A Scarlett O'Hara approach to home build

When I was 23 I had a boyfriend who called me Scarlett O'Hara. He said I was rubbish at taking the long view and that my "fiddle dee dee, I'll think about it tomorrow" attitude was silly and frivolous.

It will be a habitable room. It will.

I saw nothing wrong with being silly and frivolous, so I'm pleased to say he didn't last long. But in the last few days his words have been echoing somewhat in my ears, as I realise that we have just five days to go. Five days until we move back in to our house. The house that has no back wall, half the hall floorboards missing, a fridge in the front living room, a kitchen with no cooker, a mahoosive hole under the stairs where the top flat will eventually be connected to the basement flat, and a thick layer of builders' dust covering every. single. surface. 

I could be worried. I could be dreading it. I could be wailing "what the hell were we thinking, starting major building work when I was 32 weeks preggers?". A lot of women might have thought the timings through a little more carefully rather than flinging themselves gung-ho into a noisy, messy, disruptive project just as they were having their second child. 

Scarlett ponders her bathroom tiles

But if I'd thought it through for any length of time I probably wouldn't have agreed to it, and then it'd be longer to wait until we had a decent house. And you know, I think it will be fine. Yes, the house is unfinished. There'll be builders around for another 10 weeks. That's okay. There's no back wall in the basement? They'll build one. They'll replace the floorboards. We've survived without a cooker for 6 months before; we can do it again (all hail the slow cooker). We'll get a cleaner to sort out the dust and grime. We'll keep the mahoosive hole boarded up so it's safe for three-year-old boys who like to run around. And the fridge in the living room? Well it's less distance from sofa to snacks and wine, isn't it?

So yes, maybe my ex was right. Maybe there's something of the O'Hara in me. But frankly, I don't give a damn.