The bathroom renovation started with full scale demo yesterday. This was all supposed to happen in December, but then the man and I got Covid over Thanksgiving, and everything had to be delayed. I sit here at my desk listening to the sounds of tiles breaking and smashing to the floor, wall plaster crumbling, debris coming loose. The sink and toilet and medicine cabinet have already disappeared, I never even saw them going out my door. The good news is that I am not as wracked with panic and uncertainty over my material choices as I was with the kitchen remodel last spring, most likely because my thyroid medication is now back in balance so I'm not spinning into darkness, which means I am able to tell myself that it's just a bathroom. So what if it's not high design? We just need it to be clean and bright and functional. Even so, I'm sure I'll learn a whole lot from this process that we can then apply to the back bathroom remodel, whenever that comes around.
In the meantime, the writing life is slowly reclaiming me. I have begun to live again inside the stories, holding each one up to the light, considering the facets, musing on how to best arrange the details to reveal the essential thing. My subject on this book is perhaps more fully engaged in thinking through the material than any subject I have previously worked with. She is ready and willing to delve deeply, the peel back layers, to be thoughtful and brave. But after drafting a preface I am still only on chapter one, and it is always the hardest chapter, because it sets the tone, yet it takes place before a person's memories are truly their own, and so the exact right details to bring the story into view can be elusive. But I'm definitely in it now, mulling day and night over what I know so far, living with the stories inside me as I function in the world, making morning coffee, cleaning up the kitchen and packing the dishwasher, sweeping the floor, dismantling the puzzle completed on the dining table, picking out end pieces for a new puzzle as I re-listen to interview tapes to get my subject's particular way of expressing herself back in my head, trying to remind myself that I just need to get down a bad draft first, and then lift it up from there.
As someone observed on Post News, the new gathering place for Twitter escapees, "Holiday January is over. Work January has begun." Welcome to 2023 in earnest, dear friends. Doesn't it sound just a little bit like science fiction?
Your voice sounds very light yet determined here. And I look forward to the new bathroom!
ReplyDeleteI agree with Elizabeth. Yes, it does sound a bit like science fiction!
ReplyDeleteThat view of the renovation looks awfully tidy and organised. I hope it stays that way. It is always inspiring to read about the way you immerse yourself in your work.
ReplyDeleteOf course, when you said science fiction, I thought of another writer, Octavia Butler. It was here at your blog, years ago, that I first heard of her. Grateful to you for opening my eyes to what I hadn't seen before.
ReplyDeleteLife on two levels! The creative life side-by-side with the bathroom remodel.
Whenever you reveal the process you go through with each book you write, your passion for helping another person tell their story in the way they want it told inspires me in my own creative work.
I hate renovations but I do love seeing where other people live, especially a writer who lives in New York City. I don't think you have any idea of how cool I think you are.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, thank you for your thoughtful and perhaps quite accurate comment.
And work, it's good to have the structure that work gives you, at least for me. I go back in two months and I'm nervous but also planning my retirement. I told my husband this morning that I also don't want to go on a two week holiday with a four year old. He was upset but I'm the one doing all the work. He can take him by himself if it's that important. Besides, a four year old would rather be at a lake for a few days rather than driving almost 3000 km, that's not fun for a kid.
I have another confession to make, I worry about my punctuation all the time when I leave comments for you:)
So do I! I always check spelling, as well.
DeleteYou guys! You don’t have to worry about punctuation and spelling here! We all have typos and sometimes I don’t even use caps when commenting. Feel free to just express yourself! We’re just friends chatting and I def don’t have on an editor hat, thank god I don’t have to. We’re all writers here. This is our judgment free place. I’m just glad you come around.
DeleteIt's sort of like Stephen King's explanation of how for him, there are the heavy-lifters of writing down in the basement, just hanging out, smoking and drinking beer (or something like that) until they are called upon and then they get to work while you live your life, all the while getting the job done. Quite apropos for you now as you have actual workmen, tearing apart and putting back together part of your house!
ReplyDeleteSuch a fascinating and almost magical process but it all hinges on your talent, your work.
You are amazing. And thank goodness your thyroid is cooperating!
Best of luck with the bathroom rehab. I know you don't need luck with the writing - you got this!
ReplyDeleteI like how you hold both things... the bathroom renovation and the new writing project. You know all will be well and you move on to make it so.
ReplyDeleteOh my. I remember our bathroom reno ... it took place while I was in hospital and I came home to a new room. A great lift to the spirits and the toilet.
ReplyDeleteI'm on Post. @ellenabbott
ReplyDeleteBoth my bathroom renovations were agonizing for me. Some parts were easy but picking the tile both times was not. As for the new writing project you are on the verge of submersion and when you emerge you will have done an excellent job.
I've been through one major renovation on our old 1920's house in Seattle. It was awful, because there was only one bathtub in the house. We had to go to the gym to shower. It was pretty low key, kept everything where it was, and put new in. Hope yours goes quickly and painlessly.
ReplyDeleteWe are in the midst of a kitchen renovation right now. Sigh, I can relate to "spinning into darkness" at times, but I'm glad you're feeling well. Exercise & self-talk certainly helps me.
ReplyDeleteI still think the year 2000 sounds like science fiction! So yeah, 2023 blows my mind.
ReplyDeleteI don't envy the renovation process, but I'm sure I will envy your completed bathroom!