Making best use of my time

Since booking Lia into preschool, I’ve been thinking about the extra time I’ll have from September. From Monday to Wednesday, I won’t have either of the girls for five hours a day. Much as I’ll miss them, I’ve been looking forward to taking on some extra work. But last week, I realised that work really couldn’t be my priority.

Reassessing my priorities

It might seem a bit strange to say that work isn’t my priority. But at the moment, things are ticking along fine in that respect. I’ve always been relatively driven in terms of my career, so it seemed like a natural step to pick things up when I had time. But perhaps not just yet.

For years, we’ve been attempting a few improvements on the house. We’ve put a new boiler and double glazing in. We’ve put in an awesome decking that makes the back garden a much more usable area. We’ve done 3/4 of the bathroom and half of the kitchen. And I got half way through painting the girls’ room. And that’s where it stopped.

I’m not even sure why really, except that life got in the way. But when I stood in our kitchen the other day, I realised I couldn’t carry on like this. We may not have the money to pay professionals, but there’s so much I can do myself.

The girls’ room

Much as the rest of the house frustrates me, I know I need to sort the girls’ room out first. They have a lovely bunk bed and wardrobe, but the rest of the room is a bit of a nightmare. I’ve started painting one of the walls but it needs another coat or two. I need to do the other walls as well. The carpet needs replacing and quite frankly, the whole room is a bit dull.

I want the girls to choose the way I decorate their room. They’ve asked for a yellow wall with some painting on it, perhaps a moon and stars. I also think they need some bright and inventive furniture and accessories. I’d like to buy them a colourful clock and a children’s armchair to make the room more homely. I love how the Normann Copenhagen online furniture range manages to combine minimalism with colour. The room is so plain at the moment that I feel guilty when I see other children’s fun, colourful bedrooms.

The rest of the house

Once the girls’ room is done, I’ll need to get carpets for upstairs and flooring for downstairs. I’m hoping to be able to fit the carpets myself but there’s no way I’ll manage to do the floor downstairs. The whole house needs freshening up with some paint, there are things that need finishing off in the kitchen and bathroom. I’ll also need to get the wiring redone, take down some trees in the garden and fence it off so we have a bigger usable area.

Writing it all down like that makes me realise what a big job I’ve got ahead of me. I don’t think I’ll have much time to put my feet up when Lia goes to pre-school. Perhaps taking on more work will have to wait another year.