Because Matt requires a wheelchair to maneuver around our house, my messes during a big project (and y’all know I’m a very messy DIYer!) often prohibit him from seeing daily (or even weekly or monthly) progress on my big room remodels. That means that he’ll only see them once or twice during the project, and then he sees the big reveal at the end once all of the tools and materials are put away.
Over the last six months or so, he hadn’t seen any of my progress. He was content to just let me work without moving things out of the way so that he could check out the progress. In fact, the last time he checked in on the progress, my closet wasn’t even finished. The last time he saw the closet, it looked something like this…
I know it was before the floors were refinished, before the cabinets were painted, and before the wallpaper went up. So between then and the moment I moved him into our new bedroom last week, he heard all about my projects. He would ask how things are going, and I would tell him all about putting up the wallpaper in the closet, painting the cabinets, building the island. He got to hear all about the wainscoting in the foyer and bedroom and the grasscloth installation. He would see me making my hundreds of trips between the carport and the bedroom suite carrying cut lumber, trim, and plywood. And he would hear me in there working away hour after hour. But that was the only evidence of actual progress that he had. He never actually saw any of it himself until the day last week when I loaded him up on his Hoyer lift to move him to our newly finished bed in our new almost-finished bedroom.
So what was his reaction? He LOVED it! I didn’t get his reaction on video. I didn’t even think about it, to be honest. I was just so anxious to get him in there and show him everything. But also, even if I had recorded his reaction, I wouldn’t have shared it online. Matt never volunteered for this whole blogging thing. He didn’t volunteer to have pictures and videos of him posted online for the world to see. This whole blogging and online world is something I alone signed up for. I’ve shared the occasional picture of Matt (with his permission) over the years, but since he’s never shown an interest in being a regular part of it, I’ve never presumed that I can or should share his regular life with the online world.
But what I can tell you is that showing our bedroom suite to Matt that first day was every bit as exciting as those reveals you see on TV where the homeowners are kept away from the project until it’s finished, and then they’re brought in for the big reveal. He was amazed. Stunned. I don’t know what he was picturing in his mind over the last several months as I’d describe things to him, but I know that the actual bedroom suite far exceeded his expectations.
I brought him through the foyer very slowly so that he could take everything in. I showed him my closet, and he was very impressed. He loved the foyer. The grasscloth wallpaper and the chapel picture were his favorites.
And then I brought him into the bedroom and turned him slowly in his Hoyer lift so that he could take it all in. He just kept saying, “Wow. WOW!” After I got him situated in the bed, I headed to the kitchen to get him some water, and I could still hear him in the bedroom saying, “WOW!!” I have to admit, that made it all worth it.
I think we’ve been in our new bedroom for about a week now, and Matt has told me every single day how much he loves the room. His favorite thing is the grasscloth wallpaper, but he has pointed out several other things (without me asking) that he really likes. He actually really likes the bird wall. I wasn’t so sure he’d like that, but he does, and he offered that compliment without me fishing for it. Every day since we’ve been in there, he has said, “I love this bedroom,” and the yesterday, he said, “This is the nicest bedroom I’ve ever seen.”
WORTH. IT. That makes all of my hard work, all of the ups and downs, and every misstep and do-over, totally worth it. I could see the progress every single day, and I knew that I was loving how everything was turning out. But for him to be so complimentary of my work every day for the last week is the icing on the cake.
But that gets us to his one request — a new TV. The TV that I had originally moved into the bedroom was the same one that we had in our previous bedroom.
That’s a 55-inch TV, and I thought (and was hoping) that it would work in the new bedroom. But this new bedroom is quite a bit bigger, and the TV is further from the bed. So his one request for the bedroom was a new 65-inch TV.
Y’all. This thing is MASSIVE, especially for a bedroom. 😀
It’s definitely not what I envisioned for our new bedroom. 😀 Our bedroom kind of feels like a movie theater now. But you know what? If that’s what he wants, then I’m happy to work with it. He spends a whole lot more time in the bedroom than I do, and I want him to be happy and comfortable. It will eventually go on the wall. I had to order a new (much stronger and larger) wall bracket for this beast, and it won’t be here until tomorrow. So until then, this is what it looks like.
I still plan to build a frame for it, but obviously, my plans for that frame have to change a bit. It can’t be nearly as prominent as the frame I had planned for the much smaller TV. I’m so glad I hadn’t built that frame yet!
Anyway, the fact that that’s the only change he requested is pretty good. I’ll count it as win that he loves everything else about the room. And if I’m being honest, I’ve thoroughly enjoyed this big TV as well. It’s not what I planned, and it’s not what I envisioned for that wall, but I can work with it. And more importantly, it’s worth it to make that one change for him to have a bedroom that he really loves.
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Addicted 2 Decorating is where I share my DIY and decorating journey as I remodel and decorate the 1948 fixer upper that my husband, Matt, and I bought in 2013. Matt has M.S. and is unable to do physical work, so I do the majority of the work on the house by myself. You can learn more about me here.
