Getting It Done: DIY on your Lunch Break

Work-life balance has never been one of my strengths. I like to work. Hard. And for most of my adult life that has translated into sixty-hour work weeks, and a little time left over to play with my tools and write about it on the internet. But one of the interesting side effects of taking on an ohmigod-this-is-huge kind of project is that I’ve had to find a balance between work and the rest of my life.

All of the sudden I have roofing materials to buy and tiling to finish and a good chunk of my hours after 5PM are devoted to contractors class. And grouting things. For the last couple of months I’ve been doing a good job of only working 45-ish hours a week at my Actual Real Job, and one of the ways I’ve been balancing things out a bit more is by strategically using my lunch breaks, last week, for example…

Monday

Shopping for windows…

Tuesday

Considering cultured stone options…

Wednesday

More windows…

Friday

Grouting my mom’s bathroom tile…

The grouting thing was actually quite an accomplishment. I drove to her house (mach 3) whipped off my good jeans and changed into a work pair the second I stepped in her door, and then spent 55 minutes with my mom getting all 50 square-feet of her bathroom tile grouted and sponged off. I was back at my desk an hour and fifteen minutes after I left, with much dirtier fingernails.

Hey, a girl’s gotta do…

2 Responses

  1. Wow, love it. I usually spend my work hour planning our next project and making lists of supplies to get. Maybe next time I should just drive home and get it done, instead of just thinking about it.

  2. I am the queen of lunchtime projects. Well, maybe you are with the grouting! Once I went home, whipped on yucky clothes, and primed an entire hallway worth of trim (7 doorways) with BIN on a lunchbreak. That was insane because BIN requires so much mixing, and cleanup with denatured alcohol. I also whip out my drill on a regular basis, because I love going back to work with sawdust on my boobs. I say, what else is your lunchbreak for? ha

    ps – we just installed Marvin windows, and they are super!

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