The Perils of POP

In the world of DIY renovations, there are many downsides, but it’s the Pursuit of Perfection (POP) that can really trip you up. Symptoms of POP include dissatisfaction with anyone’s work but your own and an unwillingness to let anyone help. For the POP-afflicted, DIY takes on gargantuan proportions. My husband, Chris, suffers from POP.

While it’s true that no one can wield a screw gun quite as well as he can, and he’s probably right that no hired worker (at least around here) will care enough about the “wonky” walls and floors of our old house to get the sheetrock done right, I sometimes worry that he's making what he calls “a rod for his own back” (so British).

For the better part of a week, Chris has been sheetrocking our livingroom, a 12x22 foot space that makes up one-half of the first floor of our tiny house. As usual, he’s worked alone, assisted only by a rented lift (for the ceiling), and, occasionally by me, if he needs someone to hold a board while he measures, marks, and levels, over and over again. Unfortunately, all previous owners of this house were the Anti-Chris.

This is no straightforward job, he tells me. Each piece of sheetrock has to be modified to accommodate the above-mentioned wonky walls and slopey floors of this 70-year old cottage. And I’ve told him that, should this house ever be blown away by a hurricane, the only thing that will still be standing is the blocking he’s added to the studs, and the wood he’s put in to reframe the replacement windows he installed.

So far, we’ve got a ceiling and one complete wall. Another wall, partially done, boasts the most perfectly cut holes around each electrical box. This is no patchwork quilt sheetrock job. No, sir, this is craftsmanship, precision, fastidiousness, attention to detail. This is POP!

We are hoping to be done in time to get a Christmas tree, preferably before December 25th. I may have to call the paramedics.

A note about the first posted pics: The funky brown picture is the wasp nests that lurked behind nearly every wall. The pink stuff in the next photo is the insulation we put in that the previous tenants (the mice) stole to make themselves cozy.