My fiancee is the best, Part One

I love Hal for many many reasons but one of the things I’ve come to appreciate is his handyman skills. Since a large chunk of our kitchen ceiling fell down, we’ve been staring at the lovely floorboards of our attic willing that nothing else falls through the cracks (like small animals). While most people might go straight for the phone for a fix-it person, I live with one so it’s pretty convenient.

Shouldn’t this be our landlord’s responsibility, many have asked. Between the obscenely low rent and Hal’s eagerness to use tools and stand on ladders, it was going to be a DIY project. And of course in prepping for this project, (low) cost trumped convenience. So Hal went and bought the sheet rock mix, the drop cloth, a big bucket to mix the mix and spatulas. He could’ve just purchased sheet rock board, already made and solid that they cut to size, and nailed it up to our remaining ceiling. But it was an afterthought and more money, and apparently returning the mix was just not an option (for some crazy reason).

So yesterday evening around 6 something, I sat on the kitchen floor, arm deep in the bucket, swirling the mix into the water as Hal slowly added the dusty sheet rock like flour to cake batter. We make a good team insofar as my limited sidekick skills go. He then proceeded to attempt to spackle our ceiling, as the sheet rock mix struggled at first to stick up there, giving into gravity more often than not. After finally perfecting the mix to water ratio and his technique, Hal was quite successful at filling in the gap. Forget the fact that the cat got hit with the mix as she tried to outrun the falling globs of it (obviously, she needs to work on her running skills), or that the drop cloth looked like an ostrich had pooped all of it. The work was eventually complete (around 9:30) and victory was Hal’s.

I give him a lot of props. He managed to get the job done, give it the patience it required, thank me for “helping”, and still throw a smile my way.

Of course now he’s convinced we could buy a fixer-upper and do all of the home repairs ourselves. That’s up for debate.

What did I accomplish while he was icing our ceiling? I worked on dinner, as it was pork fajita Wednesday. He can repair ceilings and I apparently am capable of squirting jalapeno juice in my face, causing a slow and painful burn to spread across my forehead and down my nose. I had to take my contact lenses out with fingers covered in seran wrap for fear the jalapeno would get in my eyes. Ever the supportive sidekick though, I did watch Hal complete the job while holding an icepack to my head. Under the glow of the kitchen light, Hal gave me sympathetic looks every once in a while with an “aw, babe, why do you do these things to yourself?” We all have our talents...and that’s why I love him.