Still cleaning the garage but after three days of really hard work, I think we’ve more or less removed what we don’t need, Mi. Not counting the books and a few other things I plan to freecycle. If no one wants them then Muni is always there, quite happy to take it all away.
Now we have reached the stage where we have to sift through what we have kept and put them together in a way that they can be easily moved to storage for the next couple of weeks as our garage gets renovated. Basically they’ll plaster the walls and then cure and whitewash. Big improvement it will be, though.
I really really really wish you were here, more than ever now. Because I imagine sitting in the garage, shutter up, reading while you teach some kids. You always wanted to start some classes or a creche. I know you were slightly annoyed when I said I would support you with the classes but was doubtful about the creche because it was too much responsibility. The routine of managing a bunch of almost-toddlers did not really appeal to me at the time as I was more keen on getting back to better paying work. Also, the uncertainty of how well we might do with the creche held me back.
If nothing else, we could have made a little library in the garage and spent some nice moments there. These days, we don’t even have to worry about being connected, thanks to enough data on our phones. It would be a nice haven no? Sigh.
Now the pigeons use the corner of the shutter top to build their nest. Even though we’ve been going downstairs every day and opening the garage, they still manage to collect lots of sticks there. I wish we could renovate the shutter into a door that fully closes without that stupid ventilation on top, like the one next door. But I guess that will be another huge expense. I will talk to the guys and see – because ideally it makes sense to do that when the garage is empty. Saves the supervision.
I plan to clean the kitchen next week, removing all the extras we don’t need. As I looked around and planned in my head, I nostalgically recalled how we had fantasized about turning it into a study, sealing off the exhaust and turning your room into the kitchen. It would have been totally feasible, since it shares a wall with the bathroom and the plumbing wouldn’t have been an issue. It would have made a nice big bright kitchen too, with the dining table at the wall where we now have that bookshelf.
Even though we are unlikely to do it now, I definitely still hope to turn that TV wall into a bookshelf. It would be such a nice way to corral all our books there. I wouldn’t bother with a carpenter – I would simply get those big metal bookshelves so that we didn’t have to worry about the wood. Although, originally I did think of wooden bookshelves. Hmm. Let’s see how that goes.
Right now we have other priorities to focus on. Plenty of time to renovate, refresh and rejuvenate later, no? Still, nothing to stop me from planning away, and slowly cleaning out what we don’t need. Will be so much easier in the long run. Sometimes my mind boggles at the thought of what we will do with all the books he has collected that he might never come back to. We were a bit crazy, no, Mi? But let’s look at the silver lining – we raised a reader. And that’s a priceless thing.
Time to make lunch.
Photo by Johnny Willz from Pexels
