It has been a couple years in the planning, but finally today, Smallsteps has got something that she has wished for and patiently waited for far longer than we had originally told her. After using exercise rings at the neighbors place, she asked for some of her own, but with the last place we had, we didn't have the room for them. When we decided to buy this house, we promised she could have the rings in her room after we renovated upstairs, which was meant to be by summer.
We are only eight months late on this and we have still not moved up there, but today we decided that her room floor is dry enough for her to play on now. The other rooms are a different story, but we have to move up there very soon, otherwise we won't be able to finish the other things we need to do before the coming evaluation.
It is important for us to get a decent evaluation on the place, as even though we aren't selling, it will dictate whether we can roll the renovation loan into the same conditions as the house loan. While not catastrophic if we can't, it would definitely be better if we could, as there is a fair difference in the interest rate on each.
We have done some major renovations and improvements on the place, including changing the heating system from oil to a air-water heat exchanger, installed new windows to replace the 60-year old originals, opened up and heated the attics to make rooms larger and have a walk-in-wardrobe in the master bedroom, a few new heaters, a tiled entrance with a heated floor, a full bathroom built upstairs, new electricity, plenty of painting and even some landscaping.
It should be enough, but one never really knows.
We have been doing far more than people expected we were going to do and while we have tried to stretch the budget we had, there has been some expected "unexpected" surprises and blowouts. With Corona, we also had some heavy income setbacks, but since there wasn't much else to do, we have been able to inject more cash as we earn it into the work and materials needed. This should out us a little ahead.
My wife and I were talking about how much we have put into the renovations thus far, and we feel like we have overextended a little, but since we are planning on being here a while, it shouldn't be too bad and over time and it will hopefully hold most of its value, especially since the location is good.
We were also talking about how fast Smallsteps has been maturing since we moved in. While it is obviously natural, I think that the space and need to spend more time looking after herself a bit more as we have more to do, has brought in a higher level of independence. I think that when we were living in the apartment, we had more time to spend together doing nothing, whereas now it is spent together doing something for the house, or separately doing things for the house.
This might seem like a drawback to some, but I reckon we probably wasted a lot more time together when we were in the apartment, as we didn't have anything to take care of ourselves, outside of normal cleaning. I actually think this is something most people don't think about when they are trying to find more time in their lives - as they don't necessarily fill the time saved with anything useful and the "extra" gets absorbed into the daily. This happens with increases in income also, where extra tends to satisfy wants that through habit, become needs.
As said, Smallsteps has had to wait a long time for these and the look on her face when she walked into the room as I was hanging them was one of cautious excitement - not totally believing the time had arrived where she could actually use them. She asked if she could help me and I had her hold the straps as I threaded them through the clasps and when I finally said for her to test them, her face lit up and after the first careful hang to see if they were going to fall down on her (I had already tested them), she started swinging like a monkey.
I am glad that she is happy with them and I will also use them, since getting to the gym has been hard - but mostly, I am relieved to finally get one promise crossed off the checklist. This promise was like a keystone habit that affects other habits around it, like exercising affects so much of our lives in indirect ways. This was a small promise to make, but it took the renovation of an entire floor of our house to accomplish.
Taraz
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