“Everything is figureoutable…”

 Shared by Breanne Smedley

In 2014, Brett and I purchased our first house.

It was a cute, one story 3 bedrooms, 2 bathhouse. About 1,100 square feet.

We bought it as a foreclosure at an unheard of the price compared to today’s market.

The only problem?

It was a bit of a fixer-upper.

Nothing major.

Just needed the entire carpet out and replaced with laminate.

Tile in the entryway removed and new tile laid down.

Linoleum in the kitchen taken out and replaced with tile.

Paint in every room of the house.

Patch up a few holes.

Refinish and paint the kitchen cabinets.

Re-do the kitchen countertops.

We had been married for a year.
I was finishing up my first year teaching.
This was a major purchase for us.

So, we decided we would save a few thousand dollars and do it ourselves.

How hard could it be?

Well, it turns out when you have absolutely no background in home renovations…

It’s hard.

The only thing we outsourced was replacing the carpet in two of the bedrooms.

The rest?

Went to Home Depot thirteen times a day. They knew us by name.

We called my in-laws.

We borrowed tools from our friends and used their expertise wherever we could.

We YouTubed.

Then we argued with each other about how to do it right.

We made a ton of mistakes.

My personal favorite…after we had laid down and pulled up the laminate for the third time, we thought we had it.

“Wait, where are the air vents?”

“Holy cow…how did we manage to cover up the air vents?”

“Do we need those?” I thought for a split second because I didn’t want to take it all up again.

It took us two weeks of non-stop work and multiple roadblocks that I thought we were going to severely mess up the house we just bought even more than it already was.

But we figured it out.

I was gifted Marie Forelo’s book yesterday entitled, “Everything is figureoutable.” (thank you Karis M. Cooper!)

Immediately, I added it to my book pile and cracked into it this morning.

I’m only two chapters in, but I’m totally on board with this mindset.

Everything in life can be figured out.

This is both empowering, and scary.

Because sometimes I use the opposite of this concept as an out.

Meaning, there are just things in life that aren’t “figureoutable.”

Like that relationship that never seems to get better. “Guess that’s just the way it is.”

Or that conflict that I can’t seem to resolve. “Oh well, I tried.”

Or trying to figure out how to accomplish a big goal. “There’s no way. I don’t have the time. Money, etc.”

If I believe that some things just can’t be figured out, I subconsciously give myself an easy way to give up.

Now, there might not be one solution.

The answer might not be what I originally intended.

But there’s always a way.

Everything is figureoutable.

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#DaringlyResilient

#FiercelyOptimistic

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