Irony and priorities

The irony of the timing and my choice of word aren’t lost on me, but as there’s no time like now to refocus and create new habits I’m going with it. I’ve posted here before about choosing a word for the year. It’s something I meant to do this year but never had the time to contemplate in ways I had previously - usually I post this in January, heck one year I even managed December, but here we are scraping in just before the end of April.

Irony isn’t my word for 2021, it is in fact priorities

And yes, I know if I was living my word then this post would have already been posted, but that’s exactly why it is the right word for me, and why I’m posting it now. With some time to think and structure those thoughts (a little) it seemed an obvious word to choose.

Like many people my pandemic-filled year has been pretty full on and busy with my day job, which I was fortunate to be able to continue to do from home. It’s usually a busy role and with Covid it stepped up several gears. Even after recruiting a team of two to work with me it’s still busy, and while I know I’ll never reach the end of my to do list (I’m at peace with that - I’ve realised over many years that there will always be more to do) it doesn’t really look as if it will be dialling down any time soon. So throughout the various lockdowns and whatnots I’ve been mildly annoyed with media suggesting that lockdowns have meant more free time, learning new skills and full of banana bread making and sourdough baking - even though I’ve made plenty of those during the past year, and will more than likely continue to.

I’ve realised that when I’m at work (even at home) I’m fully immersed, and when I’m not working and spending time at home I’m fully immersed there too. Something had to give and as you may know it’s been this space, and that’s not how I want it to be. I’ve been powered in both environments by “just one more thing” - so maybe I’m not totally at peace with not getting everything done, at work and at home, but not here.

But I’ve also realised that I can choose.

Choice - not a contender for my word, but could have been now I think about it - is in my gift, and so are sticking to my priorities, which I know may flex and adapt as life changes and flexes. I’m still working through what it means for me, and how I put that into practice but as Gretchen Ruben says in Better than Before:

Nothing is more exhausting than the task that’s never started, and strangely, starting is often far harder than continuing.

Reading is one of the things I’m doing more of too, and yoga. If I’m honest, I’m better at reading than yoga but I’m sure like most things, with practice, I’ll improve and be slightly less wobbly. That works for my word too, doesn’t it?

So here’s to feeling less torn in so many directions, or at least I hope that’s what it means - and to prioritising the things that are important to me, which realistically could be getting a piece of work out the (virtual) door, or even closing my laptop so that life outside work can take its time as my priority.

I’d say wish me luck, but I’m pretty sure it’s going to need more than luck to make the changes I want.

Photo by Sara Kurfeß on Unsplash

A bathroom refresh update

Back in January I shared our plans to refresh our bathroom which was booked to take place in February. On the day our plumber arrived, but only to ask if we would allow this to be rearranged. It was one of the snowy days in February, and many of his other clients were suffering broken boilers. It was a cold day and not the day to be without heating or hot water, and so we rearranged, knowing that we would want other people to do the same for us.

So last month the plumbers returned and the work could start in earnest. But first a couple of before photos:

The sink, the toilet and the shower were all being replaced. The tiles on the floor and walls, the cabinets and the shower enclosure were all staying. This may have made it trickier but we’re not ones for replacing things that continue to work perfectly well.

Like many refurbishment projects, quite often it gets worse before it gets better. And ours was no different. This was taken at the end of day 1:

The day hadn’t gone well. The sink refused to come off the wall. It had been glued and bolted to the wall, this could have been a contributory factor to the stress veins in the photo above. In the end a rather large hammer was taken to it - at one point the second plumber asked his boss, if he needed a bigger hammer. Yes, it was that kind of day.

The replacement shower had different fixings, even though it looked as if they were the same, and that wasn’t easy to remove either. They were loathed to smash the tile until they were sure we had a replacement tile. We did, and I knew exactly where they were - in our gabion baskets of course. Thankfully not under the pizza oven, but in the seating alongside it. Not in the shed like normal people! Though that’s unfair, they had been in the shed until we put these together and in an attempt to clear the shed some more, we used these until the slabs in the smaller baskets. That did mean one was easy to rescue, and I think the plumbers were slightly bemused by the fact too.

But it did mean they could do this.

They left for the evening, and after an afternoon of hopping about waiting to use our second loo (which they thankfully did sort for me) you’d think things couldn’t have gotten any worse.

And then they did.

The second loo, our spare loo, failed. It wouldn’t stop filling up and so they came back. But the mechanism failed and so overnight we didn’t have a flushing loo, one of the most stressful nights we’ve had in a while, I can tell you. By now I was making contingency loo plans, trying to work out where my nearest loo would be, apart from our neighbours, and in a pandemic.

