Simple home improvement joys

It seems like I've had intermittent home improvement spurts over the last few years. When we moved back to Cleveland in late 2011 I did the great fake brass purge of door knobs and light fixtures. In 2014, when we moved into our first build in Orange County, there were many ceiling fans and such. Then again late last year, with OC house v2, it was the fans and curtains and light fixtures. But I kind of stopped there, and didn't install any kitchen hardware, or replace the crappy cheap kitchen faucet that the builder installed.

Eight months later, I finally got the hardware in and the faucet. Mind you, the hardware delay was at least partly the result of indifference toward everything we saw. I was ready to just do the same thing we had at the previous house, but then Diana found something we both liked, and for $73 we magically obtained what the builder would have charged us a grand for, if they would have even had it as an option in the first place (they didn't). This covered 19 drawer handles and 25 door pulls (or something like that), for which drilling gets pretty old after awhile. It's not complicated, it just takes a few hours and careful attention so as not to make some holes you'll regret.

The faucet probably only took a half-hour to replace, and most of that time was spent trying to figure out how to route the hose so the counterweight didn't catch on the horribly placed plumbing. (Sidebar: All of this plastic plumbing in Florida houses bothers me for some reason.) But alas, I disposed of the hideous chrome cheap thing, and all is right with the kitchen.

I'm surprised at how much joy it brings me to enter the kitchen now. I mean, the work wasn't particularly hard, the result isn't really fancy, but every time I tug on a drawer now or wash a dish, it feels like I made some meaningful contribution to the place. This is the kind of home improvement work that fits best in my skill level, which is to say it's very, very low. It's gratifying and simple, and it's nice to have simple victories.