Imagine if you will, a day in the life of Mary (not a real person), whose home is a piece of work, or rather needs many little pieces of work.
She awakens to a lovely summer morning, but she is tired and cranky. Her window screens have several large holes so she was kept “company” by a very persistent and hungry mosquito.
She stumbles into the kitchen, and realizes that she forgot to run the dishwasher from the night before, so she turns it on and then clicks on her coffee maker and…
… suddenly her kitchen is very quiet and dark. She’s blown a fuse (again). Ugh.
After replacing the fuse (and realizing for the umpteenth time that her box probably should be upgraded to a circuit breaker system) she sits down with the paper, waiting for her coffee. Gosh it’s dark in the breakfast nook too. But she can’t get the window shades up because they’re broken and need to be replaced. The light is burned out too, but the bulb is too high for her to reach safely.
By now her coffee is ready and she decides to enjoy it on the porch. As she steps out onto the deck, she notices that one of the boards is “smushy” and several are loose. Luckily she misses stepping on the nail that’s raised up!
As she sits down, she realizes that her husband still hasn’t taken down the holiday lights. And, gee the pile of yard waste just seems to keep getting bigger. At least he’s mowing and weeding!
After finishing her coffee she returns to the bedroom to get dressed. She opens her closet and… dagnabbit! The closet rod has fallen down. All of her ironing will have to be redone because her clothes are now crumpled on the floor. She was planning on being annoyed at the sticky closet door, but now, with the added aggravation of the rod on the floor, not so much.
Undeterred, “Mary” decides to head out into the garage to start a load of laundry. The door handle squeaks and the door sticks, so she has to push it open with her shoulder. She puts in a load and then remembers that there is a load in the dryer that should be dry. But, she discovers it’s not. “It seems to take forever to dry clothes these days,” she thinks to herself. Then she remembers that it has been awhile since the dryer vent has been cleaned. Oh no. Something else to do!
As she stands in the garage she realizes that she is sick and tired of having to park her expensive car outside while all of their stuff is piled up in the garage. How she wishes that she had the time and energy to assemble that shelving and sort through the boxes. In fact she’s been thinking about having a garage sale, but the whole thing just seems overwhelming. (Can you blame her?)
As “Mary’s” frustration level begins to rise, she thinks about her husband and his very long “to do” list. She realizes that he works hard and probably also feels overwhelmed by the state of their home. “Mary” decides it is time to call in some help, so she and her husband can unload some pieces of work and have some peace of mind.