cabin. I can, of course, still feel the thumping bass notes being emitted from the pimped out Honda next to me (the driver is approximately 11 years old, or so it seems), but I'm pleased with the sound system in my car. And it's loud when I want it to be. This is 100% of the time when I am alone in the car and a good song comes on.

I listen to a pretty wide variety of music on the radio, but I really enjoy singing along to country music, radio hits from my high school days, and just about anything from James Taylor. The thing is, I mainly sing bass (not the fish), and though I try to sing lead on a lot of songs, I'm sure the record companies won't come calling anytime soon. But I continue to sing along.

Despite the fact that I don't have a recording contract, and never have been convinced that karoke (sp?) is a good idea, I am a firm believer that everyone who sings along with the radio in their car believes themselves to be equal in sound quality with whomever is singing. And could "definitely play that guitar riff" if a guitar were handy.

Well, the other day I got caught. Not just singing at the top of my lungs (the veins were surely throbbing at my temples as I tried to hit notes well out of my range), but playing the air drums as if I were in the World's Greatest Drummer competition. So here I am, singing, flailing, having the time of my life, when I realize that the kids in the Honda are looking at me as if I were having a seizure or possibly suddenly taken over by aliens without rhythm.

I paused, and we stared at each other as the light turned from red to green.

The kids continued to stare.

So what was left to do? I figured I'd done enough drumming for the moment. But, darn it, the best part of the song was coming up and I wasn't going to miss out on singing the final few stanzas. So I stomped on the gas, took a deep breath, and kept right on singing.

Spiffy New Paint Job

Color. Lots of it. But only in one room for now.

We've decided to tackle preparing nursery for the new "little Kelly" set to arrive in June 2003. Basically, this means taking everything we know about interior decorating, combining it with a fun kid-oriented mindset, and painting the room with fun, bright colors.

My good friend Ali has suggested the use of color (as opposed to our prevalent use of white paint as our primary wall decoration) in our house, but we've balked somewhat since our taste in artwork, nick-knacks and stuff tends to be very "Antique Americana." This essentially means we have a mix of antiques and assorted stuff with various hues of red, white, and blue, accented by artwork by several, different, non-Americana-type artists. I'll admit, as far as our house goes, most Qualified Interior Decorators would probably step back and say, "Um... yeah. OK. I'm not sure how to begin, let me go bang my head against this wall for a few minutes. I'll be right with you."

As with anything else in life, individual style is important; the white walls simply make moving these things around the house simpler, because the white walls help to accent just about everything. I really like our house and the way we've filled it with things that make it feel like home. The nursery, is a new chapter for us, just part of the larger story of our lives. We've decided to use bright blue, red, yellow, and green to grace the walls below the chair rail (above the rail, is, you guessed it, white). I think it is a remarkable change, and I really enjoy being in that room now. I hope the baby likes it!

I have to admit, though, that as I started painting the room, I started to panic. I started with the blue, and thought we had made a huge mistake. I mean we are talking REALLY BLUE here. I was overwhelmed by the color and the amount of it. But as I finished the second coat on the blue wall, I stepped back (nearly overcome by paint fumes, since I forgot to open a window) and really enjoyed what I saw. So I moved on to the red wall. I started to panic. Well, you get the picture. All told, the room looks great. I am very glad we decided to do it this way! Now if I can only figure out what to do with the extra paint...

Home and Garden

Heidi and I joined our friend Ali last week at the Minneapolis Home and Garden show. We had a blast and it feels like we walked about ten miles inside the Convention Center, but we know it wasn't nearly that far.

So many things to see, and so many ideas that would be wonderful to incorporate into our home. Unfortunately, I feel that the trend toward larger homes is affecting the ability of the average homeowner to utilize some of these technologies in existing homes. Sure, with a wholesale revamp of our house, some of the greater pieces of technology would be easy to install, but in most cases, I don't plan to rip down the walls of the house.

So, as I ponder the work to be done on our current home (which I love) we cast our gaze on things that will improve the value of the house yet not outpace the neighborhood. Egress windows. Home networking components. Upgraded appliances. Radiant heat flooring. More efficient mechanical equipment (furnace, water heater, etc). Since most of these things can be added during a remodel without completely re-engineering the house, they seem to make practical sense.

Of course, if I were having a home built to our specs, and if I included all the great new technology and whiz-bang gizmos, the house would vastly outpace my wallet, but it's fun to dream nonetheless.

It's not so far a stretch to see our house with some great new stuff... maybe even the gazebo and hottub we chatted about, but perhaps the waterfall one-ton landscape rocks will have to wait.

Holding the Keys

Warning: Possible Stuart Smalleyisms contained herein.

Over the last few weeks, I've been pawing through a number of magazines, books, online materials, and even hearing a great deal about "retooling" ourselves to remain competitive in the workplace. This sort of talk generally elicits a collective gasp from the cube-farm dwellers (or "crops" as Scott Adams says), who often share the concern that "retooling" really means something much more harsh, like possible unemployment. My immediate supervisor has been helpful in turning my eyes to solid reading material, resources, and in offering assistance in my increasingly focused "retooling" efforts.

So, The Question comes in many forms. Who Moved My Cheese? Who holds the Keys to Success? Isn't Good Enough "Good Enough"? Well, sorry to say, Cheese moves. The whole cheesestory is a good one, and a cautionary tale for everyone willing to fess up that it's easy to rest on your laurels and not push to excel beyond current abilities. And the painful results that occur if we sit on our duff and do nothing.
As hard as it is to see sometimes, the keys to success, my success anyway, are in MY hands. It's pretty clear that as "human resources," our workplace-applicable abilities are what are important, not just being a warm body in a chair. As far as I can tell, lots of people are living the good life, working along, keeping up, and basically are as shocked as I was when the news comes that it's time to change.
And, by the way, good enough is not good enough. It's not good to be professionally stagnant. Nor, truth be told, is it good to change just because someone says to do so, but change, in the positive sense, has to come from a reasonable self-expectation that "I can be better," to be better. To excel.

Behind the lack of desire to embrace change is, I fear, the overreaching theme of "how will I react and perform when I take the step out of my comfort zone?" I confess that I've ended most internal conversations by simply not answering the question. Now I have to answer it or I will be the only one standing when the proverbial music stops. I will not allow that to happen.

Good Enough. Smart Enough. Willing Enough. I feel that it has to go far beyond "good enough." I personally strive to be skilled at the things I undertake. The solution starts with approaching the change with enthusiasm and curiosity, not fear or anxiety. Am I talking myself into this? You better believe it. But you know what? It's working, and I'm discovering interests and abilities each day that are helping me along the path to making a successful transition to new and interesting work.