Skip to main content

Yes, my toddler is playing with a toilet cistern.

 These past few weeks have been pretty full on for everyone in our house.


The toilet cistern that’s currently living in our toddler's bedroom is the least of it. But more on that later.

It’s safe to say that things definitely look or get worse before they get better with any sort of house renovation.

In a few weeks our kitchen will be done, the bathrooms will be done, the interior painting will be done, and all the flooring will be replaced. It’s so close, but right now it feels further away than ever. Our house has literally never looked worse, though maybe aside from when we first moved in and there was all this rubbish left behind and everything smelt of cat pee. But at least there was a kitchen then I guess.

Last weekend I came across an unpleasant surprise 1am. There was water, everywhere. The puddles spread over the kitchen floor, into the laundry, into the hallway, and into the ground floor. Yikes. One big, pregnant yikes.

For once I was very thankful to have our wakeful toddler, because if we hadn’t discovered it until the morning (you know, like the actual, moon-has-disappeared, morning) it would have been colossally worse.

To cut a long story short, several pipes burst (I’m cursing you, Dux Quest) in quick succession over the weekend. We had to play the fun game of  “is it safe to turn the water back on?” roulette for four days. It’s been a bit hectic, to say the least.

In addition, we currently don’t have a kitchen, we’ve been constructing our new kitchen cabinets in our lounge (so it kind of looks like a factory in here), and one of the bathrooms has been ripped out. 

There’s also a garden spade in said bathroom. I have no idea why, but it’s really not that strange with everything else going on at the moment.

Thankfully, the leaks are all fixed now (please touch wood) and our insurance company has been very helpful. They’ve stuck six huge fan/dehumidifier things in our house that make it sound like a plane is permanently taking off from the kitchen, but that’s okay in the big scheme of things. It provides great entertainment for our toddler who now likes to “visit” the fans 20 times each morning and say, “oh wow!” - an industrial cleaner petting zoo of sorts.

So this is where we’re at. A whole heap of mess and chaos and loud things and stress. Gib and Pink Batts and cabinetry and random plumbing equipment are everywhere. But also a whole heap of good things are on their way (this I need to be true). We’ll get our free time back soon! We won’t have to be constantly painting and repairing and mopping (okay probably still quite a bit of mopping though, seen as Miss Almost-18 months is the equivalent of a blender without a lid) and all those fun things.

Although it’s chaotic and all a bit much, this time has been good in that it’s really forcing me to prioritize what’s actually important, because a lot of stuff isn’t and it’s just fluff. My perfectionist nature loves the fluff. It’s easy to hide your feelings and anxiety by vacuuming twice a day and stressing over the washing basket! But here in this season, there really isn’t time or energy for that fluff anymore. Sure, one day I can have a tidy house again and my toddler can frolic around in organic-cotton-merino-keto-antivaxxer-definitelynotkmart boutique baby wear (I promise you this has never happened) and I can spend my days stressing about if the houseplant is over-watered. But right now, it’s important to just keep everyone fed and clothed and feeling loved. The rest of it is just noise (airplane-volume loud, literally). It’s uncomfortable and it’s good.

Speaking of Miss almost-18 months and her new favorite toy - the toilet cistern. It’s brand new and obviously unused. Obviously. It’s currently in her bedroom because there’s renovation stuff everywhere and she likes to mail measuring spoons through a hole in the top. What a time to be alive! And sharing this fun fact with the internet - what a time to be alive once again!

Anyway, we’ve never felt further from the end, but apparently this is what the home stretch looks like.

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A review of the types of people who sell animals on TradeMe.

I’m always on the hunt for new internet rabbit holes to venture down during all these long nights. Sometimes I’ll just read random articles or follow a Wikipedia chain or read up about conspiracy theories just for the fun of it. I’m not too sure how I got into investigating (okay, that’s way too strong a word for staring at a screen to stop my eyelids dropping) the animals for sale on TradeMe, but here we are. Upon reading several listings and gasping at the price of these creatures, I began to notice some particular themes within each subset of seller. And because I don’t have anything better to do during these ungodly hours, I’ve categorised these sellers into neat, little boxes. Healthy stuff. Let’s start with the pigs. Surprisingly, pig sellers tend to be of very few words. I was lowkey disappointed because I expected an almost rambunctious air about them, verging on mildly jolly. However, most listings just include one or two blurry photos of the pigs at least 5m away in a paddoc...
Post a Comment
Read more

Plumbers and Broats

Today has been a strange morning so far, involving plumbers, blue food colouring, and awkwardly pacing around inside my house. Is it just me who gets nervous and feels awkward when they have a tradie working in their house? It's probably just me. This would be a typical thing that makes me feel weird, but no one else would seem to have a problem with it. Now I'm just rambling. Another weird thing I do. We have a couple of plumbers working on the downstairs in our house as we're renovating the bathroom. The plumbers are very nice and normal and I've talked to them and showed them the work that needs to be done and it was fine. They aren't even in the main section of our house. My toddler and I are on a completely different floor, but with every little noise I think, "but what if they come up the stairs?" And I mean, what if they do? Therefore, in the possibility that they may come into the main section of our house (which again, is unlikely, given that all ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Alone (with peas and Sard).

These past 12 hours I’ve had so much alone time, I feel quite strange and everything feels unfamiliar.  It has been wonderful! But also a bit weird. It’s really made me realise that before I had kids, I had So. Much. Time.  But that’s always the way it is, isn’t it? You don’t appreciate something until it’s gone. And then you have a new blessing in its place and all you can think is, “wow I’m so constantly busy” and “wow, I would love to use the bathroom alone,” and “wow, I can’t remember what silence sounds like.” You lose yourself a little bit in motherhood. You find new parts of yourself too, of course. You grow and stretch and rise so much that it hurts. But you’re also so constantly on 24/7 that you barely have enough time to think you’re own thoughts. Last night my daughter slept through the night! It was amazing! I feel so well rested today and I’m so thankful. I have no idea why or how or anything else and it probably won’t happen again for goodness knows how long, but...
Post a Comment
Read more