Though hampered a little bit by the rain, the work on my house is progressing well and slowly construction is overtaking destruction. They've been at this for two months and there are still at least two months to go, but we're getting the first signs of how things might look.
It's all very odd though - I've lived in this house for nine years, but with all its guts ripped out it feels alien or counterfeit, like we've been living on a movie set all this time. A house seems solid and permanent, but when you see underneath the plaster and when there's just gaping spaces where stuff used to be, it feels like you could have just pushed it and it would have fallen down all along. The kitchen largely has no roof or walls at the moment (I am hoping that will change) but it's very hard to believe that this is the same place that I have cooked my porridge most mornings since 2003. Once all the stuff is out of a room (and the walls and the ceiling have gone) it's almost like the very memory of it is obliterated. I am pretty certain it's going to look amazing when it's finished and be unlike what was there before, but for the moment it's disconcerting. But it's exciting too.
The basement is taking shape and the removal of a wall (which has been replaced by a massive steel in the ceiling that could apparently hold up an office building) means that Me1 and Me2 should no longer have to use the short cue. I didn't remove the wall just for this reason (actually I prefer it when stuff gets in the way - that's what the game should be about, the so called professionals on TV don't seem to understand that).
I have lived for nine years with the house decorated and equipped to someone else's tastes so it's a good feeling to finally make it ours. Our bathroom is closest to completion, all the tiles are in, though none of the actual bathroom stuff. Up to now this room has been carpeted, which I always thought was an odd decision. Who puts carpet in a bathroom? At the very best it's going to get bathwater on it, and there are worse things that might get on it as well. Especially if you regularly borrow your semi-circular toilet mat for another purpose. The removal of the stinky old carpet is almost worth the tens of thousands of pounds I am spending worthwhile. You can't blame the double dip recession on me folks. I have been spending all my money and much more this year, not greedily holding on to it like people far more wealthy than me. I love the way that they don't get that by doing that their money might become worthless. The twats.
I may not be able to afford food, but at least my bathroom is now tiled.
Personally I have never really seen the pleasure in hoarding money, it just makes me lazy if I have any spare. Much better to spend it and overstretch myself so I have to keep working. And if that means I don't have to walk around on a festering carpet in my bathroom then that's a bonus, right?
I don't miss home or Shepherd's Bush at the moment and feel happy enough and settled in our little Harpenden flat. But I have been on the road for most of the year, or had other things on my mind. We went up to the Westfield for lunch and the streets around Shepherd's Bush Grey seemed oddly unfamiliar too. I am not ready to retire to the country just yet, but I have been enjoying the relative peace and being able to see the countryside from my window.
For now I need to be in London, but maybe in half a decade or so we will move away from the madness. If only so that in 2022 I can go to Harpenden pool between 11 and 12.30 as part of the 55+ only swimming time.
