During DIY, mistakes will happen. Things will spill, break and not fit where they should. This post is about those. (For more uplifting views of spring snowfall and dogs, scroll on down.)
When Jeff and I were doing The Great Loop, I tried to post occasionally about the challenges of living on a small boat 24/7. Same here. Because life isn’t perfect, is it? (And isn’t meant to be.) In our social media-directed world, we can get the impression that others are living a more fulfilling life. That our classmates didn’t age. That our neighbors are richer or more contented. But don’t we all face challenges that most people don’t see? It’s the same case with my adventures, whether on water or land.
Oopsies (and worse) happen. That’s life. I often hear we should “just let it go,” whatever “it” is. Yes. But I prefer to learn from it first.
So, I’m still pondering what to learn from the oopsies below. I think it’s about keeping my eye on the big picture vs. the small one. In my working life, I was often praised for attention-to-detail. But when does that “attention” turn into inflexibility or perfectionism? This question swims around my head as I share a few of the imperfections in our ongoing construction….
I carelessly left an open can of stain on the floor. Then, working in near-dark — see “On Task” post — I accidentally kicked it. Here’s the result. (I see a big eye, long nose and skinny tail. What do you see?) Thank goodness we still have cardboard protector on the floor.
I have no idea how that gouge got into the newly-painted bedroom wall. Jeff says it’s easy to fix, and you have to expect these things during construction. Uh, ok. Big picture, Mary!
And how did this happen? I know now that clean-up and fixes can last for months, when you’re “DIY”…
We didn’t see the scratch in this closet door until I got it home. The store says it’ll take it back. That means packing it back into my car and driving over 100 miles….
Speaking of taking things back. I bought several of these — all going back. Turns out a “metal” switch plate is only plated with metal….very thin metal at that, which cracks easily. They’re too thick for our switches anyway. Who knew switch plates come in various thicknesses?
I thought this gap between a door frame and a closet door was a measuring or shopping mistake, but Jeff says he intends to put a filler in there. So something that appears to be a mistake can just be unfinished. I’ll keep that in mind when facing bigoted people. 😊
When you haul construction stuff past newly-painted walls, you get this. Next time, I’ll paint last. (But I think “DIY new-home construction” is something you do only once.)
In an outdoor “oops,” I just re-stacked this woodpile because….…. someone had leaned this scaffold against it, spilling it all onto the ground. Good thing I love stacking wood.
I was so ready for this new snowfall today. This is the dirt road that I take out of Jeff’s camp.
It measured five inches by mid-day but it’s raining now. What a confused winter and spring!
I took Roscoe out, in snowshoes, before the snow started to melt. We both needed it.
This is as close as I can get to a “face-front” photo with him because he won’t stop dancing around.
Indoors today, the walls of the staircase were covered in the stained knotty pine. Still not quite done, and evidence remains of a construction zone, but doesn’t it look great? I think so, even though it’s not to everyone’s taste. The warmth of wood helps me keep the big picture — we’re building a cabin! — while figuring out how to fix the oopsies. And hopefully learn from them.
For Many Moons 
Eye rowed a whole long comment. And then they made me sign in and then it got lost! I’ll try again tomorrow♥️
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Oh dear. Please do! I figure many people won’t relate to this post but thought that maybe you would. 😊
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