We’re renovating.
Still.
Regular readers will already know this. Occasional readers will know this. People who infrequently visit this blog will know this, and will be thinking, “Come ON, is she STILL going on about this?!”
Yes. Yes I am.
Stage one of our renovation is all but complete. The back half of our house is pretty much finished, with minor tweaks to go.
We have an open-plan kitchen, lounge and dining room on the ground floor, we have a rumpus room and bathroom downstairs (and a temporary laundry), and two bedrooms, a bathroom, and a playroom upstairs.
All new. All beautiful. In fact, I don’t tell my husband enough just how beautiful I think it all is. Cameron, it’s fabulous. You are a genius. Thank you for delivering us this beautiful family home.
But. Stage two has started. Our bedroom has been gutted. The original bathroom – the only bathroom on the ground floor – has been gutted. Ashleigh’s old room has been gutted.
Lots of gutted-ness.
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| From inside our ‘bedroom’ looking through to the ‘ensuite’, ‘walk-in-robe’, ‘laundry’ and ‘bathroom’. Also known as empty, gutted mess. |
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| From inside the ‘laundry’, new ‘bathroom’ to be at the left, looking back through to the ‘ensuite’, ‘walk-in-robe’ and ‘bedroom’. Also known as empty, gutted mess. |
We still have two rooms at the front of our house that are intact. One room is supposed to be for bub when he arrives. The other, a formal lounge room. Both are packed to the brim with… well, everything we own from the gutted rooms.
But we’re pushing on with stage two! We’re progressing! Things are happening! I should be excited! After all, it’s exactly what I wanted! When Cameron wanted to take a break for a while, I was the one who wanted to keep going!…
…last September.
Last September, there were still seven months to go until bub’s arrival. Seven months in which to gut, demolish, rebuild, reconstruct, paint, tile, sand, polish, beautify and generally FINISH the renovation.
Now there are seven weeks. Seven measly little weeks including three public holidays. And construction industry RDOs.
And me getting bigger, more and more tired, and, as you can see from my self-indulgent self-pitying woe-is-me words thus far, more and more grumpy.
The chippies started today. They’re rebuilding walls and laying the floor back down. It’s great to see things happening. But the slow progress has quickly made me realise how long it will take.
We won’t be finished before bub arrives. No way.
I keep trying to focus on the good things. It will be FABULOUS when it’s finished. As I said, Cameron has done such a brilliant job on stage one that I know stage two will be every bit as good. Possibly better, in fact, as we’ve learnt from stage one and are more confident making choices.
Focus on the good things. We’ve made it through Ashleigh’s entire life thus far while simultaneously renovating. And that was without fancy-pants completed stage one. That was, for a long time, without even any kitchen facilities. We can make it through stage two.
But we hadn’t yet gutted anything when she came home from hospital. And it’s those first weeks at home from hospital that I’m worried about. Managing the stairs post-surgery. Keeping a toddler away from unfinished rooms and mess. Easing bub off to sleep to the soothing lullaby sounds of power tools and tradie language…
Enough. Time to take some advice from Michael J. Fox (as featured in his book, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Future):
‘Don’t spend a lot of time imagining the worst-case scenario. It rarely goes down as you imagine it will, and if by some fluke it does, you will have lived it twice.’
Easier said than done sometimes, but I’m giving it a shot.
Have you ever ‘won’ a disagreement you came to wish you’d ‘lost’?
And if you’ve ever renovated during the newborn bub stage, do you have any tips to share?
Oh dear, living through renovations is a nightmare, we only do small jobs at a time. I am with you though, winning an argument is rarely truly a win.
Something about the art of compromise in marriage (blah, blah)…
We haven’t renovated yet but even just trying to get rooms cleaned out and ready for the new arrival is a stressful enough exercise in itself so I can’t even begin to imagine how stressful renovating would be!
I have adopted the very healthy approach of ignoring it completely. What renovation?!
oh me oh my you have the patience of a saint Miss Emily. Seven weeks till bub comes! Lucky they are the most slowest weeks ever hey? Will give those workers plenty of time to get it all done
Thanks, but there’s not much that is saintly about my approach to this! Unless sooking is considered miraculous.
Write down every word of suffering and then make him (bub) read it back EVERY BIRTHDAY to know how much you love him “gee, Mum, why does it seem like you wrote this with gritted teeth …”?! Good luck, at least it will be a good story for him … and some babies like power tools (my sons used to find the vaccuum cleaner very soothing 🙂
Oh, poor bub! Ashleigh got to a stage before her second birthday where she would actually impersonate the power tools and be able to tell which ones were going by the noise.
Oh Em, you’re STILL renovating? You poor woman.
We were building our house when bub #2 was due, and we moved in when he was 12 weeks old. It wasn’t so bad because we were staying with my parents in the interim. I can’t imagine being heavily pregnant in all that mess! Good luck with it xx
Thanks, Kelly. Whinge over now. We’ll get there somehow!
Oh my! Living through renovation is painful enough but doing it with a toddler & a new born? You need a medal! Good luck x
Sure, I’ll except medals! Preferred variety: chocolate.
My fav saying, ‘don’t worry, it might never happen’ and wow renovations do seem to drag on. So how many weeks til babes due now?? And I can’t wait to see pics of the house as it gets more liveable – you are a very patient woman Emily, I take my hat off to you 🙂
It’s one of my favourites too, but because I know I SHOULD live like that. I’m a constant over-worrier so I’m definitely playing out the worst-case scenarios all the time! Can’t help it.
I embark on big ventures during pregnancy too, it seems common, maybe part of the whole nesting thing. First time, we renovated the kitchen, this time, we’ve just sold our house and are building a new one, and I’m 21 weeks and packing boxes uuuggghh (with a toddler). But, it will be amazing in the end!! x Karen #teamIBOT
Nothing to do with nesting in my case. I’m doing a few nesting bits and pieces here and there, but the renos were definitely meant to be done and dusted before kids. Whoops!
We have been renovating our home ourselves it has taken almost 6 years !! I am only just now seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. Good luck with it all sweetie, an good luck with bub xx
Six years! I am keeping my husband away from my blog. He doesn’t need to hear six years! Good luck with your renos too!
I am so never going to build a house nor renovate. That looks like hard work!!
We are NEVER doing it again. Not while living in the house, at least. I think I can handle it if we’re building or renovating one while living elsewhere.
We’ve been renovating for ages as well, I think I might be addicted. We moved into our house 2 days before bub number 3 arrived, and it took me years to unpack in the middle of renovating and looking after the children. That MJF sounds like a genius, I must read his book.
Hope it all goes to plan for you!
xx
Two days before? Well done! I don’t read many celeb bios, but quite enjoyed Fox’s.
Oh wow, that would be pretty hard! I hope everything goes okay for you. You never know, maybe a miracle will happen and they will be done in time! xxx
Bless you and your optimism!