Okay, I know that I'm not exactly mainstream when it comes to gift giving. I wasn't really terribly surprised, then, to hear that my daughter's best friend was horrified and offended by the Christmas present I gave my daughter. What kind of mother would give her kid radiation sickness pills for Christmas? she wanted to know. (Um, . . . maybe the kind of mom who doesn't want her daughter to die from radiation poisoning? I mean, that would be my answer.) So, yeah, maybe not all parents give their children emergency preparedness kits as a way of saying "Happy Holidays". I get that.
Although I do think it was an awesome gift, and kind of funny, too.
I tread carefully when it comes to gift giving, because I really don't want to spend money on stupid excessive waste that just adds to landfills, or promote mindless consumption of non-renewable resources. On the other hand, I don't really want to go around offending people either. So it was with a bit of trepidation, a few weeks ago, that I asked I-daughter what she wanted for her upcoming birthday.
She didn't even hesitate one second. "I'm SO glad you asked!" I heard this and wondered if this meant I'd be headed for the mall for the first time in . . . I dunno, a decade. But instead she said, "One of the boards in my back porch stairs is starting to rot, and I was hoping you could replace it."
K-daughter, sitting nearby, overheard this and immediately joined in, "Oh, now I'm jealous! That's the kind of thing I want to ask for, but I don't have back porch stairs that someone could fix."
So, apparently I raised my daughters right. Or at least, right for me. Yay!
It turns out that I-daughter's front porch stairs also need to be replaced, and we turned this into a Mother's Day gathering. Eventually, we'll need to get new lumber and replace the whole set of stairs, but this past Sunday the three of us gathered to take measurements and shore up the existing stairs to make things more steady. The old fence around my yard that I dismantled a few years ago keeps being reincarnated in new forms; the latest form is porch stairs, apparently.
It was good to be together. K-daughter loves to work on projects with me, and so I led her through using the circular saw, and the cordless drill, and -- because the battery on the cordless drill died -- how to use a chuck to switch out drill bits on a very old but very serviceable corded drill. (It is possible that my daughters might have gotten future Christmas gift ideas from this experience, but I'll let that be a surprise to me and/or others in the future.)
It was also good to futz around with an imperfect repair before we bought supplies for the replacement steps. We spent no money, but got valuable insights that will help make the eventual, more permanent stairs, better (the ground slopes so the supports need to be at different heights, etc).
I-daughter says that her neighbors have priced out getting a new porch roof (she'll go in on this with them, because it's a duplex and therefore they share the roof). She says they also priced out getting new porch stairs, and the estimate was $2000. So I could do the whole yada-yada thing and say I gave her one of the most expensive gifts blah blah . . .
But really, the gift was a big mutual one. It's the gift of time we spend together as a family, even with my "kids" grown and out of the house. It's the gift that we actually like spending time together, which is kind of a miracle, I figure. It's the gift of getting psyched about using power tools, or about finding needs that we can somehow fulfill. It's the gift that my daughters give me by loving me for who I am, mall-phobic and all.
Although I do think it was an awesome gift, and kind of funny, too.
I tread carefully when it comes to gift giving, because I really don't want to spend money on stupid excessive waste that just adds to landfills, or promote mindless consumption of non-renewable resources. On the other hand, I don't really want to go around offending people either. So it was with a bit of trepidation, a few weeks ago, that I asked I-daughter what she wanted for her upcoming birthday.
She didn't even hesitate one second. "I'm SO glad you asked!" I heard this and wondered if this meant I'd be headed for the mall for the first time in . . . I dunno, a decade. But instead she said, "One of the boards in my back porch stairs is starting to rot, and I was hoping you could replace it."
 |
| A birthday gift for my daughter: a new stair tread. |
So, apparently I raised my daughters right. Or at least, right for me. Yay!
It turns out that I-daughter's front porch stairs also need to be replaced, and we turned this into a Mother's Day gathering. Eventually, we'll need to get new lumber and replace the whole set of stairs, but this past Sunday the three of us gathered to take measurements and shore up the existing stairs to make things more steady. The old fence around my yard that I dismantled a few years ago keeps being reincarnated in new forms; the latest form is porch stairs, apparently.
 |
| Me watching K-daughter use the circular saw. I think I really look like *my* mom in this photo! |
It was also good to futz around with an imperfect repair before we bought supplies for the replacement steps. We spent no money, but got valuable insights that will help make the eventual, more permanent stairs, better (the ground slopes so the supports need to be at different heights, etc).
I-daughter says that her neighbors have priced out getting a new porch roof (she'll go in on this with them, because it's a duplex and therefore they share the roof). She says they also priced out getting new porch stairs, and the estimate was $2000. So I could do the whole yada-yada thing and say I gave her one of the most expensive gifts blah blah . . .
But really, the gift was a big mutual one. It's the gift of time we spend together as a family, even with my "kids" grown and out of the house. It's the gift that we actually like spending time together, which is kind of a miracle, I figure. It's the gift of getting psyched about using power tools, or about finding needs that we can somehow fulfill. It's the gift that my daughters give me by loving me for who I am, mall-phobic and all.
 |
| I-daughter and K-daughter on the stairs, with my fancy "construction vehicle" in front. |
This whole post makes my heart so happy for a variety of reasons. Nice work! Wish I could come work with you. I like the idea of doing this but am nervous (and don't have any wood items that need to be replaced).
ReplyDeleteI love gifts of service and tools and such!
ReplyDeleteI love this SOOO much! I still have a deep and abiding fear of circular saws, but other than that, I'm right there with you. Honestly, if people were to look at some of the gifts CatMan has given me over the years, they'd think, "WHAT?!?" But seriously, I would much rather have a new torque wrench than something stupid like jewelry!
ReplyDelete