So, I’ve had the last two days off, but I’m still trying to defeat the cold that won’t die. I’m still a little snuffelier than usual but it’s the cough that’s the killer. The cough that appears if I so much as consider going outside, and having lain in bed all night, the moment I get up I get an onslaught of coughing. It is, to put not to finer point on it, tedious beyond words.
And I’ve been thus relegated to the sofa. I mean, I’ve done some exercises, and will probably do some more in a bit, but I’m not really up to working on the house, which is upsetting, because the house is so close. So close I can taste it. And it also gives me something to use the nervous energy on. I suppose some of the nervous energy could/should go on studying the CRNE prep guide, expensive as it was, that’s sat upstairs. But most of it goes into thinking about how we really need to finish the house to get it ready to sell*.
One of the things I’d like to do is put some storage under the stairs in the lowest/shortest section of the triangle. My thought is that I could go to ikea and buy some of their storage boxes, and build some shelves to put them on, then hack out the space under the stairs (currently just boxed in with tongue-and-groove wood) and make a little tri-box-ultra deep storage area. So I’ve been pondering it, and was even thinking of designing it today with the thought that this coming weekend I could go get the wood and make it.
Only I realised I can’t. I can’t because the Minor’s in bits in the garage, and I don’t want to spread wood dust around the garage while the minor’s in bits. So I need to get the bits to do the minor – or at least, the bits to get the back axle serviceable. Which is only slightly painful (or quite painful). The actual new diff, I think I’ve sourced (thanks to the ever awesome WibblePuppy for reminding me to actually go try the forums in a more enthused way than I had been) and is not too painful. But then there’s the new bearings, new seals etc. Which again, not too bad… but then there’s the new seat bases (because I’d quite like to be comfortable again), and a headlining, and some trim panels. And then there’s weeping and gnashing of teeth. And quite possibly the battery is dead. And car batteries are not as cheap as they once were.
But still, once she’s on the road again (all she needs once fixing is another MOT) that should mean that I can slip her outside while I attack wood – thus protecting her paint – and more importantly at the moment, not filling her axle case with wood dust. Then I can start on the shelves. Which is kind of the final stage of the hall – which now sports such exciting features as ‘a light’ and ‘sockets attached to the walls’. Shelves, plaining the door down, mounting the phone on the wall and trim then onward to Kathryn’s office, and finally the fixy jobs in the kitchen (there’s a bit I didn’t paint, there’s the filler where the kitchen building bloke knocked chunks out of the plaster, there’s the scratches on the paint where I fitted the shelves, and there’s the trim in there. I sense that again, we’re going to finish the house just as we are ready to move.
We really suck at this!
In other news, being ‘ill’ does mean that I’m allowed to not work on the house. So I’ve done some agency-nurse joining stuff, I’ve listened to Not Your Kind Of People twice. Did I mention that I love music.
Oh, and I forgot to mention (anywhere) but there was a new Dead Bug Jumping out on Sunday (iTunes link). As a side point, can I voice my distress at Michelle Shocked’s recent outburst of homophobic hate speech. ’nuff said.
* Also it would be nice to live in a house that was finished. Just for once. For once in say, 7 years.
