Well and truly over it ...

So this is the post where I have a big whinge

about how hard everything has been this week,

and how we are coping with the messiest 

stage of the building.

Feel free to skip it and look at some pretty pictures

here, here and here instead.

I'm writing this so we can look back one day and laugh.

Or say "was it really that bad?? 

Why, we can hardly remember it.

And it's all been worth it"

Hopefully.

So ... here goes:

What's been off-limits for whole days at a time:

kitchen

(our only)

toilet

living room/dining room/craft area

laundry

hall 

(except to walk quickly through)

our bedroom

carport and sometimes the driveway

(and it's been raining)

verandah

which leaves:

study (full of stuff)

girls' room (ditto)

bathroom (shower & basin)

Which explains why I spent a few days mostly shopping.

The mess and noise:

Tile cutting

Gyprock cutting

5 men talking in 5 different accents and various languages

cigarette smoke wafting inside

orbital sander and heat gun

globs of wet plaster left behind ... everywhere

globs of dry plaster left behind .... everywhere

Heavy rain all week = lots of mud

dropsheets down the hall

(because what's the point of moving them

with mud and dust everywhere?)

Every piece of furniture in the affected rooms 

covered in plastic dropsheets

gyprock and paint staying wet in the rainy weather

On top of which ...

the girls started school

(taking up hems, labelling, shopping for stationery,

long long stories after school & more requests for 

stationery, school meetings, packing lunches, covering books)

I started piano teaching and bible study again

the dishwasher broke down

the list of jobs to do this weekend keeps growing

the weather is cold and wintry and dark

and the rain just won't stop coming down.

Next week: more of the same, plus fine white dust everywhere.

And then we turn the corner, only small jobs after that,

a bit (a lot) more painting for us to do, carpet,

and moving in.

. . .

However, amongst the mess

there have been some quiet days

where no one has been in

while we wait for the gyprock to dry.

So I did get the study tidied up

and I can use the whole house again for now.

Which makes it all bearable.

The quiet before the storm.

We just have to focus on the end of the building,

and the fun part to come,

which is well and truly in sight.