It looks like we have another unplanned project to do.

The barn-house had a frozen pipe.

I used one of my coping skills to deal with it.

My Worst Case Scenario Skill Set for Parenting

A renovation, (second one at the barn in 12 months) was NOT the plan for me this winter.

I was supposed to be finishing the book I am working on.

Instead I am spending my time with plumbers and floor tile and cabinets and appliances and ‘The Dogs of the Home Depot”…

I am easily distracted.

This dog belongs to a contractor that is in the store so much that every employee knows the dogs name.

I love that and I love that the puppy rolls right over for belly rubs by the Home Depot lady who was just as excited to see the little furbaby.

Worse Case Scenario

Here is how it went down and you will want to read it because it involves raccoons, not really, but promises of animal stories will keep you reading.

I had stopped out to the barn to check the cats and make sure their water wasn’t frozen and that they had plenty of food. I was about thirty feet from the front door to the barn when I hear a waterfall inside.

Ugh.

Imagine what it would sound like for a water hydrant to be going off inside your house.

That is the sound I heard.

I had a moment where I thought, if I haven’t seen it…did it happen???

You know, like the tree that falls in the woods or the bear that “poops” in the woods, but I HEARD the water. I heard the water and I was pretty sure that there were ceilings that fell.

I couldn’t even open the door.

I turned around and sat back in the Suburban. My ten year old jumped back in the car with me too and asked why we were leaving so soon. I told him there was a busted pipe inside the barn. He yelled that we needed to go inside and fix it!

I told him I needed a moment to come up with my…

Worse Case Scenario Plan!

I deal with everything that is coming my way by coming up with a worse case scenario plan.

Here is what I told him.

There are probably ceilings that have fallen. I will have to shut off the water main at the well.

There could be standing water. I will hook up the shop vac and start dumping the water outside.

We may find a family of raccoons eating our sofa. I will have to gear up with dirt-bike helmets and pads and chase the scoundrels out with a broom.

Then I told him to stand behind me with my phone because water and electricity don’t mix and he may beed to call 911. I was going to open the door and try to get to the main electrical box to shut off the power.

We opened the door and found…

Ceilings that had fallen

Standing water

And then we jumped and cheered that there were no raccoons eating the furniture

Life is about how you frame things in your head.

I say this to my boys a ton.

We can get mad we missed a ski trip because of a stomach bug that lasts two days but at least we didn’t break a leg skiing and need a cast for two months.

The toilet will only be in the shower temporarily. As I look at this photo I am shamelessly sharing I can’t help but think to myself I need to tape a giant note to the toilet seat that reads…

DO NOT USE THIS TOILET BOYS!!!!

One would think you would not need to put a sign on a toilet sitting in a pile in a shower but then I would assume that “one” has daughters.

Oh, is it hard to get a growing kid to wrap their head around this concept.

I DON’T CLAIM TO HAVE THIS FIGURED OUT.

It seems that we have a bad case of the, “NOT FAIR!”s lately.

It is so hard to swallow as a mom who watches friends that have children with severe disabilities or have cancer. It is hard to hear kids who have food in their bellies and roofs over their heads complain when you know moms that have died recently. I don’t think I put together my gratitude connections until I was in my twenties, probably my late twenties.

It is JUST a broken pipe, a delayed ski trip, a couch.

It doesn’t matter.

What matters is that we are ok and that we have each other. That book is still there. It isn’t going anywhere. Who knows, maybe another renovation will give me a new idea for the book.

I am going to play the cards dealt to me.

How can we complain when it is just a soggy house?

I rather enjoy house projects. Let me say I enjoy the AFTERS of home projects.

Here is what the barn house looked like after some sprucing up last year. That horse harness for a plow on the wall used to belong to my great-great grandfather. It is a barn so it’s not fancy but we stay out there from time to time and use it as a guest house.

Here is the eat in part of the kitchen at the barn with a little sitting room off of it. That is my grandmothers kitchen table that my mother and I were raised around. If you look closely you will see a sliver of my great-grandmothers cast iron stove taken out of her cabin in the hills of Tennessee. I would also like you to know that nothing that belonged to any of these relatives were wet. In fact, it is pretty amazing. She always told me she would spend eternity haunting me because I don’t believe in ghosts. This made me a little bit of a believer. She had a wicked sense of humor.

Here is another fun small project that reaped huge rewards. Thought I would share some of my DIY, with the help of skilled workers. Hey, I am just the lady with ideas and a jigsaw.

My husband came home and I had the utility sink and cabinets in the front yard. This usually happens, yes it happens enough to say “usually”, when I get a wild hair and decide something is making me crazy and ends with me still in my pajamas and holding a jigsaw.

We didn’t have a place for our kids backpacks and coats to land and I had NEVER used the utility sink. I pulled the sink out and used painters tape and laid out what our cabinet maker would turn into cubbies and a new laundry room. I like birds. The wallpaper has a subtle bird pattern and the light fixture was a cheapy from a big box hardware store. It was a shade of pink with branches and crystal flowers. I spent a LONG time removing the flowers, spraying the fixture a bronze and putting it all back together and I hung it myself. The hardware on the swinging door is no longer brass but an oil ribbed bronze to match the changes made to the rest of our home. There are outlets in the cubbies to allow the kids to charge devises and even inside for appliances that charge. My cubbie faces an outside door and when it is open you would see the cubbie so I had the cabinet guy put a door on mine so cars driving by wouldn’t see my purse hanging there. It keeps a tidy look. Here is another ! ‪#‎DIY‬ #HomeDepot ‪#‎HGTV‬ ‪#‎Design‬ ‪#‎HomeDecor‬ ‪#‎HomeGoodsHappy‬ ‪#‎cabinets‬ ‪#‎remodel‬ ‪#‎decor‬ ‪#‎decorating‬ ‪#‎blogger‬ ‪#‎AbbieGale‬

I post a ton on Instagram so go find me there by clicking that link Abbie Gale on Instagram at All That Makes You…

Abbie Gale

All That Makes You…

allthatmakesyou.com

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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