Sweat Equity
It's no secret that our mother was our resident handyman/gardener/Mrs Fix it, she took care of the house. We often called her "Manual Labour" because she mowed the lawn, trimmed the fruit trees, erected fences and was often sawing/hammering bits of wood together to keep the
deer away. The rest of the time she was sewing pillows, baking muffins, doing our Airbnb linen laundry, cleaning rooms, making beds and keeping our larder filled.
She was happiest puttering outside in her flannel shirt and sweat pants, she'd come in after a few hours with twigs stuck in her hair, various scratches, her crocs all scuffed up and a huge smile on her face. We'd call her in for meals, check if she needed more water and basically let her run wild in the outdoors.
My sister and I did not inherit that love of 'sweat equity', we were more than happy to let her putter around while we attended to other bits. In fact when she noticed that the pear tree was filled with tiny fruits we groaned because we knew we'd have to pick it and can it all summer.
Fast forward to today and it's dawned on us, we are now home owners. So I came up with an idea for Chip and Joanna Gaines, we could start our own tv show on their network and here's the premise.
Two spinster sisters inherit a house in desperate need of some TLC, with no clue how to even use a weed whacker the sisters take on laying down flooring, installing bathroom fans, weeding jungles in their backyard and basically renovating from the ground up. Follow along every week with C & M to discover how they take their fixer upper from dismal to delightful, Sundays at 7pm.
See if I frame it that way it sounds doable, we've watched years of home reno shows - how hard is this going to be? Last night we found the gardening tools and spent 45 minutes pulling out weeds in a small gardening plot out back, by the end we were both drenched in sweat and miserable. We've written 4 pages of things that just didn't get done over the years, my sister and I were basically lazy and just did the minimum to keep up appearances. Well guess what? We've lost our Manual Labour and now it's up to us. I'll keep you posted on our progress and if anyone knows Joanna Gaines, tell her we've got a story idea. Hugs.
Photo by Scott Blake

I know you two can do this. You are both incredibly talented. I'm not saying it will be easy, but you'll do what needs to be done.
ReplyDeleteLittle one here, love your idea for a TV show. That's motivation in itself. Michelle
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