Staying Together While Things Fall Apart

During our eighteen years of marriage, my husband Steve and I have been through two major home construction undertakings. Having almost finalized the most recent project — we are nearing the end of it … we hope — we know first-hand that living in the midst of construction can lead to lots of frayed nerves. 

Here is our list of seven things that we have found to be helpful to stay in our bliss while things feel like they’re falling apart:

Vision: Decide up front what is most important to you both. Do this well before you’re into the process of planning. The vision needs to be not only what you are going to do, but why you are going to do it.  Your why will help when you come up with the dreaded “change order” – something new that needs to happen now and really can’t wait till the next project.  This is something big that wasn’t part of the original vision of what you are doing.  The why will help you get through the dust and random people that seem to be at your house constantly.  Get back to why you are doing what you are doing so that you can get through the inconveniences of not having a kitchen for a month.