Postponed

We've negotiated with the builders to stop work on the renovation for a bit. Of course it isn't as easy as saying, Just stop it. For one thing, the construction industry is maintaining its status as an essential service so the builders argue (not wrongly) that they can keep working. This is in tension (if not exactly conflict) with the stay at home message, and also with the idea that we are not supposed to have extra people in our home. In the beginning, I wasn't so worried about the potential health implications for us or the builders ... we have sort of managed to separate ourselves from the building site ... but I felt increasingly that amongst the many significant sacrifices people were making in the effort to keep society staying still, we weren't pulling our weight. I was worried about neighbours who might be feeling vulnerable, and also if they'd started working from home since we first went and talked to them about the work and the disturbance. I was awake all night every night worried about it and as with all these things, the more I was awake, the more this grew in my mind and I'm sure you get the picture.

We can't postpone it forever. Apart from anything else, we've got no kitchen and we won't be able to use our heater over winter because one of the ducts goes more or less to the outside. It's not that great to live with a half-finished building for all sorts of health reasons, and I'm sure our house isn't as clean as it could be simply because we don't have a sink and a tap in our living area which is also our makeshift kitchen. But it's really hard to stop a relationship with a builder. While the construction industry is still an essential service, we will have to pay the builders termination of contract (and like everyone our financial situation is far less certain than it was a month ago and there's no way we can absorb extra costs, and we're looking at ways we can shave costs off not increase them). If we leave it too long they will find other clients and they won't come back to our site and we'll be living in this strangely configured arrangement for years.

Anyway, we've postponed for a bit which will give us a chance to catch our breath, to work out what's the what in this new way of working. First world problems, but a problem nonetheless and one that we have to solve. How to keep going when the going has stopped.

The End. Or is it?