Renovation Empathy

I have a confession to make: I’ve never lived through a renovation.

Well, except when I was eleven. My parents expanded and updated our kitchen, and for several months we had a makeshift kitchen set up in the finished basement. We had to go outside the front door and back in through the garage to reach the stairs down, and I thought it was awfully novel. There was a plastic canopy covering the walkway, so our pajamas were safe from the elements. I remember wearing a robe for these passages and feeling quite pleased by the whole thing. It was exciting.

Looking back, I’m sure this time was much less novel for my mom, who cooked three meals a day on a hot plate and microwave and did most of the dishes in a bar sink.

I was feeling this acutely this week because we are having our house painted. This is the first time I have hired someone to paint at my house, having always done it myself in the past. Like many clients, I recognized that this time it was beyond me and that the project would be best served by the pros. I brought in our long-time painters, Cutting Edge Inc, and they are totally professional in every way: planning an effective strategy for moving through the house, effectively protecting the site, sensitively moving what needs to be moved, and being attentive to clean up and to making our spaces usable over night. Despite all of that, a project that touches all the walls and ceiling is totally invasive (and we are not touching key systems, like plumbing or electrical!)

Let’s just say my client empathy is through the roof.

My morning routine is disrupted by the extra people in my house.

My evenings require extra of me, dismantling one room or re-installing another. If I have time to relax, well, the TV has been removed from the wall and the couch has the chairs on top.

My office at one point in the painting process

Extra chairs and rugs in the basement for the duration

I’m not complaining; I know it is a privilege to have someone else labor on my behalf, and to have the means (mental, physical, financial) to refresh my home. But as much as I try to put myself in clients’ shoes, there’s just so much more to learn from experiencing things directly.

I always tell clients that it will feel fast in hindsight, and that it will all be worth it. For us, a simple paint job has also meant a thorough cleaning of hard-to-reach spots, sending out rugs to be refreshed, considering a re-hang of all the art (though I am loath to put holes in the walls, now that they are pristine!), and a thorough edit of our possessions as we bring things back in. I will still be up to my neck in it for the next week or two, but as I sit here watching the light play across my white walls, free of a dozen years of hand prints, nail holes, and dog nose smudges, I already know it was totally worth it.

For many of my clients, with much bigger renovations, it will be a much longer haul, but the results will have that much more impact, too.