Could it be springtime, or just that the inside of our house
needed attention and rejuvenation after years of neglect?
So we felt
that in these straightened times with our country in recession, we might turn
savings into help for business and the livelihoods of their employees, and
bring our house up to date.
Outside in
the garden my ‘60s elmwood sculpture of more than life size lovers embracing
had, over the years, been eaten internally by mice and split outwardly, so that
the figures were becoming both hollow and falling apart.
So it was time to act – more on
Margreet’s part than mine, as I rather like living in a decaying and slightly
seedy environment and seeing my sculptured wood returning to powder.
Tension
straps and glue were the first moves to help the lovers return to their
previous embrace. Later there would be wood preserver, wood hardener, glued
dowel rods, filler, and possibly paint or the application of an impervious
coating.
Inside the house the carpet
layers had done a splendid job. Almost every object of our daily lives that
rested on the old carpet had to be moved from room to room and returned to its
regular place (often by us) after the new moth-proof carpet had been laid.
Electrical equipment had to be wired back and plugged in again exactly as
before. It was furnishing chaos, and one thwart with considerable wiring
problems. It was a surprise to me to find how complex and numerous were the
(often hidden) wires in our house.
Then all was well. Nothing fused
when plugged again (except the necessity of re-tuning the TVs). A lot of items
in the house were discarded. And a feel of rejuvenation ensued, with everyone
happy.
The
recovery of the sculpture would have to take many days, but new carpets in the
house took only two days of extreme exertion.
Although I
was a bit reluctant to accept the internal bringing-up-to-date, I liked it in
the end.
The soft,
synthetic carpet surfaces were a pleasure to walk on for those who were shod,
but not quite as soft as the previous woollen ones to the barefooted.
As I had
just painted the outside of the house, we felt that we could both settle back
to our normal routine without any outstanding jobs to be done – except for an
internal fibre door to be replaced with a part glazed pine one. And then there
was putty to apply to beneath leadwork where rain can enter when it is raining
hard at the same time as a violent east wind. The sculpture repairs had to be
finished. Then there are windows to clean for the summer. And on it goes.
Will it ever end? I hope not,
because I like it that way.
