Drywalled to Distraction

Image via Wikipedia

It is the way of my people. When stress rears it’s fugly-ass head, we demo walls. When stress head-butts us across the room, we break out the full-on remodeling guns.

Last Thursday, through sobs, I called my dad, asking for him to pack his tools and drive the four and half hours to our house. I had a floor going in on Monday morning, and could not see a path to making that happen on my own.

By Thursday afternoon, my mother was on-board with our plan, tools were packed, painting clothes readied, and they arrived Friday ready to rip the place apart to get it ready to drywall, tape, mud, texture, paint, trim, wire, etc.

I’m not sure what it is about my family, if it’s our German and Norwegian roots, or what, but when most people retreat to a sandy beach, drink themselves into a coma, or flee the scene…we bust out the manual labor, usually in the version of a remodeling project. Although, we occasionally supplement our downtime (you know, like while the paint’s drying) with grueling yard work.

In the case of my house, that’s an easy thing to do. My ADD, coupled with my genetic predisposition to tear down load-bearing walls first/ask question later, makes for a never-ending supply of large-scale unfinished projects, all of which drive my type-A family members INSANE.

Until the emotional roller-coaster of my life settles down, I will seek solace in assembling cabinetry, priming and painting, and taking intermittent breaks where I lay flat on my back in the middle of my new Marmoleum floor and just stare up at the ceiling, wishing things were further along. Things like life.

At the end of each day, I can stand in the shower, hot water washing off drywall mud, splotches of paint, blood from cuts and scrapes, and fight the urge to sit on the bottom of the tub and sob in a heap of humanness. I fight the urge to get down onto the shower floor because I fear it is my abyss, the one I cannot cross twice.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Question: Your Best Wallpaper Removal Methods Austin (apartmenttherapy.com)
• The family home: more than just an investment (cbc.ca)
• Survey: DIY Versus Paying Someone to Do It Austin (apartmenttherapy.com)
• One Finger Installation With the Push & Hang Drywall Hooks (apartmenttherapy.com)
• Add Storage with Simple DIY Shelving [DIY] (lifehacker.com)
• My noisy head (depressionmarathon.blogspot.com)
• How To Deal With Stress: 3 Effective Methods (dietriffic.com)

Comments

[emmajames]

Keep on building and showering and when all the crap is through, I'll look forward to reading about the great and pampering vacation you, hubs and kids take to celebrate. AND you'll have pretty walls.

[califmom]

Thank you. That sounds like a most excellent plan.

[Al_Pal]

*hugs offered*Ay! So sorry you have such an abyss to avoid, so glad your family is there with you to do the wonderfully distracting manual labor.An awesome house is *something*, at least, and productive, and yes indeed, when the emotional dust settles, you can all go have a nice vacation to ground yourselves in each other.

[Fear and Parenting in Las Vega]

I'm the same way. Every once in awhile I need to take on a major home improvement project. Emotional avoidance mechanism? perhaps. Control freak? Yes, I resemble that remark. Sometimes it feels great to fix the stuff that we can because of all the things we can't.

[T@SendChocolate]

I understand that abyss. How are you handling life? Are you tanked up on good drugs?

Waiting with you...

T.

[Lucretia Pruitt]

Hoping that you have an awesome floor to pace back and forth on until there's better news.

(((((((((((hug)))))))))))))))

I'm so sorry I missed this news, but sorrier yet that it was here to come back to.

Many, many prayers headed your way.

[becky]

Sitting in the bottom of the shower, sobbing... that was a turning point in my life. When I finally realized I had to get out of my first marriage before it killed me. Maybe slowly, maybe by my own hand. But it was certainly going to kill me.

[Cathy]

Any news yet, Leah? I am keeping you all in my prayers.

[Bunnie]

It has taken me a minute to figure out what is going on between Twitter, Facebook and your blog.I can't put a bandaid on it and called it better. But, please know you, your hubs and your family are in my thoughts and prayers right now. Although we've never met (IRL), you can count me as a friend.

[Casey]

Leah,

Here's to hoping to a quick and happy ending to your waiting. Tear down whatever physical structure you have to to get through this.

Casey

[Heather]

Wow, I thought I was the only one who did that, well that or take out a HUGE stack of books from the library and READ, READ, READ, or play building video games--things that let me feel productive when I am not or am unable (too often my RA leaves me unable to do anything except press the x button and use the thumb stick.) But oh I know the urge to DO somethign, anything, even if it isn't the thing that would actual able helpful in the situation. And as long as I am DOING I am not thinking and can push off all those thoughts until a few months down the road when I have time to deal with them.

So yeah, I know. Enjoy the project, work that energy and emotion out, and just think how AWESOME your place is gong to look (and how much cleaner--at least that is how it is for me, big projects me my house is actually clean--and my husband always KNOWS something is going on with me when I start cleaning the house--either I am about to have a flare-up, I am angry about something, or someone is sick, or there is some crazy catastrophe.)