Nesting

Let me preface this by saying that my husband likes to start projects and them mull over them for a while (i.e. - several weeks up to a year). Let me give you a few examples before I get to this weekend.

Electrical outlets - When we first moved in under our century tree, it was fair to say that it needed updating. Metallic wallpaper, shower curtains with valances, pink linoleum flooring were just not what I was looking for in a first home; however, the time and price were right. We bought the house 3 days before we got married - so to say that settling in was hectic would be an understatment. We removed the yards and yards and yards of metallic wallpaper, re-textured the walls, painted, and painted some more; took down all valances, regardless of their location, and replaced them; tore up the carpet-covered pink linoleum and put down wood lament floors. All of this crammed into the 3 days prior to our wedding. So you can see how changing the electrical outlets from dingey yellow to basic white would be a minor project compared to the others listed above...but still, it had to be done. Nearly four years later, and we finally have all the outlets changed and covered, versus just the plug without a cover (Christmas card recipients you can rejoice because I am certain that our family photo will be without an uncovered outlet). My husband called his finishing of this project "nesting".

My beloved wisteria - The north side of our driveway has the most beautiful, fragrant wisteria bush. It blooms in early spring straight through to the summer, and we get compliments on it every year. Then one day I get an email at work with the subject line "Look what I did". I opened it during class, simply because I thought it was another one of those silly forward emails. Gasp! I. was. wrong! It was a picture of the north side of our driveway sans the most beautiful, fragrant wisteria bush ever. I didn't know how to respond, except to show my students what my husband had done - where did my whisteria bush go?! So, I called him (during my planning period), and he tells me that "it poked him for the last time!". I had no idea that my husband harbored this animosity toward my beloved wisteria, but nonetheless, it is gone. When he was done he said he was "nesting", as in finishing the project.

The living room - This is a very similar story to my beloved wisteria. I knew that my husband had been frustrated with the carpet in our living room for quite a while, but like many other projects I figured it was a bunch of "talk"...until...I come home from work one day to discover my living room in my kitchen and the carpet in the garage. Gasp! What happened to my living room?! "I was tired of that smelly carpet", he says. Over the next week, little by little my living room was restored to immaculant wood flooring, new baseboards, and vintage door trim - all done by my husband (with the support of my mom). He finished and he was nesting.

This all brings me to this past weekend, where I feel like I need a few extra weekend days to recover from my husband's nesting. No, we're not nesting because we are expecting (sorry). But we are finally settling into our home. We accomplished more tasks this weekend than we have in the past 4 years (besides those first 3 days)! The whole time we were working my husband continued to say "we're nesting"; esentially what I think we're doing is finally accepting that we will be spending many more years here and let's make the most of it. I think it's fair to say that we've nested (at least for a while).