Stopping our minds from wandering

Autumn has come in a flurry of leaves, reminding us that winter is around the corner. With an endless list of projects, we are slowly picking away at them. It is the story of our restoration of Towerwater, one can have the money or the time but seldom both at the same time.

Covid gave us the perfect opportunity to tackle the outstanding issues, but once again when we had the time, our finances were elsewhere committed. Sometimes serious issues like the refreshing of thatch roofs cannot wait for the right time. We decided to get a local thatcher from Montagu to do the maintenance. As part of the roof maintenance project, Keith decided to tackle the corrugated iron roof on the flat-roof section himself. 

Putting up scaffolding, exterior lime washing complete, hearth detail

Cleaning, preparing, and covering the iron roof with an eco-rubber treatment will hopefully see us through a dry winter inside the house. It was important to start with the roofs because we decided to refinish the inside of the house as well.

The freshly lime washed exterior of the main house.

The problem with home maintenance is that it seems very easy as one plans the schedule of work. The reality is that one can never foresee all the delays, stretching the project from weeks to months. By the middle of autumn, we at least completed the roofs, limewashed the cottage inside and out, and limewashed the outside of the main house and garden walls.

Busy treating the double doors to the dining room with wood protector.

Being caught up in the maintenance of the property meant that my creativity was focused on painting woodwork and preparing spaces to be painted. Writing the blog was put on the backburner. I could not allow my mind from wandering away from the task at hand.

A bedroom used to store the books from the library.

It reminded me of the Beatles song, ‘Fixing a Hole’ with the lyrics – “I'm fixing a hole where the rain gets in and stops my mind from wandering”, “I'm filling the cracks that ran through the door and kept my mind from wandering”, “I'm taking the time for a number of things that weren't important yesterday”.

Emptying the bedroom, dining room and library/lounge for painting/lime washing.

We are taking the time to attend to all the outstanding issues and going at it, room by room. Although the progress is slower than what we would have liked, all the maintenance work certainly kept our minds from wandering.