The Honey-Do List
I am fortunate to be sort of a tomboy. Ok, in a girly, tiara-wearing princess kind of way. I’ve never shied away from getting into difficult jobs and pulling them off. When my mom died, I remodelled her house almost completely by myself. I hired the electric and the outdoor painting. And I couldn’t hang the cabinets alone because I wasn’t strong enough to hold them up and screw them in on my own. I tore the kitchen out to the walls. I did the countertops, sink, garbage disposal, GFI outlets, tiled the backsplash, put in under cabinet lighting, installed Pergo flooring, coped the baseboards, tiled the entryway, sweated pipes, installed the appliances, refinished hardwood floored, installed a new front door, new light fixtures, painted the whole interior and redid the bathroom clear down to the sub flooring. It was crazy!
I had done a few of those things before, but most I had to learn as I went along. I hear from a lot of women that they don’t know the first thing how to do the maintenance around the house since their husbands died. A lot of women have never changed a tire or mowed the lawn. A lot of men have never balanced a check book or done laundry.
I can’t tell you how many YouTube videos I’ve watched to learn how to do things. Google is my best friend. I have a Reader’s Digest book called the ABC’s of Home Repairs. Any home store like Home Depot or Lowe’s has knowledgeable staff that help you figure out how to do things and sometimes they have classes on topics of interest. The library is still a good resource for information. Some large cities have coops where you share tools and skills. If do-it-yourself is truly not your thing, you can hire it out if you can afford it. I like the barter system myself. Everyone wins with a good barter.
The key to successfully completing any task you are unfamiliar with is education, education, education. Let go of fear and self-doubt and step into your self-reliance with a new bravery. What kind of problems have you come up against? What kind of skills have you learned? ❤️
“I can do all things through him who strengthens me.” Philippians 4:13 ESV