Blergging

Matt after being on the roof all day

We’ve been at this for a while now and habits form quickly. When I say “this” I really mean the blog more so than the house, and when I say “we”, I mostly mean the royal me, since Sarah’s been way too busy with grad school to indulge in things like blogging in a long time. I’d like to take a step back for a moment and think about what “we’re” trying to accomplish.

When we started the house remodel (and the blog), writing entertaining posts was fairly simple since we could focus on how laughably awful the house was. It was filthy, everything was done wrong, and a sort of accepting despair was just how to get through it. Over time, as we clawed our way through the detritus and filled up garbage can after garbage can after dumpster after dumpster, it slowly stopped being quite so awful and disgusting and became more like a normal construction project. As that happened, the entertainment value sort of faded away into the mundane plodding details that it really is. Sure, we had interesting things like 3D floor plans and events like demo parties and steel beam installs, but the fun in the writing was slowly drained away.

Thinking back to the start of the blog, though, one of my goals was to improve my writing. I’ve got lofty, far-off goals of writing seriously someday, and they tell you that “writers gotta write” to get any good. As posting went on, my concern shifted to trying to clearly explain what we were trying to do and why, and seldom doing so succinctly. It seems like a lot of things we do require explanation. Why do that? Why do that now? Why do that the way you’re doing it? Teasing apart the thinking and doing behind the complex 3D jigsaw puzzle we’re living in takes some words, some paragraphs, some time.

In thinking about my audience, though, I have to consider a few things. One, my blog is not a how-to, and never will be. As I’ve said before, I don’t know enough about what I’m doing to teach someone else to do it. Two, if you’re reading this you’re either interested in home improvement or you know us personally, and probably both. Three, if anyone wants to know the details, the whyfors and howtos, they can ask in the comments. In short, the dry, specific details aren’t nearly as important as making it worth reading.

Here’s a picture of Derek sweeping with two brooms, just because

Even if the projects we’re tackling aren’t exciting, they can still be interesting, and a lot of that is how it’s presented. I’m going to make an effort to write more entertaining posts, and I hope you like them enough to read them and not just scroll through the pictures, and for those that have already tuned out, I apologize. I never meant to bore you.