Today is the day when the air-conditioning unit is removed from its old place in the old teaching studio and moved to the dining room/kitchen. DH and I discussed the merits of having it in the master bedroom (merits: at night, in summer, I want to die because of the heat, so air-con in the bedroom would be SO GOOD), but then we agreed that it’s not really the most used room in the house: the kitchen is. So for the good of all, it’s going there today.

This means, of course I have nowhere to hide. Every room bar the bathroom and Mara’s room) is taken up with noisy people. The dog has taken to my feet (a normal place for her, but she’s even more under my feet than usual), and there’s bangs and crashes everywhere. I’m sure the air-con tradies will be done by 10am, but early morning is quite the busy junction here. (* All done by 11am but no sparky to attach the electrics because we moved it too far, we’ll have to wait for the next sparky visit, in about 3 weeks.)

I COULD go to the gym, I suppose. But I’m much more interested in seeing what’s happening here. The French doors are DEFINITELY coming out today. The ghastly half-wall bifurcating the West wing for most of the last 40 years has just been removed. There will be light and space in the back section of the wing for the next year, until we do the other bathroom. Which will either be done next year or after we’ve added a whole new room.

I am about to tidy up the kitchen and dining room now – we’ve stored stuff in here while the other rooms have been otherwise occupied and it’s time now to move stuff back out. As usual, it’s the bookcases that take up most of the space.

An amusing side note: the builders are working in and around our bedroom, which we still have to sleep in. Today there’s a fair amount of dust all over the bed, bedsheets and covers, but it has to be said DH and I are usually so exhausted from the day (tradie days start at 6.30am, muso days don’t finish until after 10 sometimes, YES, even the administrative muso ones, so we’re a bit tired all the time) that we’ve taken to half-heartedly shaking off the dust and literally falling into bed.

Plenty of people who renovate complain about the dust and general mess, but these guys only make a mess during the day. They clean up after themselves, and we’re left with unfinished but quite tidy spaces. Ask me again in a few weeks how I’m feeling then and I’m sure I’ll feel differently!

The sad part is that I get to do the interior painting. Which means that once all the interior spaces that have been relined or in some way altered are finished, I’m the one that gets to wander round in my dungarees painting all the VJ board. Oh! And in case anyone thought we’re just using only VJ sheeting, think again. Discovered today that removing the French doors necessitates the insertion of proper VJs. Actual wooden boards. Because the sheeting is too thin for the cavity. Huh!