renovating: what it's really like

Anyone who has ever renovated whilst living in the house that they're renovating knows that this is no picnic....for example: last Saturday morning, around 4am we awoke to the sound of heavy rain. And dripping. On the carpet. Our newly placed eaves (without the fascia or guttering fitted yet) were funneling the particularly heavy rain back into the roof and onto the windowsill which (magically) had a small-enough crack in it to allow a good, steady stream of water into our bedroom and onto the carpet.

There I are at 4am, mopping up water with towels while my husband is outside in the rain fitting a tarpaulin in under the roof tiles. Oh, what I'd would do for finished guttering right about now.

I understand that this phase is relatively short-lived (it had better be!). It's just the lack of covered areas, clear paths ways, access to the front door, etc, etc, that really gets me frustrated with the entire process - the stuff that you usually take for granted.

Oh, and what I'd do for a sunny weekend! Why does it always f&%*king rain on weekends when we're desperately trying to get things done??? (hey, it's my blog and I'll moan if I want to!). Here we are, another rainy weekend so we've left the guttering for now (maybe the tarps around the house will begin to grow on me) and we're onto replacing the cracked plasterboard from the house being moved - there wasn't a lot, but enough to really accentuate the previously small cracks prior to the move - pretty normal for a 50 year old house.

So it's dust, dust and more dust. Sanding. Filling. More sanding. On a wet weekend with no where else to go - this is shit! Am I selling the benefits of DIY, or what? Time for clean-up and a bit of dinner and yet the vacuum has stopped working...completely. Words have failed me here *sigh*.

Breathe, have a glass of red, go to bed, get up to a new day.

Sunday update: vacuum has not gone to appliance heaven, we had somehow tripped one of the circuits in the house...maybe from drying clothes in the dryer?? Anyhoo, it's a sunny day today HOORAY!