It is hard to be a writer. If indeed that is what I can aspire to be.
Oh to be one of the lucky people who can block out extraneous noise and carry on unperturbed.
No, I need quiet. And lots of it.
A Shepherd’s Hut is what I need. Or an outhouse converted into a writer’s den.
Or even (ho ho ho) an extended sojourn in the Caribbean.
.
Picture the scene if you will.
Mike spends the first half of the morning on the phone. The external walls may be thick, internal partitions are not. And nor is the floor between him and me. As it transpires, the floor is not very thick at all. It’s hard to concentrate on my own words when I can hear every one of his.
The second half of the morning he returns to the decorating upstairs in the study.
“Can you spare me a moment to hold on to this board?”
“Do you want to come and see how it’s looking now it’s sanded?”
etc etc etc.
The phone rings again. A matter connected to my late mother’s affairs and they will only speak to me.
The drone of the sander is replaced by hammering.
The doorbell rings. Someone is at the gate.
It’s the postman. “I’ve got a letter needs a signature.” 84 steps up to the top of the hill. 84 steps back.
I’d better think about getting lunch.
And just as that thought is gaining traction in my head..
The heavens open.
![Damage to hall 001 Wm[1]](https://i1.wp.com/www.rustyduck.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/Damage-to-hall-001-Wm1.jpg?resize=506%2C760&ssl=1)
Literally.
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The multitudinous events are hardly Blogtopian, to be sure, but what a lovely old door that is to the left, underneath the catastrophe.
It looks like we still have all the original cottage doors downstairs, albeit under several layers of gloss paint. Send them all off for stripping I think.
Oh Jessica, you can’t leave it there, I need to know what happened!
Completely agree… when’s part two due?!
Apparently there was a loose board. Mike inadvertently stepped on it, it hit the ceiling below… and the rest is history!
Oh my dear, how did it happen? As I was reading through your post I was thinking how similar your day sounds to mine, I wasn’t expecting that ending! I am anxiously looking at my ceilings x
Don’t worry… unless you have someone with big feet stomping about above you!
See what a magnificent writer you are – all those disturbances put beautifully into words – what would you do without them!? If it were silent, you’d be worrying something wasn’t quite right!
Hi Jennifer, what a kind thing to say and welcome to rusty duck.
You’re right, when everything goes quiet it’s the time to worry the most! I’ve had a quick peek at your website. Your work is absolutely beautiful.
Suffice to say, when I first saw it, someone’s foot was poking through the hole..
thank goodness he didnt fall through
Indeed. A sore ankle, lucky escape.
Every good blogger should have a camera to hand. 🙂
Sometimes when Lovely Hubby has one of his many ‘mishaps’ I am almost on the verge of saying “will you do that again … after I grab my camera”, but I bite my tongue and offer words of sympathy instead 😉
I know what you mean about having a bit of peace and quiet to write, and to read in my case, but it’s hard when your opinion and presence is obviously so vital to the running of the world isn’t it … Lol 🙂
It can’t be easy being a blogger’s spouse!
Oh Jessica, Jessica, how I feel for you, trying to write with all that din going on around you plus things falling from above. I, too, struggle with finding time to write, the best time being 4am, when all around are asleep, which doesn’t happen much in winter in a house which does not have heating. The other ‘best time’ is 9pm onwards. Trouble is that once I connect to that elusive stream of words I can write and write well into the early hours of the night, which is not good because then I suffer from sleep deprivation!
But I am sure that if the words are within you, that they will come out one way or another. And I did once have a quiet place to write but spent most of the time looking out of the window or surfing the net, which was most unproductive given the hours I had to write. I seem to write more when I have less time in which to do so!
Looking forward to seeing how you get on with your writing. I am sure it will be very readable. Vx
Vera, thank you. I am hopeless when I get tired. Although having said that the best ideas come at night. I have been known to get up at a ridiculous hour and write a post while I still have it in my head.
