Renovation

This week, the madman is in the midst of prepping and painting the living room, the dining room, and the upstairs hallway.

I have a love/hate relationship with renovation.

I hate the mess, the stress, the upset house, the confused cats, the endless parade of workmen entering and leaving the house.

Then, of course, there's the money.

Oh, the money that goes into creating a dream into a reality!

Ah, but regardless of the stress and money, I still love imagining something new in my mind.

Staring silently at a room for hours, slowly turning over in my mind, paint colors, new furniture, new art. 

The bliss of imagining the new is almost too much to experience, let alone convey.

But then you decide and all hell breaks loose.

Right now, the living room furniture is crowded into the dining room. The living room rug has to be stepped over to get to the sink in the kitchen.

Every piece of woodwork in the hallway and the living room is in some stage of scraping, priming, or painting.  The litter of workmen is everywhere. It's a nightmare.

Yet, when you see it, that first vision of the new...oh, the satisfaction!

I read somewhere that Barbara Streisand completely renovated and decorated every room in a house and then rarely lived there. 

I can completely understand that. 

I can fully grok the joy she must have taken in seeing her vision take shape around her, day by day. 

Honestly, I don't think life gets any better than that.

Every old house deserves a madman...

Most of my dining room furniture is in the kitchen.

All of my living room furniture is in the dining room.

Why?  Because my madman of an electrician and I decided to put recessed lighting in the living room.

Since I have a plaster and lath ceiling, the mess of creating holes and running wire necessitated removal of all furniture and breakable objects.

My housemate, who is nearly autistic when it comes to order and routine, is slowly coming apart at the seams because of the mess.

It doesn't bother me at all because I never got that gene.  You know, the everything in it's place, oh God, there's a speck of dust, quick get a broom gene.  Can't say that I miss not having it either.

The madman has already rewired the upstairs and added recessed lighting to the hallway.

Apparently my 80-year-old house is full of wiring that's about to ignite and burn the house down.

Sigh.

He's not really mad, by the way, he's just a little crazy and never ever on time.  Which doesn't bother me, but drives the housemate crazy.

I wonder what she'll do when I renovate the kitchen.....