Calming Down

Calming Down

After the chaos of the last couple of weeks, things are finally calming down a bit. Some of that is through our own actions, and some of it is through the actions of others.

Firstly, we’ve completed two full rooms of the house, to a point where all we now need to do is buy some extra furniture for the living room, and unpack books and stuff onto bookcases in the office. It’s a good feeling – and the reactions of other people who’ve come round has shown us that the plans we’ve got for the place are just about right. The rooms we’ve worked on (and when I say ‘we’, I mean primarily Herself) look really good, smart, open, and comfortable. If you saw ‘before’ and ‘after’ photos (and you still might) you wouldn’t believe they were the same house. We’ve now just got to complete one more room (our current bedroom, which will- eventually- be the guest bedroom) for the moment, and that now really only needs some painting to be done.

Secondly, the garden stuff is well on the way. There’s not been a lot we could do over the last couple of weeks, with the levels of rainfall, but equally everything is still becoming more manageable. There’s still an amount of work to be done, and most of that will be done in July, but it’s getting there.

And Thirdly, my workload has dropped. Client #2 have received what they wanted, they’re happy, and the job’s done. When I got the contract, it was supposed to be a rolling thing with continuous work coming in, although I was rather cynical about that, and wondered whether that was some kind of ‘sweetener’ to get someone good to do the site, rather than just a two-month contract. Bizarre, but hey. Turns out I was right – the site’s been completed- within timescales and budgets- and all of a sudden there’s no more work coming in, but thanks for the site.

To be honest, I’m not surprised – and nor am I really all that bothered. I’ve been paid for the work I’ve done, the client is happy, and that’s fine. It’s also had the side-effect of giving me some other ideas of my own that can be developed and tried out. Even better, it means I’ve got some time to myself again.

In hindsight, taking on Client #2 wasn’t my smartest move. It pushed up my workload to silly levels (although not quite to the levels of downright stupid – been there, done that, no plans to do it again) – and while normally it wouldn’t have been a problem, when I then also took into account house stuff as well, it wasn’t my finest hour.

Still, all’s done now, and July is looking like it might actually be slightly more sensible. Well, except for social life – we’re away this weekend, I’m seeing Peter Gabriel in two weeks’ time, and then we’ve guests the weekend after. Lessened workloads never looked better.