Black Widows and Claustrophobia

This past weekend, my husband did a job on the house that he had been putting off for a couple weeks.  He had been putting it off because nothing about the job was fun!  Since we are building up the sub floor in our living room and rebuilding one of our fireplaces, he had to move the gas line.  In order to do so, he had to climb under the house, move the line, fish it through a new hole, connect an extension, etc.  I pretend that I understand it all, but I really don't.  All I know is that it needs to be done and he is awesome for doing it!

He has climbed under our house a few times for various reasons, but this time was for a long period of time and he had to carry under a few tools with him.  Yuck!  Since owning and remodeling a house is certainly not all glamorous, I figured I should document his adventures.  

Ladies and Gentlemen.  This is not a job for those with claustrophobia!  See that opening???  It is no deeper once inside!!  My heart starts beating quickly just thinking about it!  He wiggled he way through rotating from his back to his stomach.  Sometimes there were areas that were not deep enough.  So, he pulled out his shovel and bucket, moved dirt aside and created a path for himself.  

I get very concerned when he is under the house.  I pace, I sweat, and I worry. I even cleaned the toilet while he was under there to keep myself busy.  Did I mention that cleaning the toilet is one of my least favorite chores??  

It drives him crazy when I worry and periodically yell, "Are you still okay?!"  or "Are you alive under there?"  So he came up with a code to help me.  He told me if he banged on the floor repeatedly and very loudly, then something was wrong.  That of course panicked me more because... what am I supposed to do if something is wrong??!?!  Cut a hole in the floor?  He didn't have a good answer for me.  The second code was if he banged three loud bangs, he ran into a rat or something gross.

You can probably not imagine me during his 30 minute period under there.  I was vigorously scrubbing the toilet, jumping at every little noise.  Luckily, he came out after awhile and I was able to breathe a sigh of relief. However, he was quite annoyed!  He promptly explained that he would never go under there again without a large can of bug killer spray.  He encounter two large black widows!!  Gag!  My husband does not like spiders one bit.  

What can I say?  He is my hero.  Truly incredible.  Unfortunately, he got out of there so quickly... that he left some tools under there.  So off to the store we go.... to buy a big bottle of BUG KILLER SPRAY.