I separated the list by what I could do and what I needed to hire out for, and went to Lowes for supplies for the jobs I could do myself. As I was pondering what brush would work for varnish (my entry door), a man behind me asked what I was going to paint. Assuming it was a Lowes employee, I answered before turning around, then discovered that it was just another shopper who saw the confused look on my face and stopped to help.
As we discussed the project, he gave me all sorts of helpful hints, and then as he was walking away offered up his card. He's a handyman! I hired him on the spot.
Today he came to the house and we discussed my projects. Some things, like the sliding glass door which I thought I'd have to replace, he said he can fix instead. We measured for doors and baseboards and then headed to Lowes for supplies.
Since the supplies won't be delivered until Friday, I got lunch at Taco Bell and headed home. My first bite of taco was interrupted by a knock on the door. I answered it, thinking my handyman forgot something. It was a man, probably a Gypsy, selling his services door to door. He offered to clean and seal my vinyl siding, and his price kept going lower and lower while I stood there and listened.
It's on my list to do. Okay, it's on my list to call someone to do if we want to be honest.
And I don't pay him until it's done to my satisfaction. And he'll do it right now and be done in less than 3 hours.
"Okay", I said. He and his wife are doing it now, and from what I see so far it looks a lot better than it did. The front porch looks all clean and shiny, even under the eaves.
One of the items on my list was one I felt I could tackle, even though it involved electrical. The switch on my old closet pull chain light had broken last fall, and the only way to turn the light on was to screw the light bulb in. To turn the light off? You guessed it; unscrew the light bulb. Before I left for Lowes I figured it would be good to measure the old fixture, so I climbed up on the step ladder to do just that. For grins and giggles, I pulled the cord too.
It fixed itself. Or my housekeeper fixed it this summer while I was gone. Or a miracle happened. Anyway, it was the first item I could cross off my list!
I got the hedges trimmed and a hinge fixed too. Three down, a million to go.
My point in all of this, is that sometimes when you truly have an intention, the universe puts people in front of you to help you. Instead of not answering the door like I normally would, I took a chance and there was someone willing to help me accomplish my goal. By striking up a conversation in a hardware store, I found a handyman who is already acting like a father to me, offering to show me what's wrong and how to fix stuff (like the leaky toilet flapper).
And Gypsies are cleaning my house as we speak. One more item off my list, and one more day closer to achieving my goal!
