Throughout the day I have been musing on this post and the various activities that we have been doing over the past two or three months. Within this I have determined three distinct phases of progress:

• Backward Backwards
• Backward Forwards
• Forward Forwards

Square 1 – Backwards backwards – as you have probably guessed, this is the least desirable of the phases. It is however, at least on a DIY [and probably any renovation project], a certainty. These are tasks that were simply a complete waste of time, or (even worse) where you think you are making progress but actually need to be entirely unwound again later on, usually taking more time and money. The key is to minimise and, wherever possible, mitigate it. It is usually the result of poor planning, changes to the scopes/project variations, or finding something unexpected (that simply can’t be predicted until you have peeled back the skin). While only being a short way into the project, we have already come across a few of these. Thankfully nothing too bad as we are pretty good at working through all the options available – although contemplation and discussion is also very time consuming and exhausting!

Today I spent my time up the scaffolding finishing off the stripping of the walls – result! [I did need a small amount of help from Matt to reach the area above the kitchen worktop though.] However I had already spent a lot of time stripping the external facing walls. After much deliberation we are now going to frame them up so we can run insulation and pipes/wires behind. Not a massive loss but took me a lot of time and effort with zero benefit to the finished result – I was so pleased about having done it too… It didn’t take away from my sense of achievement for finishing the tops of the internal walls today though!

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Square 2 – Backward forwards – maybe not as bad as you think. This is a really important stage of the process. In order to get a good finish, you (almost) always need to strip things back before you can move forward. Sometimes this requires a lot of work and sometimes it is merely superficial, but any good job requires preparation. As you can imagine, there has been plenty of this. When we arrived the house was entirely usable and had an undeniable beauty, even if it was a bit rough around the edges. Today for example, Matt has been up on the scaffolding taking off parts of the ceiling so that we can confirm where the joists are and that we have enough [fixing points]. At about £50 for a bag of 100 we are hoping it will be around 90, of course that’s not the case – we need 104!

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It’s can be an incredibly frustrating stage. After even a short length of time it can create an overwhelming sense of fatigue in a project and that nothing will ever move forward. This brings with it a significant risk, that you will rush head on into ‘moving forward’ without thinking, and sooner or later realising that you are back at square 1.

Also included in this stage is temporary solutions. If you are going to live somewhere and want any level of comfort (and sometimes safety) this is again is a necessary evil. Whether it is a temporary fuse board or an oven in the stairs, these things quite literally ensure that you can switch the lights on/plug things in without risking electrocution, and eat – both of which we agreed were probably necessary but will need to be undone later once we have a ‘final’ solution in place.

Square 3 – Forward forwards: the one that we all want and enjoy. This is where we start building towards the end goal. Obvious, unrestricted, movement towards the end goal, and my reason for this musing. Today we made our first real ‘Forward Forwards’ progress! Yippie!

Before you get too excited, it’s important to celebrate the small things as you go on this ‘adventure’.

First we carefully removed the old flue at the internal end of the kitchen by the stairs. I have no idea what was in there but whatever it was it has been there for a long time. One bird was just a skeleton, the other had a few bits of feather on – bleugh!

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Once we had done that though we could finally make actual, real, forward progress. We managed to get the old fireplace framed up.

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I did warn you that it was a small victory! This however will now provide a riser for the gaines (ducts) and bring them all the way down from the attic to the basement (via the relevant boxes on each floor). We’ve also included a hatch at the bottom to help guide the gaines through and provide later access.

So, it’s a rather long post about what is a rather minor thing but it marks a turning point. A point at which we will start to move forward fowards and, with a following wind, there will be much more of this to come soon. In the meantime, we will continue to consider, debate and deliberate while moving backward forwards.

After all that, it’s time for dinner, relaxation, some more project planning (kitchen flooring finish, materials and design). We’re currently looking at this for the kitchen, what do you think? It’s somewhat reminiscent of the hallway but, since it’s lino, it’s a fraction of the price.

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[16 January 2021]