Something new!

In our crazy busy lives, we keep doing what were doing. It's hard to step out of our comfort zone and try anything new. Well I guess I should talk about my comfort zone! This is true in all parts of my life. I dont like change and I hate the unknown. I think I would be completely ok with coming home each night after work and just chilling. Well lucky for me or unlucky for me my wife is the polar opposite. She's alwasy pushing me to do more, keep stepping out of my cute little box of life.

So one evening, after watching numerous videos and looking at tons of pictures, she has a project we can do. Were going to add some life to our bedroom wall. You know, the wood plank look. "It's totally easy, we just take this double sided tape and run it up the wall, attach the pieces to it and bam, we are done" Simple enough? I'm skeptical, double sided sticky tape to hold up product that is normally meant for the floor? Anyway were off to home depot. Down the aisle, looking at all the options, so many options! As were narrowing our options down, I decide to watch the how to video Tegan has seen. Instantly , i'm out. There is no way all this is going to stay on a wall, the tape will dry, and the whole wall could end up on our heads! I voice my concern, she says this how everyone is doing it. I proceed to pull up another video, totally different process. The video I found seems like a much better approach. Only issue is , I have no fricken idea what half of these tools are! instantly im feeling overwhelmed, this project is way beyond my skill set. Tegan can sense it and asks are we going to have to hire someone? Bam-gut check! Tension rises in the lovely aisles of home depot, good news is there is not a soul around. Did I want to say yes? Absolutely I dont have any idea what i'm in for. I know what im good at and I always stay within my comfort zone. Adding flooring to my wall, ya not my comfort zone. We decide to just pick up the wood flooring at this point, we can discuss further how we will proceed. Besides it has to sit in the room and acclimate for 48 hours. Both videos agreed on this.

That night I go to good old facebook looking for pointers of how to. Within minutes a friend (talented friend with loads of construction experience) calls and gives me a 5 minute rundown of the process and the tools required. After tape measure and level I had no idea what he said, ya ya, that makes sense, thats what i'm saying. In my mind i'm thinking WTF did I get myself into? We are going to have to hire someone! He was kind enough to shoot me a list of tools, damn they matched the video I had watched. Brat gun? is that a weapon? two different kinds of saws. What was I thinking? After getting off the phone, Tegs and I chatted. For some reason I was a little happy that it wasnt going to go up with sticky tape, my video was better, Would have been so much easier with sticky tape!

Upon receiving the list of required materials, I immediately forwarded them to my dad. He is a man of many skills. He could build a house, literally doing everything himself. I dont think there is anything he couldnt build. We have built bunk beds for my kids. he literally sat down , visualized what he was going to build, wrote down the list of materials and off to the store we went. We did not need to make a second trip. When I sent that list, as i'm sure he knew it was a "hey if your bored, I could probalby use some help" as much as do you have these tools. He responded right away , having all the necessary tools and the mindset that we would be able to knock this out without a problem.

The following Sunday, after church we began. He shows up with a truckload of tools, instantly my stress level goes up. What the hell do we need all of theses things for? I am one to take short cuts, he is a perfectionist. I want immediate gratification, he could work on a project for days or weeks as long as it was done right. I can get overwhelmed by the pure sight of a project. Truly anything more than a days worth of work and I stress. I once bought a garage door opener, you know I was going to install it myself. I brought It home, slid it out of the box. Oh, hell no, there was like 1,234,543 different parts. No way was I ever going to have the patience to do it. Before I returned it my dad had seen it and needless to say we installed it. As soon as he shows up, the stress level reduces, he is calm and confident. So back to the floor going on the wall- We spent the better part of that Sunday putting it up. Looks awesome, was It difficult? No, it was something new, something I would have avoided if he was not so sure that we could do It.

It was rewarding to have accomplished it! I'm good at business, that is my specialty. I know my weaknesses and working on that wall would definitely have fit under that category. I was proud of what we had done. It's a different kind of proud when you get to work with your hands! I have always sucked at building things, so this was cool. I am barely able to assemble something out of the box. I hate to read directions, I just want it to be done! I once put together one of my kiddos bicycles, this is embarrassing. We are camping with some friends, kids are riding their bikes. My buddy is watching Jordan ride, man he looks like he's struggling. Something looks off? He gets up to take a look, I had put the bike together and the front fork was backwards! Poor kid! Anyway I was stoked, the wall looked great! The following morning at my box, a friend had seen my fb post. He has wanted to add some planks to his wall for over a year. I said "let's do it" I had gained enough confidence in mine that I knew we could do his too! Few days later, and his is done! Looked great!

At this point I was 2/2. Tegan wanted the downstairs done, our living room wall. Off to the store to get our supplies. We had to add frame around our windows to get the look we wanted, Learned another process along the way. 10 hours later and the 3rd wall of the week was done. I had gone for asking for help, to being asked for help. Quite a few people have reached out for pointers and how tos. Going to help a fellow business owner do the same thing in a few weeks! Granted I didn't start this on my own, and might not have done it at all, but I did do it! You can do it too!

The reward, feeling of accomplishment, pride whatever you wanna call it all came from leaving my comfort zone. It would have been easier to hire someone, but now I get to look at what I did everyday I get up and every night I go to sleep. Thanks for the push Tegan Lee, and thanks dad for the guiding hands....