For the past few days my dear husband Lew and I have been making the most of the Labor Day weekend by engaging in that beautiful American tradition of carrying out wildly ambitious home improvement projects.

Although I have been helping to the best of my abilities (runs to the dump, Home Depot and McDonald’s, pulling out floor staples with needle-nose pliers, sweeping and sweeping and sweeping again), Lew has done the lion’s share of the work in ripping out our nasty old carpet and installing wood flooring. We’ve done the dining room, hall and living room.

I am terrifically excited about this, as the flooring is beautiful. My cat Man Ray doesn’t like it much, though, because he doesn’t like everything changing places, and there’s too much noise and not enough laps to snooze on. Nor do the fish, I think, since they had to be moved into the kitchen for “the duration.” Lew’s body is aching, but his spirit is strong since he’s doing such a fantastic and meticulous job. We’re also both very excited because by doing it ourselves we’re saving roughly two thousand dollars in installation costs. That savings allowed us to buy a new stove, for one, and a couple of things that increase the “curb appeal” of our home. Mind you, adding these things has increased the curb appeal like a 400 lb. man losing two pounds would make him look “thinner,” but it’s a start!

I don’t have anything particularly “psychic” to say about this, other than that as we were winding down last night after the work was done for the day, it crossed my mind that I was smack dab in the middle of seeing my dreams come true. Ever since my cat Man Ray started bringing in his kills and disemboweling them in the middle of the night, therein slowly trashing the carpet to the point of no return, I knew I had to get rid of the carpets altogether. Some stains just will not come out, no matter how hard you try! How many hours, cumulatively, had I thought and talked about replacing this carpet? How many times had I browsed at Home Depot, looking, ruminating, dreaming?

I believe that from the first thought about it until now, there was about a four year gestation period. But it happened. We actually made it happen! And I am thrilled. When the edging is installed, the furniture is moved back to its place, the floor is dustmopped, and the plants and the fish and the books are all back in their homes, we will be able to sit in our living room with the satisfaction of not only having done the job well, but also knowing that we were able to make a dream a reality. I will see if I actually WILL think the deep, poetic thoughts I imagined myself being able to think, while in my wooden-floored living room! I will see if my fantasies of getting my books and poems written actually can come true.

I will let you know! In the meantime, Happy Labor Day!