But thankfully it wasn’t needed, as at the end of day 2 it looked more like this. It needed a clean, but it all worked, and so did our second loo. Phew.

The shower and the replacement tile were also in place and working. There had been much discussion amongst the plumbers on which colour grout to use, which was entertaining and welcome, as it showed the pride they had in their work and in doing a great job for us.

We’ve a few more things to do, including painting the shelves and built in useful cupboard, but it’s good to see the changes so far, which have brought it up-to-date, provided extra storage and reintroduced hot showers!

More to follow, but first I need to find paint to complement the very dark navy of the unit above, to transform our dark brown/almost black handy storage cupboard, and then to buy it and finish the job. Small steps, and all that.

A tale of two desks

It’s only taken us about a year of working from home, but finally we’ve sorted ourselves out a desk each. Up until then each day we’d based ourselves at our kitchen table, and it worked well for us and our circumstances then. With MOH starting a new job we knew that having us both on the phone, or on Teams calls at the same time wouldn’t work so well, so we needed a new plan. But it needed to be flexible. We are fortunate to have the space to set up work areas outside of our bedroom and living space. I knew that I needed to avoid working in the craft room/study as there would be far too many distractions, and it’s the room where our wifi has the worst reception.

MOH opted for our spare room, we have futon in there and he has a dartboard and records there - he has much less of an issue with distractions than me, clearly - which left me the top bedroom, which was more than ok with me, as it’s a light and bright room and somewhere we spend very little time. We don’t have the space for two desks to remain in place all of the time, alongside our other furniture and so one of the desks needed to be foldable. I was keen that they were both something we liked, would use again and could be repurposed - and not look out of place - in other parts of our home.

Not quite the mission impossible you might be thinking. The folding desk was the easiest to source, and by looking at many desks I learnt a lot. The desks were mainly a metre wide, the depth more variable. Compared to our kitchen table most of the desks were about 10cm wider, depth at the kitchen table wasn’t an issue. In our spare room the alcove is 110cm and could take a deeper desk, so our plans were on track.

Then I saw, and fell in love with, the desks on the Hairpin Leg Co. Smitten. The sizes didn’t quite work though, so I researched custom made options. I knew I could buy the legs on the hairpin’s website, so I looked for laminate tops, and I found many which involved varying degrees of assembly and drilling. Then I struck gold on Etsy, finding The Laminate Top Company - given the company name where I started, the irony on where I ended up isn’t lost on me.

I ordered my desk and it was delivered within a couple of days from one of the larger delivery companies that sells just about everything. I ‘sold’ the ply and orange legged desk to MOH, who didn’t take much persuasion - as “a desk’s a desk” - and I impatiently waited. It arrived on schedule, though given our current troubles with deliveries I was keeping an even closer eye on this one, and at one point one of the parcels (it came in two consignments), according to the online tracking had had a failed delivery. Thankfully in the end it was pain free, and I couldn’t wait to check it over.

The ply top. The chamfered edge - oh, just look at that edge. The legs. Perfection.

MOH was impressed too, even more so when he put it together. And so his desk is in place - and in use - too. The original plan was to put it in the alcove by the window, however with the change in weather - and the WFH coldness setting in - sitting next to the window isn’t the most sensible thing. When we make use of the futon it will move into the alcove, and in the warmer weather being closer to the window and overlooking the garden will work too. I bought a throw for the spare room, and put it handy so MOH could make use of it. I never thought he would, but today he let on it had come in useful - but only after he laughed at me for having a blanket over my lap…

It suits him, he’s minimalist. And as he says, a desk is a desk.

It may just be a desk, but it’s gorgeous - and longer term I’ve got my eye on it for my craft room. But sssshh, don’t tell him.

My desk isn’t as gorgeous and stylish as his, but it’s just as useful and has the potential for future use too.

You can tell our different approaches just by looking at our layout can’t you? I have headphones, a notebook and plenty of pretty stationery, and a lamp from the bedside table which has temporarily been displaced. I left it there to save unplugging it, as the plug is behind the bed, but actually it’s great to have a table lamp for those duller times of day.

I read recently that the view from your desk should be inspiring, in both our cases neither could be called that. In my case the wall slopes and if I’m honest it’s not a view I spend much time looking at. With the amount of time I spend on Teams calls and in meetings, the view behind me is one I see much more often - and that one’s pretty stunning. A few weeks on, it’s still receiving comments from the people I meet.

So a year on, two desks later and we may just have cracked this working at home malarkey. Some things still don’t change, and MOH is still the chief tea maker in our relationship, now he has an extra flight of stairs to deliver it - or occasionally I get a call to collect it, either works for me. The only challenge? When the door bell goes, the front door is much further away, but I’ll cope…