Oh no! From here I gather it’s just a plasterboard that fell and should be easy to rectify? Hope so.
Mind you a writing hut or den would a nice thing to ask for in the garden. Perhaps a new project in the offing 🙂
It was one sheet of plasterboard but unfortunately it cracked into two pieces. We have nailed it back up for now and will conceal the damage as best we can. But the incident does have a silver lining, of which more next time, so the now grotty ceiling may not be there for long.
Oh my goodness, what is happend?
Sigrun
Someone put his foot through the ceiling.. 🙁
I know how you feel, sometimes a day can go by and you wonder what on earth you have done. The days had so many more hours in them when I was at work! You might find some noise cancelling headphones useful even if you don’t play music through them. I have heard they can cancel out snoring so should cancel out whatever Mike is up to – might be dangerous not to lend an ear though!
You’re so right.. days had far more hours in them when we were working! I wonder why that is. The noise cancelling headphones are a good idea.. especially for the snoring 🙂
Oh no!! Not good at all! I haven’t done a thing this morning that I intended due to the snow and then hubby being home, but at least the ceiling hasn’t literally fallen in!! You poor things. It seems that as soon as you get one thing repaired and sorted out another job crops up – or down in this case! At least Mike will get another chance to show off his plastering skills…. I hope that you are both OK and can sort it out. Take care. Hugs! xx
Well the ceiling is back up for now, sort of. But today has thrown a whole new set of challenges our way, power outages and water pouring out of a kitchen cupboard. More parts needed from Italy. I really do wonder sometimes why we do it.
There, our lives are made richer and funnier because we blog! If it hadn’t made such a wonderful story you would be crying or shouting! I, like the others, want episode 2!
I was crying and shouting. OK, maybe not crying. 😉
When we bought this house there was a polystyrene ceiling we took it down to find the hole someone had obviously fallen through. I know for sure you will not do any shoddy polystyrene repairs. There will be a funny side …..one day.
Mike is a good sport and does see the funny side, mostly. It has become our standard joke when something awful happens… “there’s a blog in it!”
Just one of those days I suppose, we all have them, once things start to go wrong, it seems to compound. Hope tomorrow’s a bit better.
Tomorrow was today and it was worse.. partial kitchen flooding. Posh Italian tap has sprung a leak.
Really like the Carribean idea though.
At the moment I’m thinking sell house and buy a beach hut.
Luckily you were just wanting a camera and not a bandage on your noggin! As a former newspaper columnist I learned eventually to shut it all out aurally but I want a window for sun and sky if not a view. It’s easier to drown out dozens of people talking on the phone or typing than the sounds of construction, so I sympathize.
I worked in an advertising agency for a while which I guess was much the same. As I get older though I find it much harder.
As I’m sure you know Jessica, this is my writing month – and later in the month I’m going away to write! Yay! I do sympathise (but what fun to see the pictures. Barry once lifted an earthenware pot from the oven and the bottom fell out – like you I reached for the camera – the photo still makes us smile many years later.) You’ve clearly got your priorities right! Thanks for sharing.
Oh, I do envy you having a break away. I hope you find some peace and solitude. If it were me I’d be quite happy in Argyll!
Ah………maybe the Caribbean isn’t such a bad idea!
So true!
Oh, no! that you could do without. Hope no one was hurt and also that you got your lunch:)
We had lunch while the dust settled!
Ah, home improvement. It’s enough to drive you around the bend. I hope you were able to eventually eat your lunch.
It’s really not to be recommended, Jennifer. And to think we moved to Devon for a stress free life. Ho Ho Ho.
Hello Jessica:
We are so very sorry. It never rains but it pours!
So very true. It will fix. Eventually!
Oh, my… Well, there’s no doubt about it – home improvement is always an adventure. Perhaps not quite as much fun as the Caribbean.
You’re not wrong Dorothy. On either count.
