A load of waffle and total chaos 26/9/16

It's been a busy time here.  We've had two rooms plastered but the plaster is still drying out so we can't move forward with painting just yet.  This means the house is still upside down with the stuff emptied out of the two rooms being plastered.  I've decided that the room that will be a spare bedroom is the priority so I will probably move as much as I can into the other room so that at least the rest of the house can get back to normal.

I'm not sure what normal is anymore though.  Hubby is supposed to be at home Mondays and Tuesdays but it doesn't always work out like that.  He was at work last Tuesday for example but this week looks like it will run to schedule.  

But of course DIY never runs smoothly.  My son and his wife were down for the weekend so we needed to put the mattress on the floor of the room that has just been plastered for them to sleep on.  The mattress (and the rest of the dismantled bed) were in our box room.  Long story short, we managed to break the window moving the mattress as the uprights toppled sideways!  This was at about 7.30 pm Friday evening.  Thankfully the damage is covered by our building insurance and they organised someone to come and make the window safe and they will also organise for it to be properly repaired.

But things could be worse.  Today and tomorrow will be spent at funerals.

Today we went to the funeral of an old friend who we hadn't seem much of over the last few years as he and his family had moved out of London to Kings Lynn in Norfolk.  In his late 50s, he was a keen cyclist and was fit and healthy.  He was out on a cycle ride with friends when he just collapsed and died from a heart attack.  A prime example of the fact you never know what life holds in store.  Although it was shocking, Ray had led an active busy life.  He had lots of interests and many friends.  There were lots of people at the funeral celebrating a life well lived.

Unfortunately tomorrow will probably be harder.  This funeral is for the nephew of hubby's brother.  Sadly he was born very disabled and cognitively impaired.  His parents have been brilliant at caring for him at home but he died suddenly of natural causes last week.  He was only 30.  Parents are not supposed to outlive their children so this will be a very sad day.

Both these deaths have reminded me how short life can be.  One of the Hodgepodge questions last week was about being a people pleaser.  I'm definitely one of those but I think I'm going to try and please myself more, as long as it doesn't hurt anyone else.  

We had a lovely outing on Saturday for my sister-in-law's 60th birthday.  All the siblings and their partners met up for a walk (most of them meeting at our house) and then we ended the day with a meal out at a local pop up restaurant near us.  Prior to the event though I had quite a chat with one of the younger sisters who had agreed to arrange a collection from the rest of us and organise presents for the birthday girl.  She was getting quite stressed because although she had ideas for what to do (including a trip away) she hadn't been able to finalise everything and was worried the rest of us would be cross.

I managed to reassure her that would not be the case if they were all like me and just glad not to have the responsibility.  We also agreed that we won't do presents in future once people get past 60.  If we make it to 70 or even 80, we'll make do with a get together of some sort.  We still have quite a few 60ths to come though so the gift dilemma won't be finished with just yet. 

Another instance of pleasing ourselves.  No one should be stressing out over buying presents on behalf of other people, although it does make sense to club together to get something worthwhile.

With all these things going on I haven't felt very motivated to blog.  It's a bit disconcerting having a disorganised house and not being able to restore some order.  Hopefully on Wednesday I'll be able to make a start on moving things out of my bedroom and lounge.  Fortunately my son and his wife did take almost all the wedding things that were still here home with them yesterday.  We still have a dried flower arrangement as it wouldn't fit in the car but I can live with that a bit longer!

Works in progress! 20/9/16

It seemed a good idea initially to get all the plastering that needs doing (ceilings of two rooms plus walls in one) but now I'm not so sure.  These are the rooms being done.

This one will be done as a guest room.

This one, which is a bit smaller will be my work room.  Not sure how much work I will get done in there but there is a bureau there for paperwork/computing and my sewing machine will go in there when it's finished.

 

However, as you can see both rooms are empty apart from the larger items of furniture.  And even those (wardrobes and chests of drawers) have been emptied.  Plastering is a messy job and the dust will get everywhere but I wanted to avoid it getting on things like my clothes, bedding etc.

I'm sure you can begin to imagine what the rest of my house looks like.  The stuff had to go somewhere!  The bed from the bigger room has been dismantled and is in the box room we use for storage - hopefully we won't want anything from the shelving in there just now as the mattress is in front of the shelves and you can't even get in the room!

Other items are either in my bedroom or in our lounge.  The whole house looks like a tip at the moment.   It will be another couple of days before the plaster is finished and then I can start on trying to restore some sort of order.  My son and his wife are due at the weekend but they will have to make do with just the mattress on the floor!  I will also have some of hubby's siblings and partners here at the weekend as we are going on a walk and then out for a meal locally for his sister's 60th birthday on Saturday.  Thankfully the kitchen/diner is unaffected by all of this.

My to do list has also grown somewhat.  As we emptied out the rooms I was making mental notes of things that needed to be sold/donated/trashed or just rehomed.  Some of it needs to be rehomed with our kids but that won't be happening in the immediate future.  One couple are currently living with us and the other two are both in rented properties without too much space.  

But despite all the chaos and mess I do actually feel more in control.  Getting this work done is the first step really on a long term project of getting the house how I want it post children.  There is a plan, although it's not going to be done quickly.  But that's ok.  One day, one job at a time. Well maybe not every day (there has to be blogging time) but I'm sure you get the idea.