2012 has got itself off to a somewhat hectic start. After an initial slow recovery for the xmas break it is now all go.

• I have comfirmed a quote for the kitchen installaion, so tomorrow it is off to place the order (and probably choose a new paint colour as well). 
• The quote for the garden renovation (building project 4) is due in at the end of the week.
• The pattern book for my latest knitting commission has arrived, so the client is now choosing final designs and colours.
• The leisure centre now has a full schedule of classes (I am trying out pilates tomorrow).
• We’re hoping to get resolution of my grandmother’s estate (after over 3 years) and will be pushing hard until we do.
• The sale of my parents’ house is moving towards exchange and completion.

So far I have had the back door moved and a french door put in (building project one), to allow building project two (a new bathroom) to be completed.

Building project three is a new kitchen. One with a dishwasher and a fridge I don’t have to bend down to see into. Last night I talked through my plans (drawn up with the help of the Ikea kitchen planner and many nights of insomnia) with the guy who did my bathroom. He also does kitchens and has the advantage of living two doors down from me. His work on the bathroom was excellent. A couple of minor changes were made to the plan (the fake beams are staying) and all I am waiting for is his quote.

I spent this afternoon actually doing stuff towards the new kitchen. Instead of a cream coloured ceiling with black fake beams I now have a pure white ceiling with pure white fake beams (if they can’t be satisfactorily removed, they will just have to be camouflaged). It looks a little odd at the moment where pure white ceiling meets cream coloured walls, but the walls will be changing colour (probably to a brightish green to contrast the off-white units) so it will look better then.

I also transferred all of the empty boxes from the top of the current units to the loft. The new units will be just shy of scraping the ceiling so there won’t be any space for them there (and I’m not going to use up until space storing boxes).

It turns out that painting a ceiling and beams is a pretty goos workout for the upper body. I predict aching tomorrow, but it’s worth it.

So, the arbitrary date change has taken place and with it comes the traditional sport of navel gazing as people look back at the year that has passed and look forward to the one just starting.

A lot of this can be attributed to having three bank holidays all squished together giving people time out from their day-to-day grind (whatever it might be). Plus there’s nothing on the telly and regular recreational pursuits have been disrupted.

I’m personally not one for making New Year resolutions (there is always so much pressure associated with keeping them and there is a temptation to aim too high), but if they work for other people that’s great. I try to treat my life as a work in progress and that any time there is a change that can be made, make that change, and make it right then.

We only get the one life, it isn’t a dress rehearsal, you have to get on and live it (add your own platitude here). If something is within your power to do now, and the pros outweigh the cons, do it now, why not?

Case in point, I want a new kitchen. I’m not particularly a fan of the current one (in terms of style and usability, though there’s nothing particularly wrong about it) and I have the money to replace it. It’s something that has always been on the list of things to do to the house (bathroom, kitchen, garden, loft is pretty much the list bar some painting – bathroom done, garden on its way) so why not do it now? Yes, it will be a hassle while the work is being done and having to move everything out, store it, then move it all back in again is a pain, but (as one of my exercise class taglines goes) “pain is temporary”. It goes on to say “pride is forever”, which is probably a bit much for a kitchen, but from experience having nice things around you is nice. A lot of people do up their houses in order to sell them, then realise how much nicer it is all done up and wish they had done it sooner so that they could have benefited from it.

Wondering whether or not to put a new kitchen in is definitely a first world problem (I am also bored with washing up and want to put in a dishwasher to help with that), and pales beside lots of other “real” problems. Yet, when I am lying in my bed (and I’m not being kept awake by New Year revellers) my mind is going over details. What to put where, what finishes to have, if the tiles don’t extend under the current cabinets should I rip them all out, try and match, try and coordinate/contrast, can you put a hob over a corner unit with a carousel? Will I sleep better once those decisions have been made (I am going to try and find out about the hob issue this week), or will I just find something else to keep my mind racing?

Who knows, but I’m willing to give activity a try over inactivity. All things considered, I’m in a pretty good place (I’ve certainly been in worse), but if there’s improvement to be had I am up for that at any time.

We decided at lunchtime to make the trip down to the Nuffield Theatre in Southampton to see the Gandini’s latest show Motet.

The two hour drive through lashing rain there, and patches of thick fog back were definitely worth it.

The Gandini’s are always a pleasure to watch and this show is no exception. The lighting was somewhat dim in places but there were very nice pieces in the show. I particularly liked the start of the sequence with the big balls (in fact I liked all of the stuff with the big balls), and Kati’s ring manipulation and juggling section, along with the opening Egyptian piece (the juggling between screens was also very good).

Full of humour as well as high technical content and all round entertainment I would recommend it. It is showing for one more night at the Nuffield: http://www.nuffieldtheatre.co.uk/events/detail/motet/

Maybe it is a reaction to the adverts on TV going all Christmassy, but November has become the month for campaigns to achieve other things.

Some of the highlights that I have come across are:

Movember – Moustache growing to raise funds and awareness for men’s health, particularly prostate and testicular cancer.

NaNoWriMo – National Novel Writing Month, supporting people to write a 50,000 word novel between November 1st and 30th (I did this in 2005, or was it 2006?).

Wovember – Promoting and celebrating turning sheep into clothing (and much more).

NaBloPoMo – Supporting bloggers in posting one new blog post every day in November (it being November 2nd I’m too late for this one).

NaKniSweMo – supporting knitters to complete a 50,000 stitch sweater between November 1st and 30th (I started a sweater just before November but had to put it down for a commission, so I don’t qualify).

Warning, this post is going to be really image intensive.

My first major building project to the house since moving in was to move the old back door and replace it with a window. This gave me a nice new french door out into the garden, but the underlying plan was to rip out the old dingy bathroom and replace it with a nice shiny new one (building regs no longer requiring you to have two doors between a toilet and a kitchen).

I somehow managed to get a local bathroom installer (really local, 4 doors down local) to rip out and replace my bathroom while I was away at a local juggling festival (very convenient as I could pop back if needed and was regularly popping in to feed the cat).

So we started from this:

A rather odd configuration with the toilet in a sort of alcove and a stud wall so that the two doors could be put in place (leading to a completely wasted bit of space).

They got straight onto ripping everything out, so that when I popped in on Monday (having left on Friday) it looked like this:

Thankfully when the rather random tongue and groove was removed the walls didn’t collapse and it was discovered that the walls had been packed with polystyrene for insulation. This meant that new plasterboard could be attached to be tiled on to. The ceiling also did not collapse when the walls around the toilet were removed, but some replastering was required to level up the ceiling. This had been done by the time I returned on Wednesday:

Friday saw the start and end of the tiling, and the attachment of the taps to the bath. The soil pipe had also been moved and the floor where the toilet had been was levelled up to match the rest of the room:

I returned on Monday and it was finishing up time. Just a few applications of silicone and it would be done:

Once the silicone had dried I could move back in all of the towels and toiletries as well as the new shelving unit and a veritable shed-load of decorative items (mostly candles and plants). I even replaced the old blind since the hooks were still there:

Not bad for just under 5 grand (about what it cost me to do something similar, but not quite as nice, to the bathroom in my old house).

I finally decided to update my themes and in the process have moved a few things around. Hopefully it still looks mostly the same, or enough to be able to navigate around.

I also found out about a wordpress app, so am posting this via the app rather than my usual web log in.

ETA: I haven’t yet worked out how to use the twitter tools with the wordpress app, but I’m sure I’ll work that out in time.