![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Home Improvement
Aug. 29th, 2013 03:48 pmOne of the great things about having abundant time on my hands at present is that I get to revel in domesticity. It's not that I actually love doing things like laundry and dishes and mowing the grass, but there is something inherently satisfying in the sense of setting one's home to rights.
And there's more to it than simply cleaning and tidying and maintaining - although that certainly has made up the bulk of today's efforts. This afternoon even found me in the front yard tackling our overgrown lawn before the pernickety nature-hating neighbours complain about it again. I was going great guns until the whipper snipper said no and refused to start, or to keep running once it did start. I don't know why. The Powertool Whisperer, I am not.
Be that as it may, my plans for our place extend beyond keeping things tidy and in check. One thing I've been intending to do since we moved in is replace the half-finished mural on the wall of the spa room (which, it has to be said, looks a bit rubbish) with one of my own design. Another, more recently conceived, plan is to make loose covers for the couches in something like burgundy brocade. Then I could line the walls with my paintings, add some luscious draperies, maybe some mood lighting, replace the curtains with something a little less sedate than the rose-print ones that look like they belong in a country tearoom...in short, to make the house just a bit more bohemian, somewhere more suited to an artist-in-residence - i.e., me.
But there is one more thing our place needs - that I need, particularly - and that probably won't be as easy to come by as all the small improvements I'm intending over the coming months. Today I received a call from the Victorian Dog Rescue and Resource Group in response to my application to adopt a dog. Having been badly burnt by our previous experience of adopting a rescue dog, we are taking great care to make sure that the next time goes well and that we find the right dog. The great thing about VicDRG is that they are equally careful to ensure that they match dogs with households, and they were honest enough to say it may well be that they don't have the right dog for us, at least at present. It's likely that we'll end up fostering a dog first, and perhaps a number of dogs before we ultimately find one that will really suit our family. But I really want to persevere in the quest.
Because for me, no matter how firmly I put my stamp on the house and garden, no matter how deeply I settle into the life of writer/artist/domestic goddess, home just won't quite feel complete without canine companionship.
And there's more to it than simply cleaning and tidying and maintaining - although that certainly has made up the bulk of today's efforts. This afternoon even found me in the front yard tackling our overgrown lawn before the pernickety nature-hating neighbours complain about it again. I was going great guns until the whipper snipper said no and refused to start, or to keep running once it did start. I don't know why. The Powertool Whisperer, I am not.
Be that as it may, my plans for our place extend beyond keeping things tidy and in check. One thing I've been intending to do since we moved in is replace the half-finished mural on the wall of the spa room (which, it has to be said, looks a bit rubbish) with one of my own design. Another, more recently conceived, plan is to make loose covers for the couches in something like burgundy brocade. Then I could line the walls with my paintings, add some luscious draperies, maybe some mood lighting, replace the curtains with something a little less sedate than the rose-print ones that look like they belong in a country tearoom...in short, to make the house just a bit more bohemian, somewhere more suited to an artist-in-residence - i.e., me.
But there is one more thing our place needs - that I need, particularly - and that probably won't be as easy to come by as all the small improvements I'm intending over the coming months. Today I received a call from the Victorian Dog Rescue and Resource Group in response to my application to adopt a dog. Having been badly burnt by our previous experience of adopting a rescue dog, we are taking great care to make sure that the next time goes well and that we find the right dog. The great thing about VicDRG is that they are equally careful to ensure that they match dogs with households, and they were honest enough to say it may well be that they don't have the right dog for us, at least at present. It's likely that we'll end up fostering a dog first, and perhaps a number of dogs before we ultimately find one that will really suit our family. But I really want to persevere in the quest.
Because for me, no matter how firmly I put my stamp on the house and garden, no matter how deeply I settle into the life of writer/artist/domestic goddess, home just won't quite feel complete without canine companionship.