Aspire to be a writer? You ARE a writer. As for the ceiling, well all I can say is ‘Cor Blimey!’
You are very kind Denise.
Yikes……good thing you weren’t underneath…at least I hope you weren’t underneath!!
A narrow escape. I was about to walk underneath to get the lunch..
oops
Mike used another word… 🙂
Our carpets often look Ike this anyhow …….
Four dogs, one cat. You’ve an excuse..
I jus hope that you weren’ t standing underneath like Chicken- licken in the story. Only that was an acorn, nothing like as traumatic.
What I always think I need, and clearly you do too, is a tower like the one Vita Sackville West had at Sissinghurst. I always think I could write deathless prose if I only had a tower.
Absolutely, especially having stood in that tower and admired the view. The other perfect place, and I can’t remember where I saw it, was a little stone built one-roomed house in the middle of a wood with a big window and a fireplace.
Goodness, gracious, thank goodness you weren’t standing underneath it – grabbing a camera would have been the last thing on your mind.
Renovation is dangerous. I always said it.
School staffrooms are good training grounds for working when there is noise around. I could be holding a conversation with one person whilst managing to keep up with what was being discussed at the opposite end of the room and make an appropriate contribution as required,
I must admit though I do like to be quiet.
The dashing for a camera in a crisis did ring true to me. I hope the ceiling is back in place soon.
The ceiling is back up for now. Mike pointed out, quite rightly, that we’d (he’d) exposed the area where the mice like to run. It focused the mind a bit.
Oh No Jessica !!! ….. I don’t know if you ever read my post about going to dinner with friends and, after snooping into one of the bedrooms that they were in the middle of decorating, I half fell through the floorboards, legs dangling into the hall below !!!! We’re still friends !! Happy re-decorating !! XXXX
I do remember that! What a giveaway..
That IS the office floor isn’t it? Lucky you weren’t in there, never mind underneath it. Definitely a shepherd’s hut. x
Yes, it’s the office floor. There’s no end to this is there?
I could have a shepherd’s hut with its own sheep?
OMG! I’d pack a case and rent a cottage for a few weeks….it will all look good as new when you get back and you can have a few weeks of peace and quiet!xxx
Very, very tempting.
Oh no, poor thing! Hopefully the sun will shine tomorrow! I think a shepherds hut should be on the list. Take care. X
It would have to have a stove.. but they do, don’t they?
I do hope it’s only Mike’s pride that is hurt! Thankfully you were not sitting wishing for a distraction – you’d be thinking you were cursed!
Apart from a sore ankle, yes, thank you. No shortage of distractions, unfortunately!
Words set the scene but pictures can tell the story (at least this one). Good luck!
Thanks Kris. I do believe I might need it.
Oh dear… Thank goodness no- one was hurt.
I know. It’s all getting very stressful.
Here’s hoping that was the storm before the calm!
My favourite ceiling story was told by a school friend years ago. Her aunt was staying in their house for Christmas. She was having a ‘stand up wash’ (does anyone do that these days?) when my friend’s father, the aunt’s brother in law, fell right through the ceiling from the loft above, into the bathroom below – and into an inadvertent topless floor show!
Oh how embarrassing! Did she ever go back?
Oh dear, poor you. Glad that no-one was hurt though. When we had our loft converted, the builders were climbing over the point of the roof, back and forth to work. They then cut one of the holes for the Velux windows in one side, and forgot to mention it to their colleague on the other side. He climbed back over and plummeted through the hole and crashed onto the floor. Fortunately he was okay (just) and there wasn’t too much damage to the ceiling below. Like you, I always grab a camera first when things go wrong. I do hope the rest of your week is more peaceful. And try to remember, it will all be worth it in the end! (But what will Mike do when it’s all finished..?) CJ xx
I think Mike intends to put his feet up. What he doesn’t realise, of course, is that in an old house it’s never finished..
And thank goodness you weren’t underneath it!!!
