A brief pause from holiday topics to discuss … bathroom fixtures. Shortly into the new year, we embark on the first major home improvement work this house has seen in almost a decade — and the first interior home improvement work in almost two!

It’s long overdue, this bathroom remodel, but it involves myriad decisions and realizations, learning about things like tub drains, grout color and tile permeability. Things I never think about but now, unfortunately, must.

The other day, while doing my stair-walk at work, I ruminated on the little metal placards that hold the floor number and how they’re attached to doors. And that made me realize how infrequently I think about how things are made. I slide along on the built surface of life, barely giving it a second thought. That is about to change.