After what seems like years of preparing and quote procuring and so on, we’ve finally made a start on the renovating the big house.

We moved into the cottage the weekend before last, and over the last week, stripped out the kitchen, laundry and flooring.

And started repairing the floor, and stripping off the wallpaper.

Stripping Wallpaper

Stripping wallpaper is a strangely satisfying task.

It takes a while to get used to the process, and then you’re zipping along, scalding and scratching yourself as wet wallpaper piles up in shreds all around you.

When you have to grab it and bag it and bin it before it dries onto the floor.

Which I suppose is a lot like life in general.

And writing.

Life

It’s all about the basic process.

Getting into a rhythm.

Or the flow.

Of daily, weekly and monthly routines.

Or getting back into the rhythm – the tidying, clothes washing, and toilet cleaning.

Writing

Being in the cottage is a break from our usual routines.

What with one thing and another (the cottage construction, hand injury, and Clever Girl joining us), it’s been about two and a half years since I had workable writing and business routines.

And I hope that living here for a while will help me rebuild those routines, or at least something approaching them.

If not something better.

So What’s Next?

Just a little more wallpaper stripping and it’s done.

The new windows are on order, the cabinetry is on order, and a builder engaged to enclose my library.

I’m half sad, half excited, and half over it already.

The weather bureau suggests it’ll be raining non-stop all week.

Bit of a shame when I’ve got three weeks worth of washing…

But if I’m shut in with the rain anyway, I still have a lot of this site to rebuild after the hacking incident.

---

Photo of me trying to wrestle a towel off Clever Girl by A Hopkins.

---

You can find my monthly reports and other planning related information on the Life Worth Living page.