87. the one with the bathroom – part 1

(subtitle: “the one where the bathroom does not occur.” in fact, i’ll hardly mention the bathroom at all)

a few years ago i painted the landing outside our bedroom.
typically, the job was never really finished because the shelf didn’t want to go back on the crumbly walls, and with nowhere to stack overflow books (we have a system), we just stuffed things into the cupboard, crammed it into boxes, progressed to “tidy piles”… before it inevitably deteriorated into a general dumping area for everything.

if only there was some way of fixing that shelf to the wall
*dreams*

…

meanwhile, we’d booked the builders to come and sort out our bathroom.
much excitement! for the first time we were paying actual proper professionals to come and do an actual proper job – no personal faff or injuries or lengthy incovenience(s).
i knew i couldn’t keep up the sewing part of my life if i couldn’t potter about in Clean & wash my hands obsessively throughout the day, so i decided to shut down for the month BACK IN FEBRUARY.
and because, hey! that’d give me time out to sort all the crap on the landing and fix the shelf!

and
i might as well be thorough with the 40 years worth of “treasure” that needed sorting
i might as well paint the wooden cupboard as i’ve been wanting to do for years
i might as well fix the hairline cracks on the old plaster
i might as well give the walls a fresh coat of paint
while i’m at it.

fucked thwarted at the first hurdle.
“hmmm. now where might be the small tin of wood primer, i wonder”

1. stupid, annoying little things that can wrong… for eg, i’d done far too good a job on that damn cupboard the first time round – so smooth and glowing with wax, it wouldn’t take a coat of paint despite litres of thinners and all of the sanding.
careful application of masking tape to protect the precious carpet stripped lengths of new paintwork off when it did adhere.
the hinges no longer fitted when i reconstructed the thing.
let alone the doors.

2. being my own worst enemy… for eg, adding additional hurdles. oh hey, the shed’s a bit of a mess after 12 years of hoarding every building supply ever, let’s hire a skip and spend the entire weekend clearing it out so we can go inside of the door again.
oh hey, since i’m in painting mode anyway, shall we buy that chest of drawers for the bedroom that we’ve been talking about forever?

3. everything just being awkward… for eg, not having anywhere to work… apart from on the floor beside and/or at the foot of the bed, woodwork arranged on top of lengths of christmas wrapping paper so we could drag sticky wet painty things aside and step over the towers of stuff-from-on-the-landing crap just to get into bed at night.

…

meanwhile, additional surprise hurdles
“hi, your new front door is fiiiiiiinally ready to be fitted”

^ the “after” picture is the one on the right. the one where the door isn’t entirely held together by mould, daylight & gripfill. just in case you weren’t sure.

excellent! i’ll get started on painting the door as well then…
…and while that’s drying, i might like to paint the chimney alcoves in the bedroom before arranging the new chest of drawers…

*chaotic frenzy of doing all the things at once* <– incidently, this is the moment i decided i ought to start blogging again :)

so as march whooshes towards its end and i’m itching to get back to my sewings;
the door is mostly painted, inside & out. (but not the frame. that is for next month maybe)

the bedroom is clean and painted and there is 7% extra storage space

the landing JUST NEEDS A F**%ING SHELF and for my daddy to please come and rehang the cupboard doors so they open and close like they used to before i had one of my stupid Good Ideas.

to summarise then; all i had intended to do this month was fit a shelf that was strong enough to store a few books and comics upon.
FURTHERMORE i was only doing that as a filler job while the builders were here constructing my new bathroom.

to be continued? *hopeful*
:(