December, 2019: “What closing date would you like?” On the house, he meant. February 14th? I’d been ambivalent about Valentine’s Day most years, probably because it felt strangely like the prom—fabled and hope-laden, with an actuality more along the lines of…meh.

On the other hand, the draw of those beautiful, elemental notions of love and connection, spun around the world one day a year and accorded the power to change virtually anything or anyone…well, let’s just say I was picking up what you were laying down this time, Huey Lewis.

Plus, it was more than just a house—it was my new start in life, a reunion with the mojo I’d lost, my new looove. Of course the closing date would be February 14th.

One month later, after mapping out a renovation way more involved than I’d hoped (not unexpected, given my history with renos); barfing over the certainty of budget overages (warranted, in retrospect); Pinteresting (verb) to spy on the cool people; and ripping out a 70s basement loaded with hidden pot stashes and the dirty little secrets of yesterday’s teens/ today’s embarrassed baby boomers, I heard the news—something about a pandemic.

One year has gone by and I can definitively say that undertaking a huge reno as the world around you lays in pieces is, well, sh*tty and hard. But I’m lucky—just by having the option to carry on. People have been shattered and left powerless in the face of something we can’t quite understand or control—losing jobs, homes, loved ones. It’s heartbreaking. And while I’ve been overworked, financially-stressed and lost in tears so often these past 12 months, my reality has still remained manageable by comparison.

I hope this soon passes and that we, as a collective, can get on with the business of living once again. As the reno now wraps up, I’ll be posting more about my new shelter from the world and how it evolved. If reading about it offers you some value—even as a temporary escape from these unprecedented times—I’ll feel honoured to have you around.

Let love, creativity, and optimism rule…