Getting Started

I have an itch to take on a household project. It really would not be a huge amount of work, at least if I have read the information correctly in my Complete Guide to Home Repair, Maintenance and Improvement. There is just that first step….drilling a hole in the ceiling of my bedroom downstairs to find out if there is an appropriate place to mount a bracket in the attic rafters to hang a ceiling fan and light fixture. Once the hole is drilled, it will become a permanent element of the house. If I drill in the wrong place, I will have to fill the hole with putty and it will likely not match the existing ceiling color. Taking that first step is a difficult task to consider. You can not easily repaint a pop-corn textured ceiling. I find myself staring at the ceiling with a mixture of dread and excitement.

My home is a 1.5 story home, so the downstairs bedroom extends partially under the upstairs guest bedroom. It is difficult to know just how far back into that bedroom, or its closet or the attic the light fixture would need to be placed. Furthermore, if its location should fall into the attic or closet, then I will have to pull up some of the flooring in those areas to install the light downstairs. I shudder to think of the damage I might be able to do in just a few minutes time and the expense it could take for someone to come in and repair my handiwork. I am having the old carpet replaced in the house anyway, and there has been a delay in its installation until the new carpet arrives in mid-December, so this would be a good time to start.

I am pretty handy at times with tools. I have even been named an honorary lesbian by some of my lesbian friends. I even knew one who had tool-envy over my drill once. My drill had built in level and hers did not! Being handy is an advantage. The most significant problem is that my body doesn’t exactly cooperate with me these days. I have muscle spasms, cramps and pain, and joint pain as well. Working with my hands makes them go numb after a few minutes using a screwdriver, for example. All of these issues are potentially related to my medication, or maybe to my HIV infection, or maybe just because I am getting older. There is great difficulty in teasing out the exact cause, but, either way, this makes the potential for failure a bit higher.

I have never had any training in how to do home repairs, but then neither did my dad and that never stopped him. I used to hold the flashlight for him while he repaired wiring or worked on our water pumps that had frozen up. It is interesting how much of that I absorbed as a child. Mainly, I think I just came away without an unusual amount of fear that I would fail at something. Rarely have I taken on a project where I had to call in an expert later to cover my errors. There is always the chance that it can happen, though.

So, a ¼ inch hole in the middle of my ceiling….how bad can it be? I will keep you posted as I work my way through this.

Categories: home+improvement