Tag: work from home

Too early for fall decor

There are two camps today in the decor world:

Those who think it’s too early to decorate for fall and those who think it’s never too early to decorate for fall.

I fall into the former camp.

It’s August. It’s Arizona. We’re still dealing with 100-plus-degree temperatures outside. No amount of plastic pumpkins is going to cool the weather or make autumn come faster. No amount of maple leaves strewn across the walk are going to psyche me into thinking it’s 60 degrees out.

Besides, I don’t hate summer. In fact, I’ve come to enjoy it.

Summer loving

Summer is Phoenix’s slow time. The off season. It’s the time of year that fewer people are in town (though I wouldn’t know from experience anymore since I rarely leave the house).

Summer is the quieter season. Hardly anyone is outside. Neighbors walk their dogs or venture outdoors for exercise in the early morning hours or later at night, and the walks are pretty quick. It’s a virtual ghost town compared to winter months.

Summer is hibernation time, which works for my hermit tendencies. There’s nothing more comforting on a blazing-hot day than air-conditioning, the sound of cicadas and an afternoon nap.

But here’s the real truth.

Enjoy today

Pumpkins lead to turkeys, which lead to snowmen and Christmas trees. Then, we’re at the eve of the New Year.

I’m in no rush to see 2020 end. Not because it’s been a fabulous year, but because it hasn’t been a fabulous year. Sound crazy? Let me break it down for you.

The years move fast enough as it is, and 2020 has moved faster than any of my 48 years. Time is slipping through my hands, and I still have a lot goals I want to accomplish.

On a larger scale, I want to hold onto the year so that something good can come of it. Even though the chances of that are slim, I can still hope. If this still doesn’t make sense, let me flip it around for you.

What will 2021 bring? Maybe a vaccine. Maybe social change. Maybe peace on our streets. The new year could bring all of those things, or one or two of those things. Or it could bring none of those things.

What if 2021 is more of the same, or worse? So why wish away the time we do have? Why wish away our lives for something that isn’t guaranteed?

Besides, I’m not 100 percent certain that nothing good has happened in 2020.

Small joys

Take this blog, for instance. This blog had been in the works since 2018 when John and I decided to buy a new house together. I had big plans for decorating each room and sharing the journey on a design blog.

After some procrastination, I finally put my butt in gear, bought a laptop and got to writing. Because I have a full-time job, I knew I would have to devote evenings and weekends to the blog.

But not even two weeks after launching Designing Goldilocks, my employer told me to work from home until further notice because of the coronavirus. That meant I could turn the two hours per day I spent commuting into working on content for this blog. What a gift.

That’s not to say I’m thankful for the virus. Nothing could be further from the truth. Does 2020 suck? Yes, it does. But I also believe we can find small joys in 202o if we simply stop and look around.

Discoveries

And that’s exactly it. No one stops anymore. Everyone is on the go. Chasing the next thing rather than enjoying what they have. And I’m guilty of this myself, which is why I can speak to it.

If nothing else comes out of 2020, I would hope that I at least realized what’s important in life. Even though I write a design blog, I’m taking a more minimalist approach to home decor.

I’m buying what’s essential – rugs, curtains, furniture – and saying no to tabletop items, which is really all that fall decor is.

Don’t get me wrong. It’s fun to shop for this stuff and decorate the house and lawn. One of my guilty pleasures is watching others venture into stores and sharing on social media new finds from Target, HomeGoods, and other decor stores. But it’s no fun taking down the stuff and finding a place to store it.

Stuff is not important. It’s who you have in your life that’s important. The coronavirus hasn’t kept me from my stuff. The virus has kept me from family, friends, and the freedom to explore the world and the gems within my beautiful state.

Rather than rush to set up hay bales on my front porch, I long to travel to real pumpkin patches and sunflower fields. Rather than create a fall facade across the lawn, I long to drive to the mountains and see real leaves changing colors.

But I can’t have that. At least not right now. Maybe I can spend time with family and travel a year from now. But there’s no guarantee. So why rush the time away? I know what I have today. And I’m okay with today – the joys, the warts and all.

