Rehabber’s Rehab

Addiction: The condition of being habitually or compulsively occupied with or or involved in something.

When I found myself Tivo-ing every episode of on the HGTV channel and looking at MLS listings 2-3 times a day, I had to ask myself: Do I need help?

Stage 1: Denial. Of course, I don’t need help. I just need a house to work on. For the past year I have been somewhat ruefully/somewhat jokingly telling friends that I got married and moved in with my mother-in-law. Jokingly, only because although it does not sound ideal living with in-laws, it has been great living with Liz’s mom. How could you possibly complain about free room and board, great home cooked meals and a beautiful place to stay in a great neighborhood/suburb?

Whether a new project is my way of denying my addiction or just a way to get my next fix should be left to the medical professionals. Unfortunately, like most addictions this threatens to bring down my family and friends too. This will be Liz’s first full on foray into rehabbing. She had a brief taste of it when I blew up a bedroom wall at Rice street while we were living there and covered the adjacent kitchen (and most of the house) with dirt and plaster for four weeks. Matt is of course a pro/addict himself. Our friends don’t even know what is coming as we invite them to our first demo party after we close on the house.

For the Martin’s rehabbing is really a cycle of addiction that we inherited from our parents, Janis and Randy. Our parents have been remodeling homes for decades, founding historical districts, regenerating an old Grange meeting hall into a modern home, and rejuvenating an old 20′s era Model school into a community arts center. Weekends were spent waking up early, eating donuts and packed lunches, tearing down walls, shoveling plaster, and replacing windows. We had little choice, but to succomb to the high and endorphine rush of transforming drab unexciting buildings into homes, sanctuaries and marvels to the historic nature of buildings in America.

But now I see the symptoms of addiction coming on again. Liz has had trouble sleeping, laying awake at night thinking about ideas for the house. I get antsy waiting for the close and trying to get all of our filings, applications and plans coordinated so that things run on schedule. And of course the anxiety mounts every trip we take to the house when we see even more projects on which to work. Was it a pain in my back that I felt this morning in anticipation of the work yet to do, or was it the need for another fix?

All I know is that this house will have plenty of projects big and small to satisfy my very real addiction to rehabbing. This blog may serve as a cry out for help, not for my addiction, but all the work we have yet to do!