New Windows

Today we replaced our old, ugly and drafty aluminum windows with new, energy efficient ones that will lower our heating bills and increase our curb appeal. This is the type of thing that makes me feel like a real “grown-up.”

While marriage and parenting make me feel pretty grown-up, home ownership is just a different animal. There was a time in my life that I couldn’t really do the basic functions of the over 18 set. When my peers were doing things like paying their credit card bills, attending classes, finding summer jobs, I was tanking my credit and hiding under the covers of anxiety and depression. Over the last 10 years or so, I’ve slowly taken on the various tasks of growing up, and each new milestone kind of makes me feel like Jacob when he first figured out a Melissa & Doug puzzle, hands raised in the air with a big grin: “I did it!”

For some, things like home improvement may seem like a simple thing. For a Monkey Brain it can be somewhat excruciating to corral the millions of different directions that a MB wants to go. The non-MB may look at it like this:

1. Research contractors
2. Obtain bids
3. Review and select bid
4. Schedule installation
5. Have windows installed
6. Pay contractor
7. Claim tax credit

Here’s the typical Monkey Brain version:
1. Research contractors
(Go to Yelp.com and proceed to get distracted by shiny objects such as restaurant reviews, other home improvement projects, oh, let me check out Ikea’s curtain selection. . .)
2. Obtain Bids
(Receive bid, add to mail “pile” for review, ignore mail pile until it starts to fall over like a tower of Jenga, review and sort mail pile, return bid to mail pile. Repeat until husband says something to the effect of “Don’t we need that tax credit in 2009?”)
3. Review and select bid
4. Schedule Installation
5. Pay Contractor
6. Claim tax credit

Items 3-5 are pretty much driven by the contractor, and item 6 is the responsibility of my financial advisor/husband, so once 1&2 were done, it was easy peasy.

And while in my professional life I can project manage the shit out of anything, much of that energy is saved for work so my Monkey Brain freak flag can fly when I’m at home. But when you add other people (husband, kids) and stuff (mortgage, car payments, home maintenance) to the mix, there’s not much room for Monkey Brain.

It’s a simple thing, but a task that I never thought I’d be able to complete, what with all the follow through and methodical planning involved. But I did it. It took longer than the average Josephine, but I did it all the same.

Caitlin: 1, Monkey Brain: 0.