As fall approaches, I long to visit pumpkin patches and sunflower fields. Photo by Cindy Hernandez

Home repairs in the age of Covid

So you’ve been staying home as much as possible, taking all of the necessary precautions to keep yourself and your family safe from the coronavirus.

You only leave the house when it’s absolutely necessary. You wear a mask in public. You have most everything delivered. You’ve done good.

But a few months have passed, and while locking yourself in your house is working, life isn’t stopping. Situations where you’ll need to interact with other people are cropping up.

What do you do?

Home inspection

John and I had to face this situation recently. We were coming up on a year of being in the new house and wanted to provide the builder with a list of potential fixes.

There were minor things we were aware of, such as a door not closing properly. But to uncover problems we could not see or were not qualified to detect, we had to hire a home inspector.

This meant someone would be in our home – in our personal space – for a couple of hours touching doorknobs, window treatments, and more.

There wasn’t much discussion about it. John and I knew it had to be done. If we thought we would live in this house forever, we may have chosen to accept whatever issues existed and forgo the home inspection.

But because we plan to sell the house in a few years, we knew it would be better to have the builder make the fixes now rather than hope the coronavirus would let up and pay for the fixes ourselves for a prospective buyer later.

Even if it meant allowing a stranger to come into the house at the height of the pandemic.

Establish safety guidelines

Shortly after I started working from home, I had a conversation with a co-worker who was still grocery-shopping in person. I asked her if she was scared. She said yes, but that she wears a mask, shops in the early hours when the store isn’t as crowded, and prays.

John made some phone calls to home inspectors and found one he liked. The home inspector agreed to wear a mask and gloves while in the house and practice social distancing. We set up the appointment.

Because I still work from home, I took the day off. I wanted to be available for any questions or concerns the home inspector might have. But I also wanted him to feel free to inspect the house thoroughly, and not short shrift my work area in order to keep his distance from me.

The process was painless. The inspector wore protection as agreed upon and kept a safe distance during conversations. He wrote up his report at home and e-mailed it to us later to limit the time he spent in our house.

Build up courage, again

The home inspection was behind us, but it was only the first step in the process. Now we had to submit the report to the builder, and meet with the contractor to go over the details.

This meant establishing safety guidelines again and opening our house to another stranger. I took another day off.

Similar to the home inspector, the contractor wore protection and kept a safe distance as he walked through the house, reviewing what the inspector had documented.

He even scheduled some of the exterior work to be done that day to get the ball rolling. For the interior items, the contractor established a schedule that would cause the least amount of disruption to our lives.

But he left it up to us.

Did we want as many tradesmen in the house at one time in order to get the work done quicker?

Or did we prefer limiting the number of tradesmen in the house at a time but schedule the repairs over the course of several days?

We chose the latter, even though it meant building up the courage again and again to open our house to strangers.

The contractor also promised to let the companies know to send their people out with masks and gloves. But as a commitment to our health and well-being, he would leave protection behind for anyone who showed up unprepared.

John had a stroke a few years back and falls into the high-risk category. Because we share a home, I too must take every precaution necessary so as not to pass anything on to him.

Open house

The first few days of repairs went off without a hitch. The tradesmen were punctual, professional and showed up with their own protection.

We had men fixing seals around doors, blowing insulation into the attic, patching and painting stucco, and filling in grout lines.

People were coming and going with John serving as the foreman. It was like that scene in the 1980’s comedy-drama Mr. Mom, but without the steamy shower.

One worker showed up without a mask, but was happy to oblige when John handed him one.

Ongoing work

And no I did not take additional time off. The room in which I work only needed one fix, which took about five minutes. It was quick and easy. Plus, I didn’t want to chance taking the day off and not have a tradesman show up.

In fact, one of the companies did have to cancel, which leaves a few repairs undone. But with the Covid-19 cases at an all-time-high right now, we took it as a sign to hold off.

And so we wait. And pray. Knowing we will have to work up the courage yet again to open our house to strangers to finish the work.

Even in the pandemic, it may be necessary to allow a stranger to come into your home to make repairs. The best you can do is require they wear masks and gloves, and then pray. Photo by Cindy Hernandez.