Musical Chairs

I know I’ve taken on too much. I can feel it. It’s almost May and although I started early, I suddenly feel that time is running out and I won’t get everything done…

In the grand scheme of things I tell myself it actually doesn’t matter, and it doesn’t. When I die there’ll probably be no one left who remembers, visits, or even knows me as I’ll have probably become some kind of recluse! But at the moment, in my day to day life, I’ve set myself some objectives that I need to reach.

This is mainly the work I’m doing upstairs at No 19. This part of the house was stripped of any original features and had fallen into a useable but shabby area over the years we’ve been here. My plan was to fix the out of order bathroom and build a small extra bedroom.

This changed when I realised how much space there was up here… so I’m building two new bathrooms, the bedroom, a small kitchenette type of space, a corridor renovation, and an upstairs living room.

It all makes sense and doing the whole area won’t cost that much more than doing the original parts I needed to renovate. However, the workload is a lot heavier and I’m rapidly losing my energy.

I think a lot of this is psychological... and age! It feels like a weight is pressing down on me. I actually think we all have this kind of pressure… the cleaning, gardening, work/social balance etc. it’s just life! But managing it better is something I’ve been trying to master.

I’ve noticed my problem is that I estimate a job will take x amount of hours, and then feel I don’t have the time to do it that day, or I have other more pressing commitments. In reality most of the time these jobs take a lot less time than anticipated and once you start, you gain the motivation to keep going.

I also find listening to music helps, and slipping a job in while you’re doing something else is a good way to move forward. Yesterday was the perfect example. I’d walked the dogs, been to the supermarket, finished some work and wanted to have a coffee and a chat with Rob who was in the house.

Rather than sit in the kitchen, I suggested we move upstairs where I could work on covering one of the many chairs I have on my list of things to do.

After a little music, a discussion about the pros and cons of method acting, a rant about the state of the world, and a price comparison between Czech and other European supermarkets (it’s so expensive here!) I’d somehow managed to cover one of my chairs.

I have to say right now to any upholsterer out there, that I’m not at all a professional in any way, but I try and do my best.

I use offcuts of fabric, what upholstery there is already in the piece of furniture, and generally improvise… the results are usually good enough for me and I like the idea of doing it myself.

At the last moment while checking / enjoying my work, Frappis came in and decided to test out this newly reupholstered second hand chair. He was dying to scratch it, but stopped himself just in time and then gave his approval.

It’s a step forward, and each step gets us a little closer to where we want to be ♥️