The long list - update

It is nearly the end of winters* as it is only two days to August and it brings to mind a self imposed deadline that I have been chasing - that of having a cosy clean home for winters. It seems like I have lost that race, but it sure made the days go past quick. I'm thinking about the last time I lived in a properly organised home (it was years and years ago) - everything had a place and everything was in its place!

 

For most part of my life I have lived in a properly organised home, not very cluttered, clean inside and out and a messy desk or bed to just balance it out that little bit. It would take about half hour to take it to hotel-looking cleanliness; and I got properly balanced meals to boot! Home, as it should be, was a launching pad** and not an energy sink^!

 

But now as winter is beginning to end, I have another, self imposed, deadline to chase - the race to get everything organised before Coffee arrives!

 

So, lets get the lists going:

Living Area

1, Shelving in the kitchen - OUTSOURCED

2, Book shelf in the living room - OUTSOURCED

3, Tidy up the baking and occassional use dishes shelf! - DIY

4, Not on top of the list: Update dining table and curtains (for curtains, see picture below!) - DIY

5, Not on top of the list, but expected to happen really soon: new TV system - FRIENDS!

6, To be done right after 1 and 2, ledge for artwork -DIY/Friends?

7, Electrician needs to put new power points - OUTSOURCED

8, Buy handles for cabinets - DIY

9, Buy some kind of step stool - DIY

 

What has already been done:

1, New appliances and cupboards have gone in

2, Pantry is satisfactory now

3, New dinner set is out

4, Old and doubles removed!
5, Created some kind of a flow, so that moving around the apartment is not impossible!

 

Balcony - DIY, all of it!

1, Clean concrete floor - maybe I need to buy a pressure cleaner

2, Seal it

3, Tile it - materials bought

4, Put the bench on

5, Buy Coffee's Potty

6, Not on the top of the list: Organise the plants

7, Put the light there.

What has already been done:

1, The body corporate have replaced the balustrades and roof slats

 

Powder Room/Laundry

1, Fix the vacuum cleaner and maybe move it out of the powder room?-  DIY

2, Tidy up - use up Ikea shopping materials to update the rest of the house - DIY

3, Replace mirror and paint the walls. - DIY??

What has already been done:

1, Some amount of decluttering

2, Opening up the wall to create a laundry

3, Moving the washing machine

 

The area under the stairs

1, Tidy up - will happen once the book shelves are put in place! - DIY

What has already been done:

1, Removed rubbish bins from here and put them where they should be - in the kitchen

 

The upstairs is more in state of disrepair

 

Bedroom

1, Tidy up

2, Put art up

3, New power points - eventually to put the bed side lights on

What has already been done

1, The light fitting has been changed

 

Bathroom

1, Demolish

2, Retile

3, New Basin and Bathtub and curtain

4, New heating light

5, New exhaust

6, Declutter - I am drowning in the amount of toiletries I own

What has already been done

1, Washing machine has already moved downstairs

2, Dryer disposed of!

 

Study

1, Declutter the shelving - I expect that to happen once the book shelves are up in the living room

2, Put Coffee's food and toys in this room

3, Declutter my clothes - oh my god! so many clothes!!

4, Get Annette to please return my money for the mirror!

What has already been done:

1, Shelving put in place!

 

Guest room (This room has turned into a dumping ground!)

1, Go thru boxes and find a spot for everything! Some of it is expected to happen once the storage in the living room is completed!)

2, Use this room

What has already been done:

1, Got rid of the white cupboard

2, Got the sofa downstairs

 

On the wish list, for the moment

1, Light fittings

2, Painting the apartment

 

*famous last words!

**how immensely grateful I am to my family for that!

^that my married home felt like
'I've just added 'Lists' as one of the labels, in case you might want to peruse my love of lists.

Updates

There are 3 kinds of progress that we can see in nature:

like a breeze blowing away the smoke that surrounds a fire
like cleaning a mirror
like a caterpillar turning into a butterfly inside a cacoon (or a baby inside a mother's womb)

The first one is where the smallest of efforts show such instant results; the second where it seems like the effort and outcomes are rather proportional; and the third, where for the longest time, nothing seems to be happening, and yet all your energy is getting used up - but slowly and surely things are changing in a dramatic way.  

Since the apartment is nothing like the first, and perhaps not even the second - I'd like to think that it is, at least, the third. (In fact, since my life seems nothing like the first or the second, I'd like to think it is, at least, the third! Sigh!)

The point of this update, really is, that there are no updates - money spent, energy spent and nothing much to show for it yet, at least not in terms of enjoying the space I am in. In fact, in lots of ways, it feels worse!

Stairs, and then some!

Stairs win the final round!

Having magically managed to lug (or find other people to lug) the sofa and the shelving and the centre tables and the dining table and so on and on, up the stairs and another sofa and another heavy table and another lot of old appliances down the stairs - the French contemporary mirror turns out to be the final straw! 

Faced with yet another headache about asking favours from busy and preoccupied friends, I have now decided that if I cannot take it up the stairs myself, I can live without it. Trusting that comedy is tragedy + time, I expect this will sound hilarious in a couple of thousand years! Ha!