eating the elephant

the photograph that prompted me to paint the doorstep!

My house is an old house and I never had any money, so it is pretty decrepit. Everything needs decorating, there is no storage, the garden fence is falling down, the carpet belonged to the previous residents and is horrible (good quality actually, but hideous). I was a broke single parent for years, so beyond a lick of paint here and there, I didn't manage to do much to improve things. Shortly after the Prof and I got together he was made redundant from his job and he was out of work for over a year, when he found work we got engaged and then had a wedding to save for, so it's only now with the wedding behind us that we can now start to work our way through the tasks that need doing. It's quite overwhelming to me at the moment, and honestly, the more overwhelmed I feel the more likely I am to suggest that we get in the car and go on one of our drives on the weekends.  We drive for miles and can be out for several hours. Whether it is town or country there is always lots to see and take photographs of, and in this way I have been neatly avoiding what needs doing. But enough is enough. We have been married six months now and it's about time we stopped avoiding things and started making this house into the lovely home we want it to be.

This weekend we took a different approach. Taking advantage of the Indian summer we are getting here at the moment, we worked in the garden both days, there were a lot of shrubs that needed cutting back and pots full of dead plants to be emptied out, cleaned and put away.  On both days we stopped work in time to take a carload of stuff to the tip before 4pm when it closes, and then we went for a drive. I felt so much better on Sunday evening, knowing we had achieved a lot as well as had fun. Today I painted the front doorstep, which is another job that has needed doing since forever. Tomorrow I will paint the garden bench. We are going to try to tackle some chore every weekend, which will more of a challenge soon as the Prof starts university again next week, but we will try. In addition, I have some serious decluttering to do, which I am going to try and work my way through a little each day, on my better days anyway. Even 15 minutes a day has to get me there in the end, right? The best way to eat an elephant, one bite at a time.