We Will Probably Have This Conversation Years Down The Road

Before I dive into this blog column, I need to explain something. The house we bought in February has 3 bedrooms. The majority of the house had been updated with everything from new hardwood flooring to freshly painted walls. The sellers, who are great people, ran out of time and weren't able to paint 2 out of the 3 bedrooms. 

The smallest bedroom, and the only one that was painted, we converted into our home office. We painted the largest bedroom and that is now the Bodacious DIY Dog Mom Project Workshop. The third bedroom is our bedroom. We have not painted our bedroom yet because we knew it would be a lengthy project. 

Not only is our bedroom painted black and bright green, but there was also shelving we needed to strip down. There was shelving all around the room. Long shelves. Short shelves. Corner shelving.

On a side note, this photo was taken by the realtor before the sellers moved their belongings out. 

Last month, we ripped all of the shelving down. Originally, we were going to dispose of the wood, however, we decided to repurpose it into birdhouses and a picnic table for the squirrels. As you can see from the first photo, the squirrels are loving it.

These are the birdhouses we made and hung on the side of our garage after it was painted last month. All of the birdhouses are occupied.

We even have babies in one of them.

After building the birdhouses and picnic table, we had a few scraps left and a small corner shelf. The corner shelf sat on Lisa's woodshop table for a while.

Last weekend, Lisa did some work in her woodshop. Later that day, she brought 2 pieces into the Bodacious DIY Dog Mom Workshop. She had taken the small corner shelf and drilled a long screw going upward. The long piece of wood was made into a stake.

At the beginning of last week, I painted both a gorgeous Purple Iris. Lisa bought a bag of dried corn cobs. She put the 2 pieces of wood together. Dug a deep hole. Secured it.

We officially have a corn cob feeder for the squirrels. 

I am reminded of last year when Lisa built birdhouses and I worked my magic with paint and detailing. We had a date night that included a trip to Home Depot to purchase the wood and Michael's for paint and other supplies. We built a little over a dozen. We sold all of them except for the one I wanted to keep.

Things have been different this year because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Because Lisa is an essential employee, I voluntarily remained quarantined and Lisa only ran absolutely necessary errands like grocery shopping and picking up medications.

We didn't go to Home Depot or Lowe's for wood or other retailers for paint and supplies. We weren't able to make birdhouses and garden stakes to sell.

Instead, we utilized the bright green wood that had formerly been shelving in our bedroom. We made a few birdhouses and a picnic table and corn cob feeder for the squirrels.

We think that's kind of cool, especially because there's a story behind all of those pieces.

And, I can totally picture the both of us having morning coffee on our back porch years from now and a conversation beginning with, "Do you remember during the COVID-19 pandemic when we ripped down the bright green shelves and..."