So the story of that goes on and this period of my life can be read under the soon to be established “history” section, but basically since that day, three years ago next month I have been very much at a loss as to what to do about the house.

I have bought things for it like new furniture that fits – that was a good start, our new couch I just tossed out on the street and someone collected it – score for them I guess but just needed to get everything out. I also put pictures up, new curtains etc and did what I could to make it look nice, but the fact is that it needed to be renovated, and although the architect plans were approved by council two weeks after Ryan left me, I simply did not have the money to do the renovation/extension by this time unless I was to borrow more money and that would mean my lifestyle would have to change significantly, and I was not keen for that, so its stayed this way for three years now – that is until recently when the renovations, to be completed by my self and with the assistance of friends commenced!

So the inspiration came from a few areas:
· Some friends visited from QLD and commented that a splash of paint could do wonders for the place
· I started feeling like part of “getting my life back together” was to start to change the environment I live in
· I had done all the gardening I possibly could and really needed to start working on the inside of the house
· I started “seeing someone” who pointed out that my house is the worst house he has ever been into – a fairly harsh criticism, and I am not sure completely accurate but never-the-less made me realise that I need to spend more time at home working on my house than looking after other peoples needs – its time for some selfishness!

So the first night of renovations started after an ex-boyfriend of mine who now remains a very good friend had come over, we both had drunk a large amount of wine and had been watching some movies when suddenly I became inspired and we got up, put on some music, poured some more wine and got to work!

We started in the hallway, removing a wallpaper strip that looked like it would be perfect for the home of Kath & Kim, we cleaned the walls with sugar soap and smashed down some ugly looking “Changing Rooms” structure as well as patched holes with a some plaster filler – luckily I had a whole bucket of it after I was smart enough to stick it in a friends car whilst helping him move from his flat to his aunt and uncles place after his wife left him, so not sure who it belonged to, but it came in quite handy and continues to do so!

Although, as it turns out, plaster filler is not anywhere near as good as gap filler, for holes in the walls like the ones I have (due to the drought and being right near the Yarra) you have to use a gap filler like “no more gaps” and then plaster filler over the top – its just a little something I have picked up now that I am the renovations queen.

Since this time there have been a number of achievements on my little home, there has been many many evening which have started early with some music, a glass of wine and the goal of just patching a few holes and ended in the clink of many bottles of wine and gin being tossed out into the recycling and the feeling of terrifying fear when I wake up in the morning and realise that I was renovating but am unsure of what it was I was doing and start to worry that I may have made more mess than anything else.

One evening involved several bottles and many many hours of “productive” work which resulted in grabbing a hammer and smashing my loo to bits, it was already broken and was completely stuffed but I was so sick of it falling over all the time and being a smelly nuisance that I just smashed it, wheeled the bin up the hallway and chucked it all out…….seemingly a great idea at the time however on reflection my long suffering neighbours may not have appreciated this kind of activity at 2.30am as, being normal people they were probably asleep, which is what I should have been doing because after getting to bed at about 5am and then getting up for work at 8am with a killer hangover, I simply wanted to die.