I’ve set my alarm clock so I can be in town to pick up the rental car at 8AM sharp when the rental company opens, and then I’ll hurry home and start filling up the car with as much as possible before driving down to the house for 12PM when the estate agent will be there to do the meter readings and hand over the keys.
It feels very surreal that in 14 hours I’ll be outside my house, waiting for the estate agent to let me in and then leave me there.
Alone.
In my house. Set in my garden. Surrounded by fields on all sides.
It’s a little bit scary to think what I’ve thrown myself into. Renovating the summer house after the flood in December 2013 was such a huge project, and this house is in a way a bigger project because I will not only be ripping things out myself, but also replacing them myself, rather than affording to have builders do it.
But… If I feel happy when I stand outside that house tomorrow at noon, perhaps it will be worth a bit of stress and some aching muscles and joints.
I don’t know if I can sleep tonight. Who cares about Christmas; tomorrow I get a HOUSE!!!
I hope you have a fabulous and stress free drive down and congrats on making the house your own. Having renovated a couple of places it’s definitely worth the aching joints – there’s something really satisfying about doing the work yourself (though I confess I’ve never braved tackling plumbing)!
I’ll only have to do very limited plumbing since I plan to leave the kitchen sink where it is, and I get a guy in to sort out the electrics on Wednesday morning… (The circuit breaker is apparently faulty, which is not ideal… I’d rather like to not have my house burned down due to a short-circuit.)
And to be honest, a large-scale DIY project is a way of getting to know your house very intimately. You get to know what lies behind the surfaces and how everything actually works, both in terms of utilities like water and electricity, but also structurally. I like that. It helps me understand what the house needs me to do for it.
Very exciting, Soren! Congratulations! There will undoubtedly be stresses involved in your remodeling efforts, but they will only increase your sense of accomplishment when it is done.
Thanks, Jean. I suspect I can keep stress to a minimum by just tackling tasks one by one. After all, there is no deadline for finishing the house, so for now I’ll start off cleaning it thoroughly and washing every surface. (And planting my 798 bulbs…)