Brick Bashing

Early in our marriage I learned the therapeutic properties of home repair. It involved a long stressful week at work, some ugly paneling and a last minute cry not to do it. Hubs thought I might regret pulling the paneling down.

Nope. I never did. I happily ripped that ugly stuff off the walls and exposed faded turquois paint. After an hour of ripping and tearing down paneling, I was a much calmer lady. I learned an important lesson that day. Home Improvement and positive mental health go hand in hand for me. It doesn’t get much better than that!

Tonight I bashed bricks.

I did not make this hole. We discovered the holes in the brick when we originally removed the “wallpaper” in the kitchen. Remember?

I use quotes on the “wallpaper” because it was actually on thin plywood over the brick wall.

You can see the hole for the electrical on the right just above the counter and the one on the left of the sink is the outlet, just above the canisters.

I had chiseled out the broken bricks on the left side of the sink back in June some time. I still needed to do the right side.

Today was a perfect storm of dealing with some drama for nearly a week now, the reality that Hubs is gone and all the stuff falls to me and a brick wall in need of bashing. After the last week I’ve had, trust me when I tell you that tonight I really, really, reallyreallyreally needed to bash bricks.

So, I bashed.

This picture is semi-staged. I set the timer and then quickly wedged myself  in between the wall and the tripod, hence my prissy hold on the chisel.

I chipped out the damaged brick on this side and it felt good. Really good. Like I may or may not have have taken out my aggressions on my poor brick wall. Like I said, it felt good. Honestly, though, it mostly felt good to have it done.

This silly little project has been on my To Do list since early this summer.

This photo is dated June 27th. Items 5-8 have are still on my fridge. I refuse to rewrite this list. My goal is to try my hand at brick cutting tomorrow. I need to cut 3 bricks to fill the smaller holes.

Don’t tell Hubs but my hand is a little sore now. I may or may not have missed with the hammer more than once. As my mom always used to say, “No pain, no beauty!” Of course, she usually said that as she was tucking us into bed the night before picture day as we tried to go to sleep with a head full of brush hair rollers that stabbed our scalps all night long. #KidsTheseDaysHaveItSoEasy #YouDontEvenKnow

Still, mom was right. I will gladly take a couple of bruises to get another thing checked off my list. Oh, and speaking of lists, I can’t technically cross off any items yet, but maybe I can do that tomorrow. I have several items in process. Fingers crossed!

Also, I think (knock on wood) that all the drama stuff is now over. At least, I sure hope it is because I will have to find something else to bash if it’s not.

Do you ever take out your aggressions on a home improvement project?