And it's curtains for us...

[shewhomust]

We are very bad at maintenance. Very bad indeed. We never do anything until there is absolutely no way we can put it off any longer. This is why, when maintenance absolutely has to be done, it's usually a big job, and often several of them all at once. There's no particular reason why the water meter started gushing water the day after I chipped a tooth, but I wasn't surprised: that's how things go. So Monday began with going out to the dentist and staying in for the water board engineer, as you do.

But the major undertaking is the one that has been going on in the background for a couple of weeks, now, ever since durham_rambler opened the bedroom curtains a bit too energetically, and the curtain rail parted company with the wall. It had to happen: the rail is held up by old, plastic fixings, and each time one of these breaks, the strain on the others increases and ... yes, well. So it seemed a good idea not to try to cobble something up, but to replace the very old plastic curtain rail and attach it firmly to the wall. For a crazy moment we considered replacing the curtains (which are twenty if not thirty years old, and were someone else's cast-offs when they came to us) and maybe even redecorating the bedroom. But the moment passed.

The problem is that our bedroom is where everything gets put when we need to clear things away from the parts of the house that other people visit. Mostly, this means books. When I buy a book, it doesn't get shelved until it's been read. It's a system that would work fine if only I had time to read more books (or bought fewer, of course, but that option isn't realistic). As things are, it results in a book mountain - or pension fund, which will keep me in reading matter when I have more time and less money.

So for the last couple of weeks, I've been seeking out all the cardboard boxes I could empty, filling them with books from the heap in front of the bay window in the bedroom, and stacking them elsewhere - mostly in the hall, where they form a surprisingly substantial wall (helenraven, you would recognise it). I have been permanently dusty, and my back is complaining, but I have reached the window, and this afternoon we took down the curtains, measured the curtain rail and went to B & Q to buy a replacement. I have already washed two of the four curtains.

This is tedious, but the book-sifting part of the operation has its charms. I have tracked down the Causley Collected Poems which I knew was there somewhere. I have removed some duplicate copies from the pile* and one triplicate (Joan Aiken's The Smile of the Stranger). Mostly, though, I feel as though I'm in a really good bookshop, one that's full of good books, where I feel "Oh, I'd like to read that. And that looks interesting. And I'd certainly buy that." And, better still, I already did.

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*With occasional exceptions, I know which books I've read, but I'm less certain which books I own. There are books which I have borrowed from friends or the library, and liked enough to buy a second hand copy, if it presents itself; and there are books I know I want to read, and likewise buy, forgetting that I've already done this. So duplication may occur. And once a year we go to Barter Books, and barter...

Comments

[klwilliams.livejournal.com]

I keep my unread book pile in my bedroom, too, but I put them on bookshelves, and I insist to myself that every book must be visible, even if I doublestack (by putting in a 4"x4" board in the back of a shelf to have a second shelf). This cuts down on me buying duplicates (but still isn't perfect). Right now I have three full size bookcases and two half size bookcases, all full of books waiting to be read.

[shewhomust.livejournal.com]

Mmm. Maybe more bookcases would help (though I'm not sure where we'd put them).

[karinmollberg.livejournal.com]

Har (except for the chipped tooth, it seems contagious via this media, here I thought I was the only one... though I don´t suppose yours got that way by falling off a car at kissing;). I adore the aged curtains and book mountains aka ditto wall. It all seems sort of familiar...though I actually put unread books into my one shelf here, otherwise I could not move in my appartment. It looks messy enough often enough as it is but luckily my proprietor is a nice and quick man who immediately comes to repair anything I break, himself. Like overturning the essorage button of the washing machine by being impatient plus forgetful. And I love your dry and gently humorous style as ever in describing these obstacles of life.

[shewhomust.livejournal.com]

You broke a tooth kissing someone? Oh, that's not fair! I don't know how I broke mine - I was washing up, thinking about something else, and realised there was a rough edge where there hadn't been before.

And you do say the nicest things!

[weegoddess.livejournal.com]

We are very bad at maintenance. Very bad indeed. We never do anything until there is absolutely no way we can put it off any longer.

FWIW, we do the same. I think that it might be the hallmark of Terribly Busy Persons.

[shewhomust.livejournal.com]

You are too indulgent - or perhaps the difference is that we've been doing it to the same house for decades!

Anyway, come and see for yourself - I'll e-mail...