She who must be obeyed managed our house renovation by splitting the work into a number of phases. By the time we moved in we were up to phase 4, and already she had prepared a job list for future phases.
The main outstanding on the day we moved in was the store room, desperately required to house the mountains of crap that I refused to discard (compared to the even bigger mountains of crap that my wife refused to discard which emphatically had to be stored in the house). This took another week of construction and it was not until late on a Friday afternoon that I finally had access; and by nightfall I already had racks of shelves installed. By Saturday evening I had completed the transfer of junk from the back of the house to the store; and at some point in the future, probably February, I will attempt to sort out the pile of what currently looks like a feeble jumble sale.
Since then we have been trying to just enjoy living in our new home; and indeed it is very pleasant. I still take a very primitive pleasure in just sitting on the grass. We have embarked upon some activities which could generally be described as gardening. This involves spades (I bought a spade!), soil, and frequent swearing. I have hung pictures, most of which have stayed hung. We have acquired new pots and pans and some virulent yellow plates; and I have ended sometimes sweaty days with a dip in the pool.
It has been very pleasant living without contractors popping up when you least expect them; but this phase free existence could not last forever; which is why I currently have a headache.
Phase 5 started this morning, the main job being the extension of the patio to facilitate the creation of an area where I can fall asleep in comfort. This requires the old patio to be removed, which means that hammer drills are currently destroying tiles and are likely to do so for many more hours. After the patio is complete, she who must be obeyed has a long list of other jobs for the boys to complete; and by the time they have finished the list she will no doubt have thought of some more and we will be on phase sixteen.
I anticipate being able to go back to enjoying my home some time in October.
Comments 🔗
2014-09-11| rjmorgans saysMade me smile. I know the feeling!
2014-09-12| Barry saysI wanted minimalism when I arranged a massive renovation of our house. No cupboards. Even the wardrobes are in a small room out of sight - a walk-in wardrobe if you like. So, like you, I set aside a room for storage. I had the idea of putting a low bamboo table in the centre to put stuff on, and that allowed even more stuff to be stacked on shelves and cupboards around the walls. It works. We don’t actually need 95 percent of what is in that room, but the stuff isn’t mine and is considered by ’er indoors as essential to keep in case we need it some day (never).