Nothing like a retirement blog about a spot of DIY to get you back on the rails of a sensible retirement life. After nearly a month away and plenty going on since we got back home a week on Sunday it’s quite nice to get that sense of accomplishment that a decent DIY project gives. The idea of projects in retirement is one I’ve written about before in these retirement blogs. After all this time I find the view that projects equal good feeling, still holds true.
I’ve a friend who swears by them. I’ve written a retirement blog about him before. Always got some grand scheme on the go. His tend to be rather more ambitious than mine, Shepherd’s Hut, summerhouse, greenhouse (both built to his own design), painting his windows, stone-walling. True he does quite regularly chop a finger off using his fancy equipment but small price to pay, I’m sure you’ll agree for a big project. My projects are somewhat more modest. Like this last week we were down at the Derbyshire cottage clearing out my late mother’s outhouses.
My mother was, what has become known as, a hoarder long before the term gained popularity. She simply kept things because they might come in useful one day. This no matter how rusty, wood worm infested or moth-eaten they might be. Perhaps that’s what all hoarders say to themselves – it’ll come in. I’m not sure. I admit I suffer a bit from the same way of thinking. The only problem is when you die and you leave it to some other poor sod (that would be me) to clear out. De-cluttering I have called it in past blogs.
The two outdoor outhouses (see above) at the Derbyshire house have been crammed full of her collections since she died – old electrical cable, rusty tins, string and rope bundles, plastic buckets and baby bath, overalls, decorating sheets, nuts and bolts, pieces of timber, cans of paint, all empty or set solid, her old bike, my canvas stretchers from another life, tools – spades, forks, hoes, rakes etc etc, by the dozen. And so on.
As she died, what was it, four years ago, and I’ve only just got round to emptying the contents, you can see I’ve been putting it off. But while we were away in Ireland I paid my neighbour to renovate the actual building which, like the contents, was falling to bits. He’s done such a good job with the pointing, replacing the doors and frames, guttering, the tiles on the roof (where else would they be?), that we felt shamed into doing two things – painting the doors (which we’ve done) and the walls (which we haven’t) and emptying the buildings as above. Or is that three things?
Emptying the building itself is of course only half the task. Then you have to get rid of the stuff. No point moving it around, it has to go. Now here I dropped very lucky indeed. As I was carrying stuff out to the car who should drive up the street in his van but the scrap man. It said so right on the side. One of my biggest problems in clearing out one shed was a washing machine (so old it came directly after the dolly tub and ponch (is that right?) version of weekly washing, and a tumbler drier so big you could house a small aircraft in it. He came with his wheels and his child helper (probably illegal but what the heck) and was delighted to take both. Huge space created at a stroke.
So to the rest, into piles, then carry it (and also building rubble from the above renovation) to the car and then car to tip, empty car into skips. Strange how tips differ. Depends on the council I suppose. Our tip in Leeds is incredibly strict about what goes where. Derbyshire seem more flexible, is that the word? My neighbour warned me that cans of paint might be a problem. Turned out that was the least of their worries – chuck ‘em in general waste. Whereas building rubble which you might have thought would be easier had to be emptied into the skips sans plastic bags. Similarly hard plastic, cardboard, garden waste etc. How very interesting to be writing a retirement blog about tips I have known.
All that said there is no finer feeling for the retired person to be driving back from the tip, feeling knackered but with a totally empty car. It offers the kind of light, uncluttered feeling that therapists strive for months to bring about in their, guilt-laden clients. Save the expense of therapy and simply empty out a shed and take it to the tip, at least in Derbyshire. The guilt is a little harder to unburden yourself from in Yorkshire. For example, they allow vans in this tip, you wouldn’t get through the gate in our Leeds tip which ironically is where our van is kept. Ah the perversity of unburdening.
Given I’m writing this at the barn / vineyard on account of being kicked out of the house for the dreaded sister’s weekend (glad to go I admit), I am brought face to face with another DIY project funded by myself but nor built by myself. This is the lean-to built between our winery (code for shed) and the barn wall. This is a very different form of pleasure. You don’t get the same feeling of satisfaction as with doing the job yourself, but there is a genuine pleasure in going away on holiday, giving our man that does for us up there the vaguest of instructions – build me a lean-to here so I can store lawn mowers – and coming back and finding it done.
I’m hoping for a similar experience when weather permitting, next Friday our new summerhouse arrives and gets erected without any input from myself other than – put it over there on that platform. This project is a genuine project but is very definitely in the ‘pay somebody else’ to do it category.
I believe that a well-balanced retirement has room for both types of DIY projects. It’s been a while since I engaged in any kind of DIY project, funded by one’s own bank account or accomplished by the sweat of one’s own brow. After a little bit of a wobble on the day of our getting home I do feel I’m back in the groove of my retirement life and I think that’s a good thing.