We've been planning this one for years. It's the finally step in future-proofing our little one-storey terrace so that we can keep living here for as long as possible, even if we become decrepit (or more decrepit) as we age. For a year or so we've had an agreement with our builders, who did our most recent reno here at no 8 Finlay Street and the complete make-over of 1A Little O'Grady Street, that if they found themselves with a 2-3 week gap in their schedule, we'd like a bathroom makeover. And it's TIME. Tony gave us a call last week to say they could start Monday 5 September. That's tomorrow. Under current lockdown rules, builders can't work on a site that's occupied, so we are moving next door to 1A for the duration. We can return to the "big house" in the evenings to cook dinner and watch TV, but we need to be out by the time they start work in the morning. Given our attitude to early rising, it's no surprise that we've decided
First step is to move the washing machine and dryer back into the bathroom. Fortunately neighbour Cam is mowing nature strips (as he does regularly, such a good bloke) and is happy to come in and give Peter a hand to raise the dryer into position on top of the washer. Everything we move is absolutely covered in dust, so much cleaning goes on. Even though the bathroom was cleaned by both the carpenters and the painters, it still needed another sweep and floor wash, and basins and benches needed going over. We have to then connect the washing machine to power and water inlets and outlets, ditto the dryer (out only). This is a finicky job requiring water off water on again exercises. We had asked if the toilet could be moved a bit to the right as the washing machine and dryer take up less space than the old shower recess. The toilet was moved quite a lot to the right, and we were fearful that it would feel cramped, or even that it would be just too close for comfort. To our relief it is O
We work all day Sunday, mostly rehanging all the pictures in the hallway (eighteen of them, but who's counting). Helen has the job of sorting the boxes of stuff from the old bathroom cupboards and putting the contents back into the new and old cupboards in the bathroom. Quite a bit of aged stuff finishes up in the bin, which is all to the good. It's twelve weeks since we moved into 1A, and over time more and more stuff has crept from one house to the other, more clothes, more food, more books, a computer, a desk chair, assorted cat equipment. We trek back and forth all day between houses, carrying rubbish to the bins, retrieving items from 1A. We stow the spare tiles in the roof, and some of the residual paint in the garage. Tools come out to fix things and hang pictures, then go away again. We sweep, vaccuum, mop, dust, mop, dust and mop again. The fine sanding dust covering everything seems immovable. If we were starting again, we'd make sure we covered everything beforeh
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