Because of the unexpected country gig we got invited to, yesterday's work got carried forward to today instead. That work was cleaning out the basement of the renovation materials and other random crap that we have been collecting there the last four and a half years. When we moved in we cleaned it all up and painted the walls white to give it some brightness (rather than looking like a drug den), but with all the renovation going on, it has got a little out of order. I cleaned up the garage and put in shelving last month, so today it was just making a pile of crap to take away to landfill.
There was nothing exciting at all.
Normally, there is something interesting that happens when cleaning like this, like a forgotten treasure found again, or some kind of memories of the past.
But there was nothing.
Perhaps the realization was that in the four years we have been living here, we haven't really collected that much stuff that we haven't used, other than building materials. The stuff that we are getting rid of (some will be donated), is what we brought with us and have been making do with in the meantime, while we were renovating. And there wasn't even that much of that. By the time we had broken down boxes and moved the 20 large and another 20 assorted size cans of old paint, the pile of actual trash wasn't nearly as large as my wife believed it would be.
We don't have a trailer, nor do we have a tow-ball on the car, so it means that we always have to ask friends to help us when we need to go to the tip. We bought our car a month before the house, not knowing we were even looking for a house at the time, since we weren't looking at all. If we had known we were going to get a fixerupper, I would have made sure we had a tow-ball on the car. They are between 1000 and 1500 to fit one, but we have managed to not need it yet and perhaps, our friends will put up with the odd ask from time to time still.
We also pay a guy to help us out from time to time, and he is happy to take the cash for a couple hours work loading and unloading a trailer. He made pretty good money in his free time from us over the last few years, as he is also a skilled worker and has helped with all kinds of tasks. He was recommended to us from our tradie, who is one of the few we have come across that we trust. He was also recommended to us from someone we trust, and we also saw the work he had done for them.
But, the basement is almost free of junk now (once we get that trailer), so now we have to work out what we are going to do with it. We can't afford to make it a living space yet, but maybe next summer we can resurface the floor in the walkways and the laundry, and make it a little more comfortable with some heating batteries, so it doesn't get mega cold in the winter. That would make a big difference to the usability of the space.
Well, that was lame. These summer days posts are meant to be interesting, but I don't think anything really that interesting that happened at all today. That in itself is kind of interesting, as normally there is something.
Better luck tomorrow.
Taraz
[ Gen1: Hive ]