my renovation superhero origin story….

If you know me, you know that I’m NEVER doing only one thing at a time. I not only have ADHD (no, really, diagnosed after 30 years of high functioning in the workplace, the pandemic kind of wrecked all my coping mechanisms and made me stop and think, HUH. I’m back up and running now, like an energetic octopus with power tools and rolls of wallpaper (maybe that should be my next tattoo?).

So here we are. Turning my hobby—i.e. what Laura does instead of relaxing on weekends…or if you’re generous, what Laura does TO relax on weekends—into my “side hustle.” The nice thing about something being your side hustle and not your main hustle is that you can pump the brakes if you need to, you can take things on slowly, because this isn’t your only form of income, you know?

Friends have been telling me I should do this for at least two decades (that and party planning, because I love a good theme, but Lord have mercy, I can’t bake for crap and it’s very temporary…I prefer doing the stuff that lasts. My husband finally said, “Hey…so you’re running out of things to renovate in our own house….so” …’please go overturn someone else’s house,’ was the subtext there. In March 2023, the sewer line under our house completely collapsed into itself while we were out of town at a wedding in Miami. My mom and stepdad were watching the kids and mom texted me to say “Hey sweetie, call me when you get a chance?” That’s never good. There was sewage coming up through the basement shower, and none of the toilets would flush. Rotorooter came out and diagnosed the problem and flushed things clear enough to keep us working for a week or so, and then we flew home (all relaxation GONE!) got quotes, and within a week we were $27,000 poorer with a giant Grand Canyon in our front yard and a jackhammered basement.

Standing on my front porch, looking out. They removed a big panel of our beautiful fence to drive this monster in, and then drove right over all my plants.

This hole was pretty deep. I am used to living in a construction zone because I’m always doing some sort of reno but this was truly traumatizing.

Our finished basement looked like the surface of Mars.

Oh look! The laundry room I had already renovated! <eats ice cream while crying>

So really, I HAD to renovate the basement bathroom (now a hole in the ground big enough to bury a fully grown adult man) and buy new trees for the yard. I had no choice. Poor me!