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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.

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