Renovations continue

The last couple of weeks have been dominated by work and renovations. The preparations for the new floor and kitchen are both progressing well.

A few weeks ago we received the wood for the floor (blackbutt)

And last week we put the deposit down on the new kitchen cabinets.

Two weeks ago I got the painting down the hall completed and last week I retiled the toilet.

This week I realised that since I am gluing and nailing the new flooring over the old subfloor I would have to sand the top coat off the existing floor. Not really an issue except that I had stacked the new flooring on part of the old floor that needed to be sanded.

So today with some much appreciated help the wood was relocated outside, the floor sanded and then the wood brought back inside.

Now I need to paint in the kitchen, dismantle the old kitchen, lay the floor, sand the new floor, oil it, put the new kitchen in snd then put the entry cupboards back in then I can collapse. So, nearly done!

Inspecting the sanded floor area.

Getting distracted and getting focus back

So it's been a couple of weeks since I last posted and if I think about it that follows a long running pattern in my life. I'm really good at starting new things and less good at finishing them. That's actually one of the reasons that I started this blog in the first place. I've had some reasonable excuses over the last couple of weeks but really that is all they are and I have to learn to put the excuses to one side and continue to execute the plans.

I've been in the USA for the last week attending a conference on PLM (ACE2013) . I got to catch up with some great people that I met at the same conference last year and meet some really great new people and some people I have been exchanging emails with for a number of years. The kind of energy that gathers with groups like this helps you to understand one of the keys to achieving anything of substance, at least for most of us mortals, and that is a really strong group of supporters. It doesn't have to be a big group but if they all believe in what you are trying to achieve then it helps to keep you on track. It takes an extraordinary individual to succeed when everyone is telling you "no".

I look back on my working life so far and I can clearly remember some key times when this has been demonstrated to me. I worked for a small Aerospace and Defence company for a long time. I recall one day when things looked pretty bleak for the future of the company and I had some bad news for the CEO he put his hand up and said "I can't hear any negativity at the moment. There is too much that needs to be done." I continued to work there for more than another decade and I'm fairly sure that it is only through the positivity of the CEO that we got through that period and turned things around.

Since most of us are not that strong then we must  learn to foster a positive group of supporters and lean on them if required to keep us on track.  I think I have such a group around me and now I have to learn to communicate with them better.  I have a certain admiration for people who plan and execute their lives, sometimes it seems like hard work when seen from outside but the results pretty much always pay off and one of the keys I see here are that they have their supporters and they face the world as a united group. Even if it is only a group of two.

April was a little quiet and unfocused in parts but May is a time to to regroup, replan and move forward to positive things ahead.