Good morning world and good morning all you creative souls. Life at "Wood Villas" began about three hours ago when I was rudely woken up by a pressing need to micturate. The house was and still is very cold, despite the fact that the heating is on and the radiators are doing their level best to counteract the effects of the arctic climate outside ! After sorting out my own plumbing - I looked around the lavatory and was reminded that I still haven't completed boxing in the pipe-work that was replaced when we moved in 17 years ago !
The subject of this mornings cautionary ramblings is BEWARE of "PROJECTS" that take over your entire life ! My mental note to myself is "DRAW THE LINE". I seem to have very little resistance and rarely say NO, when perhaps I should. I also have a habit of starting one project before completing others – consequently my life is a constant whirlwind of chasing my own tail !
My parents are to blame - encouraging me to subscribe to the Robert Burns school of “try, try again” and that the impossible is a challenge to be overcome. I have always bought houses that were not quite like those that other more sensible people bought. All have been “projects” in need of large amounts of tender loving care – (in short major restoration).
When I was at art college I used to earn my way by spending holidays working on building sites and I learned not only how to feed cement mixers but many useful DIY tips that stood me in good stead when I bought my first house. It was a good few years before I’d saved up a deposit for my first “PROJECT”- a three bedroom terraced house on a busy road in South Wimbledon but this was the start of many such projects, some of which remain far from being completed.
Whilst my first house was structurally sound, it was in need of a lot of updating and for every yard of wallpaper that I stripped off – two yards of plaster fell off with it. I have fond memories of rebuilding the outside wall of the bathroom in a snowstorm in 1976 ! In addition, the bathroom required two new window frames, which I built and installed, along with a new bathroom suite, stud wall and tongue and groove pine paneling, to which was applied 6 coats of yacht varnish – the later being a perk of working for a ships chandlery in Notting Hill Gate.
Intelligent people buy houses that are sound in structure, smartly decorated and that don’t need more than a lick of paint to make them habitable – I have always bought houses that need much, much more !
An illustration of how long some things have taken me is that a piece of sculpture that I started when I was 17 was finally completed when my daughter was 17 ! I also bought a classic boat when she was about 7 and that is far from complete and my granddaughter will be seven next year – I’d better get a move on !
On my easel at the moment is a painting that I’ve been working on for nearly two years and there’s still a lot that needs doing to complete the 5 foot canvas. My excuse for not visiting my studio today is that its too cold and there’s too much frozen snow between the house and the converted chapel down the road !
I will go there tomorrow and add a few more details with my 0000 brush – and hopefully this PROJECT will be a little nearer to completion. I will also add a few more bits of timber to my lavatory too !
The moral of these ramblings is : BE CAREFUL – SOME PROJECTS TAKE A LONG, LONG TIME TO COMPLETE – or is that just me ?
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