It’s been obvious since I moved out on my own that I am in fact turning into my mother–slowly but surely.  The good thing about that is that my mom is pretty darn amazing.  If I have to come to terms with the idea that she and I will always be a bit eccentric in the same direction, I can do that.  In fact, I’m more and more okay with it as the years pass.  She’s cool.

Unfortunately, I didn’t inherit all of my mom’s good traits.  For example, she’s one of the hardest workers I know.  Don’t get me wrong, I’m not a lazy bum by any stretch of the imagination.  But I have a tiny bit less stamina for unfun projects than my mom does.  She can start a project that she’s dreading, work extremely hard for a week, and still have energy to finish the project until the very last thing is done. 

I, however, might get sidetracked here or there.  I might procrastinate on said project in favor of something less dreaded.  I might start the project, get into another project, and come back to the first project three weeks later.  You get the idea.

Last night, I was caulking a few last pieces of floor trim, taping and taping and taping, and generally not enjoying my project.  I thought I was finished caulking, and I felt a glimmer of happiness welling up inside of me.  Then I looked up and remembered that there was this weird gap between the ceiling and cabinets that I’ve been eying with frustration since I painted the cabinets white.  It’s been a while.  Why was that stupid gap still there?  Now the happiness was mixed with DIY angst.

Then I realized that I had white caulk in my hands, and the ceiling is white, and the cabinets are white, and music started playing in my head.  This was my moment to become the awesome Finish It All version of my mom.  Yay!!! 

So I did.  Look at that smooth, professional joint between cabinet and ceiling!  (Oh, you’re wondering about our “open concept” cabinet there?  Well, it turns out that when you change flooring, sometimes that changes how your fridge fits under your cabinets.  And sometimes you have to shave off part of a cabinet door to make it fit back into place.  We’re just glad the fridge still fits.)

Thanks, Mom.  You were definitely my project inspiration last night.  The house projects aren’t super fun right now, but they are the last details to get to the really fun part called moving stuff back into the room.