When I returned from my sabbatical, the dust had settled down somewhat but my bedroom was still used to store many things that could not be shifted for a few more days due to some more work, essentially finishing coats of paint being applied in the drawing room.
Since I could not use the bedroom, I moved into a Serviced Apartment hotel facility just behind our home which we use to accommodate visiting guests. I spent day times at home or doing other things, but spent five nights at the hotel. Since the facility offered free breakfast, I had to just have lunch at home and it was quite an adventure for those five days to have kind of picnic lunches at home. Since I do not have cooked meals for dinner, eating fruits in the evenings at the hotel was quite simple and so, for simply the cost of the rental, I was able to spend five nights in that facility.
It was however quite a relief to be able to return home after those five days despite the kitchen still not having been equipped with windows. The windows and the exhaust fan for the kitchen were finally installed last Friday/Saturday and now we have to wait for a couple of weeks before the modular furniture for the kitchen can be installed. In the meanwhile make do storage arrangements for utensils and other kitchen material is the order of the day but Mangal, our resident expert is quite cheerfully adapting to such ad hoc arrangements on the belief that eventually she would get a dream kitchen.
In the process of redoing the drawing dining area, Ranjan has moved the inverter to below the staircase and I find that the existing console housing it is not sturdy enough for pulling out and pushing back into to its assigned space. I have therefore designed a wooden unit which will be made to my specifications tomorrow by a carpenter specially hired for the job. The material has been ordered and the carpenter is on call to arrive as soon as the material is delivered.
In the meanwhile, Manjiree’s family has a wedding coming up in Kolkata and so she and Ranjan left earlier this afternoon for Kolkata and will return only on Friday late evening. So, after many years, yours truly is living in solitary splendour in his own palace with only Chutki for company in the nights.
My old library has been removed and a brand new more accessible shelving system has been put in place. I am using the opportunity of re -shelving my collection to cull it to reduce the number to be more manageable. Ranjan’s colleague Rahul will come in the day time to help me cull tomorrow and the day after and we have lined up two interested people to take away the books that I will be discarding.
Other bits and pieces of work keep cropping up and coming Saturday will also see some fabricators come to instal overhangs on top of the windows of the kitchen on the outside. A new shelving system for the TV/DVD unit is also on the drawing board and all in all the first half of March also would appear to offer quite a bit of work to be managed before we can say “phew!”
“Phew” indeed, my dear Ramana. Can’t decide, on reading your narrative, whether I feel full of vigour or plain exhausted. I suspect the former. Nothing better than something to get your teeth into. Not least workmen. How they do it I don’t know but do it they do. Eventually.
As to the comforts of a “serviced appartment” – one friend’s ambition is to live in a hotel once she retires. Yes, really. She is American, California no less. So one does have to make allowances.
U
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My own choice would be “unsettled”! Having spent countless nights in hotel rooms and serviced apartments, my choice would be to live in a home. I can however see the advantages of living permanently in a serviced apartment, but that kind of combination for senior citizens is now available in special communities here.
Is there any chance of you taking pictures of the adventure? It sounds as if the changes are huge!
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I do have ‘before’ pictures of the kitchen and once the work is completed I will take the ‘after’ shots and post both on a blog. The drawing / dining area has just been given a fresh coat of paint and so nothing significant has changed there.
It sounds like you will have a brand new house when the work is completed. I look forward to seeing the photos after a grand unveiling!
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Not quite. The only place to change will be the kitchen. The drawing/dining area simply got a fresh coat of paint. Once the kitchen is all done, I shall post before and after photographs in a blog post.
If the chaos brings simplicity, it will be worth it. At least that is what I am telling myself here.
That is exactly what I say too. And I think that we will get there eventually. Particularly in my library.
I’ve followed all this with interest. Having renovated several homes in the past, I know you will love the day it is all over, and you can relish what you have accomplished! Then you need to say to yourself, “I’ll never, never do this again”!
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I look forward to that day with much anticipation!
It is a home revolution really! I will be installing only a new kitchen in a couple of months and I am already nervous about it. Discarding books would be a difficult thing for me to do. I still mourn the ones I discarded in the past.
I wish you Godspeed in your remodeling exercise. If you are not breaking down an existing wall to make it larger, it should be simpler than what we did as we had to break a wall and expand.
I love change.
but I also love calm. and order! and neither of those can truly be had in a large renovation. so my hat is off to you for your patience with it all!
but it will be grand when it’s all done. and the mess will just be a memory. can’t wait for the unveiling.
I would love to live in a hotel with room service… and full dining if I chose ‘to go down for dinner!’ can think of nothing lovelier than good food that I don’t have to cook.
but then i’m an american. you have to make allowances. LOLOL.
oh ursula.
“Oh, Ursula”, you sigh. Me too. With a smile. HumoUr, Tammy. With a big U. However, back to more serious business: This particular [American] friend is the first to send up her nation. Which is just as well since she is married to an Englishman who pokes so much “fun” at Americans it’s sometimes borderline cruel.
Other than that, Tammy, whatever went wrong in our previous exchange, I am sorry because I really like you. I like people as enthusiastic as you are. On one particular occasion I thought your enthusiasm misplaced. Whether it was or wasn’t is largely irrelevant. There are few “wrongs” and “rights” when people communicate. Main thing is to give each other that so benevolent “benefit of the doubt”.
Hug,
U
Ursula recently posted..Bitch on the Blog
no worries mate.
I really like you too.
I have always admired your wit.
as you know full well.
there is a line though of wit and attack and sometimes it seems to waver one into the other.
but you and I are good. no problem!
with me you must remember…
the adage that less witty but enthusiastic people seem to live by…
fools rush in where angels fear to tread.
not always appropriate in other words. I have no doubt I do it often. just as your wit is often misconstrued.
hugs back U.
and WHAT?
she made it through a whole comment without an exclamation point?
LOLOL!
I too would rather sit and just let things be but I live with younger people who want change! I just had to oblige!
I agree with many of your commentators…on much of the renovations.