Going to Hogwarts

I fear that the HVAC, plumbing, and electrical wiring in our house are the Harry Potter in our muggle family.  It's all so useful, and special, but I just don't appreciate it enough.  And before you know it I'm going to lock it all under the stairs (or inside the walls, you know, whatever.  Don't spoil my analogy with your logic).

I know that this is the stuff that's really accomplishing what I wanted out of a home renovation, but I have to admit, I just keep looking at it and thinking, "Eh. Wires."

"Hm, more ducty things.  I wonder when something exciting will happen."

Really, I know, this is about as exciting as it's going to get.  Air Conditioning?! I'm not sure how they guy who brought that to Houston didn't get a Nobel Prize.  I'm also not sure how people lived here before he did.  I would have to lay around like a puddle, groaning in misery, if I had no A/C.

So I take art-y pictures of wires and pipes.  I'm not the greatest arty-picture-taker for sure, so making an image that I can find beauty in takes some doing.  And while I'm framing what I see, I lost a little of first-world ennui.

"There's the thing that's going to make my house NOT smell like fish for three days after I cook fish."

"Wow, insulated pipes! So THAT's how other people don't have to wash their hands in 35 degree water on 35 degree days!"

"That looks legit.  I may not have to worry about my house exploding due to a gas leak (as much)."

Everything is in order, inspected , permitted, and approved.

I'm not certain what all the wires are for, but they'll be covered in insulation and then walls before I know it, and I'll magically have a functioning house.

In the words of Dumbledore the Quotable, "It does not do to dwell on dreams and forget to live."  Here's my moment of pausing in my dreams of pretty tiles and paint colors and schoolhouse lights to find some joy in the stuff that will make my everyday awesome without getting any credit.  And I will hopefully not end up with a pig's tail for not appreciating it more.