The Couple That DIYs Together – “The Weekend Project”
What happens when you just can’t quite get on the same page when it comes to that weekend side table DIY project and when that perfect idea in your head doesn’t quite translate to the paper…
To see new videos in The Couple That DIYs Together series, subscribe here ⇾
A Little Bit of a Backstory
You may know by now that Brent and I met in high school. But what you may not know is long before (10 years ago) we were a married couple tackling home renovation projects together we were just a couple of teenagers working on website and video projects together in high school.
Brent and I went to the same high school for four years but didn’t actually cross paths until the last semester of our senior year of high school when our web design teacher selected each of us to be the school’s web interns. The first day I met him was the first day of the internship. I remember feeling nervous walking to the room where we would be working because I had no idea who Brent Richardson was and the idea of having to collaborate with someone you have never met is a bit intimidating.
However, the minute I walked into the room and was greeted by his smile, I was instantly won over. Brent is charming that way. For the next five months we worked together on making websites, videos, and logos but mostly we talked and looked at magazines, ran errands together and genuinely became friends. It is rare to find someone that you get along and work with so well, especially on creative projects but Brent and I always just meshed from the first day.
Inspiration for this Video Series
Fast forward eight years from when we turned in our intern badges, we were married and bought a house and about to embark on our largest creative collaboration yet, renovating our home (and documenting it here on the Gray House Studio blog). We worked so well together in high school so we thought this was going to be so easy. And in a way it was because we have a similar design style and were on the same page for how we want our house to look.
The complicated part was actually the execution. We found that when two people who make their living doing creative things try and come together and work on projects that they are both very passionate about, there is bound to be a battle of control and a difference of opinions. And let’s face it, we are much more invested in our projects now as 27 year olds than we were at 17.
We both have our areas of expertise, but neither of us wanted to be stuck in doing just “the part we were good at”. I desperately wanted to be the one that sketched up my furniture ideas and to be able to work with my hands building things since my full time job is working on the computer on websites. Let’s just say there were some disagreements about our process, collaboration roles and miscommunication. And also, no matter how hard I try, I am horrible at drawing. I just am.
Lessons Learned
When it comes to working on DIY home renovation projects now, Brent and I have really found our sweet spot. Our communication has improved greatly, we let each other shine where our strengths are but also teach and support each other when it comes to tackling the areas we didn’t feel as comfortable in before.
Brent has been showing me techniques for using the miter saw so the past couple projects I have been the one making the cuts on the miter saw and now I know why they are called power tools, they make you feel so powerful! I have been encouraging him to write more here on the blog so you can get to know his hilarious personality.
This past weekend we thought it would be fun to make a new video series poking fun and exaggerating what our early project process looked like that other couples might be able to relate to. Because let’s face it when couples DIY together, there is bound to be some passive aggressiveness, miscommunication, disagreements and mishaps and we look back and laugh at it now.
Believe me when I say we still have our mishaps, miscommunication and DIY fails but we tend to laugh a lot more about them these days and take it all in stride because when a couple DIYs together, you never know what is going to happen.
We hope you enjoy this little video as much as we enjoyed making it and if you can relate, feel free to share!
If you have had a funny mishap while working on a DIY project together, please share them in the comment section and we might incorporate them into our next The Couple That DIYs Together video.
To stay up to date on the videos in this series, subscribe to our YouTube channel.