It’s amazing quite how heavy plasterboard is.. I learnt that from having to hold it up against the ceiling whilst it was being screwed back.
Mike was lucky. It happened at our previous house. The attic had no floor and you had to crawl from one stud to the next. Once a boot came through the ceiling. Fortunately no one fell through. The boot retreated to the attic – but the hole had to be repaired.
The attic in the oldest part of the house is just like that, the bit that isn’t used for the very same reason. We’ve (Mike) occasionally had to get up there for electrical stuff and the like.. and proceed very cautiously!
My dear husband put his foot through the attic floor, right above the bed, a few days before we moved house – after we had exchanged contracts!!! Our elderly builder did his best, but the plaster was still wet and very pink on the day we moved. Can you imagine how much I grovelled?
It’s so easily done isn’t it. And always at the worst possible time. Well grovelled!
Oh dear, I would recomend some garden retail therapy to relieve the stress.
That’s a very good idea.
Oh no Jessica, I’m not laughing, I think you have every reason to cry, I would be, you need a shed to write in lots of writers do and a very big ‘do not disturb’ notice, I hope Mike wasn’t hurt,
I am reading and writing in bed, on my tablet at my sons house, first time, Frances
I do need a shed Frances, but seeing as I feel the cold it would need a stove in it. Well done on cracking the tablet (not literally!). I shall have to get more practice in.
Sorry Jessica – but I did laugh! Just think how lucky you are having all these experiences to hone your writing skills 🙂
It’s never ending Cathy. So much for moving to Devon for a quiet life.
goodness me, what a disaster. What are you writing? I wonder if it is a thriller, as you are very good at building suspense!
It is a book loosely based on the blog but with more detail and new material, things that I haven’t written about here so far.
I suppose ~oh bugger~ doesn’t really contribute much to your situation :{
Certainly I’ve found when a day is so absolutely determined to be derailed from whatever plans I was stupid enough to make, the only thing is to go with it . . .
It doesn’t contribute, but it’s close to what I said!
Tell me you weren’t stood underneath it at the time. That’s the sign of a true blogger, running for a camera in times of crisis. I do hope you asked Mike if he was ok first though.
Apparently I didn’t ask as promptly as I should have 🙁
you got to LOVE old houses…..the entertainment never ends.
Only in an old house could you spend two and a half months decorating one room..
Love your pictures on rustyduck. And I hope it’s all sorted now. When I blogged about a disaster once, my son sent me a text to say ‘Mum, if you’re ever in real danger, could you get out of it first before blogging about it…don’t think you will though…’
Hi Alexandra, thanks and welcome to rusty duck. Love the text.. Not too many of my family read the blog, I wonder why?!
Hi Jessica, It seems so very real to me. Every day is full of derailments to my good intentions. My father once came down through the ceiling that way and landed tail end down on a pointy lamp requiring a trip to the hospital. We are all products of our history. I have never come close to doing the same thing…
Ouch, ouch and ouch again!!
You know that you are a proper blogger when your first thought is to reach for the camera, and your second thought is for the welfare of others ………
It’s become something of a joke here that a light bulb appears above my head with ‘blog post’ written under it whenever something untoward occurs. You have to have sympathy for Mike in these circumstances..
Malcolm is so used to it (after 6 years – I forgot my blogiversary last month!) that he sometimes points things out as possible “blog fodder”!
Congratulations on your six years!
Loved the ‘topless floor show’ above … almost as funny as your post Jessica! Perhaps you should send your husband away to work, as I do? He’s currently wandering in the night looking for a hotel in Spain. To be honest, I’d rather have him banging away upstairs and the plasterboard coming down. It obviously didn’t take you long to recover from the shock – hope you find a little peace tomorrow!
I shall be forever wary of other people’s bathrooms now.
A little peace would be a welcome interlude Cathy. Sadly it is not to be as the new radiator arrived today. More hammering..