I can hardly believe it is 31st May; it truly is the nicest month of the year. As we find ourselves being busy with reorganising things in the house, with a number of tradesmen coming in and out, it is time to pause and reflect.
The bathroom work, which started in late April was only meant to take a week or so, is being completed today with a new floor being laid. After that, just a few little bits of tidying up a couple of details and then we’re finished.
Phew.
Aside from taking longer than expected, we are pleased with the result. It has, however, thrown up a couple of reminders and things which we shouldn’t be surprised at….
1. Nothing is straight, level or flat here in the Quirky Museum. I keep telling myself this is all part of the character and why I like it. It is, however, frustrating when I tried to tile a wall with 24″ tiles which exposed the undulations in the wall which was nowhere near flat. So not a perfect tiling job but we got there, albeit with some glimpses of the “character” of the building coming through. As for the sloping ceilings and floors, well that again adds to the character
2. Things always take longer than expected. Tradesmen run out of time, unexpected snags show themselves leading to practising those problem solving skills.
3. Everything seems so expensive these days! I think the bathroom cost is significantly more than we planned a couple of years ago.
4. Without even trying, I managed to complicate things. We consulted an expert in period homes and he suggested a different approach to the planned insulation. This involves natural wood fibre and lime plaster, all of which seems to have sent the plasterer into a spin. Happily I think this is being resolved as I type.
Just as we conclude the bathroom, the kitchen and laundry work is starting! In my eagerness to be a good client and to ease the change-in-specification regarding the insulation, I have been removing the old plasterboard in the laundry.
To add to the above points, we can now add a forth:
4. Three Ukrainian refugees arrive in NINE DAYS TIME! Yes that’s right and truly naff planning, you might think. Actually it is just how things have turned out. Sure, we could delay their arrival but that seems a bit cruel and they are aware we will be eating take-aways for two weeks. Having said that, I am hoping some local friends might take pity on us and invite us for a hot meal once the kitchen has started – 5th to 16th June, possibly a few days more beyond that.
Throughout all of this, we have done our best to be good clients of the various tradesmen. Naturally this includes ample supplies of Doug Blend coffee and chocolate Hobnobs which all seems to go down alright.
We have yet to discover what the kitchen fitter team will be like but for everyone’s sanity, I might make sure we are out for a lot of the time when the early work is going on i.e. the ripping out stage.
And as for the month of May
It is my favourite month of the year.
The days are lengthening all the time, it’s getting warmer, there is a lot of seriously nice blossom in the trees and hedgerows and the clouds are often really spectacular giant floating sculptures.
Yep we got there in the end. The month started in a decidedly chilly way and we even had the heating on during the evenings. Happily we are now feeling the benefit of warmer days and I absolutely love it!
The above photo, taken in our lovely Bedfordshire countryside on a walk one evening.
Please spare a thought for another retiree who blogs, Career Risover. I do feel for her in enduring eyesight issues and DIY woes. Always worth a read – click here for If we didn’t laugh, we’d cry