So I was doing laundry, something I never thought I’d be doing at a laundromat after all those years of marriage, but something that has become quite soothing to me these days, when the TV caught my attention. One of those House Hunter shows, and I immediately flashed back to some of my worst memories of my STBX.

I know it’s supposed to be a fun part of marriage - finding a home together, and starting to tackle improvement projects to make it your own. But mine was always a disaster. Nothing was ever good enough. The projects were nonstop, at costs that I knew were out of our budget. And anytime I tried to put the brakes on it, it was “you just don’t want your family to have nice things”.

Listening to the wife on TV ripping apart everything in every home that they looked at, made me a little angry, but mostly just relieved. I never have to go through that again!

Edit to add: When you spend so much time focused on making things “better”, you never actually get to enjoy what you have.