"you're not a digging girl"

Yes, my husband knows me well.

This past week "we" began our first home improvement project. AKA: "We can save some money and get better quality waterproofing if "we" do it ourselves." Yes, the ubiquitous "we", luckily for me, M knows that "we" really means "he". Not that I am not willing to help, but I have a tendency to make him nervous with power tools. Little does he know how dangerous a kitchen aid mixer can be! But still some how I ended up with a Remington nail gun in my hands...

So, this past weekend M decided that "we" were going to waterproof the basement. There were only a few issues:
1. the supply store isn't open on the weekends, it's not like you can walk into Lowes and get this stuff

2. we both work during the week and the times we could get out of work were not the same

3. M was going up to North Dakota to shoot little innocent flying creatures on Wednesday. Not that I am opposed to him shooting creatures, they are good eatin', but it severely limited the amount of time "we" had to get this project done.

So, with all that in mind M was convinced that "we" could start it on Monday night and he could finish on Tuesday morning while I was at work. He then could be in to work by noon and we both could catch up with respective friends that evening. He would pack for the trip when he got home and we would crash so I could take him to the airport in time for his 6 AM flight on Wednesday. Not a problem, right?

...RIGHT

To start it off, things got started late on Monday. I always have a late day on Monday, but arrange to take my 5PM conference call at home, so I could be over to the site soon after 6. M called me as I was scrambling to finish up at work, Damn those addictive spreadsheets!* He was stuck on 285 trying to get to the supply store.

* yes I truly think spreadsheets can be addictive, I guess that comes with being an uber-dork.

M and I met up about 6:30 and he had gotten the goop and the sheeting to go over the goop, but they didn't have any rollers. So he wanted to head to Lowes to get rollers and a shovel while I was going to head to the grocery store and then meet him there. Oh, and he was still planning to go to the climbing gym that night. We also had the offer to go out to dinner with friends. And it was getting dark.

It was then that I suggested that we could shovel off the foundations together and speed some of this up. But luckily, M sometimes has more sense than me. He looked at me and said, "you're staving" and "you're not a digging girl" Right there ladies, is why I married the man. Yes, he knew that by the time we got back from Lowes with the supplies I would be one whiney, hungry, girl and would work through my hunger, but he would pay for it later.

So, we ended up dropping the goop and supplies off at A&Ws and I went off to dinner with A&W and friends, it is wise to keep me well fed. While, M ran to Lowes and then to the gym for team decrepitude training.

In the morning M got up and "we" got working. By that I mean, I slept a half hour later, got myself to the mothership and sat through about 4 hours worth of meetings. M, on the other hand, began spreading goop on the walls. Luckily, I had outfitted him with some top of the line gloves and glasses from the said mothership.

I talked to M at noon, and he said that it was going slower than he thought, but he was starting to get the hang of it. He figured that he still might get to work later in the afternoon. About 2PM he left me a message, he wasn't going to make it in. I called him back and then waited for him to call me back. The goop was so sticky that he couldn't get the gloves off in time to answer the phone. Yup, the "we" project had officially turned into a WE project, he had determined that he would need my help to get it all done. That is how I ended up with a Remington nail gun in my hand.

I got to the site about 5:30 and M's coworker was there helping him out. It was determined that the coworker and I would begin putting the protective fabric over the goop while M continued to paint it on. We secured the fabric to the walls using the gun. After another trip to Lowes, we finished in the dark and had dinner at ElMyr* at about 9 at night.

*No one blinked when we walked in covered with goop. Yet, another reason to love L5P, no matter what you are wearing, or covered in, someone at the next table is most likely more outrageous than you.






M, after it was all done. His clothes are clean only because he changed before he left the site. He didn't want to ruin his truck. Some day the black goop will be off his arms.

So many, many kudos to M's coworker, we know there were better things he could be doing with his time. Thanks to everyone else who helped especially A&W for allowing us to borrow your garage, so someone wouldn't walk off with a $1000 worth of goop. What would someone do with that stuff anyway??

And please admire "our" handiwork. As soon as they fill, it will only be a fine memory, and hopefully a dry basement!



Beautiful, isn't it.

Oh, and you can check out the rest of the progress here.