Monday 3 July 2023 0742hrs BST

 

3rd July already, WOT??!! Worse, January 2023 seems so far in the past as to be ancient history and dimly recalled. Far worse, for the first time in years I do not have Christmas Next bagged and tagged. 

 

On a happier note, the kitchen is teetering on the edge of becoming much more efficient. When we chose this downsizer I knew the kitchen and bathroom were going to be the problem children of the house move - the kitchen is an 8x8ft (wall-to-wall, the walkway is 'arm's reach' width so I can stand on one worktop side of the galley and comfortably reach across to the other) and so storage space challenged there is no room to slot in a slimline dishwasher. 

 

The bathroom is ok but...the 50 year old tub with shower over is so difficult to enter that I won't shower until Paul is conscious and aware he may have to rush to rescue me should I fall clambering in-out of the damn thing.

 

Full reno to achieve efficiency and safety is so out of our budget I've taken to buying a lottery ticket once a week in hope of a miracle. Meanwhile, I spend quite a lot of my day brainstorming ways to mitigate the tiny kitchen and bathing facility problems.

 

SIDEBAR MOMENT:

Use of 'problem' rather than 'issue'. I try to keep up with current colloquialisms and I know 'issue' is currently the preferred euphemism for problem - I am bucking the trend here because frankly in my personal opinion 'issue' is, to me, a way of softening the blow. Most people would call my challenging kitchen and bathroom situation an 'issue' in a misguided (to me) attempt to downplay the depth of the situation. My situation is beyond softening, far past downplaying - those two rooms are like a snip of irritating plastic thread in the collar of an otherwise lovely blouse - grrr! I do not have 'an issue', I have a bloody serious PROBLEM with those two rooms.

 

END OF RANT SIDEBAR MOMENT

 

Honestly without that lottery win the bathroom is beyond mitigation. I live with it. sigh

 

The kitchen, on the other hand, has been made much more efficient by the recent addition of two worktop appliances - a 'compact' dishwasher and a 'mini-oven' that is so not mini it easily accommodates all my bakeware. 

 

Yes the new appliances take up valuable real estate but have made my kitchen life so much easier the loss of real estate is doable. 

 

Why? Because at 66 (soon to be 67) my health conditions have progressed to the point doing the washing up after making and serving a nice meal and/or a full-on baking session was becoming too difficult. I was breaking dishes trying to do the washing up by hand (thanks ever so much, Essential Tremor. not) - since moving into our downsizer I managed to break six sets of dishes and a few Pyrex casseroles as well. Standing at the sink trying to grip soapy dishes became an exercise in futility - between the ET and my stoopid heart thingies, standing there at the sink for any length of time meant broken dishes and exhaustion forcing me to sit/lie on the sofa for hours recovering. 

 

The dishwasher ended that difficulty. 

 

The not-so-mini oven solved my other physical problem - no more bending into the under worktop integrated oven (now super-cleaned and being used to store casseroles and baking tins). My back is saved!

 

I am reduced to a much smaller food prep space. I. Do. Not. Care. Am I still buying a lottery ticket once a week? Oh hell yes! Both rooms could be made so much more efficient and safe but I need a lottery win to get there. Meanwhile the dishwasher and oven make my life much easier.

 

Would we move to a slightly bigger house if I won the lottery? No. This house even with an inconvenient floor plan is perfect for being married to Asperger's. No passing motor or foot traffic, no worrying possibility of someone building a house overlooking our home. Heating and maintenance costs lower make living on a fixed income doable (we're both retired on small private pensions that will be moderately plumped once his state pension and my US social security kick in).

 

Meanwhile. Paul is in another Asperger's induced clearing-out frenzy (sigh) but for once I am fully on-board with it. We need to get this house organised once-for-all now he actually puts things back where he found them (as opposed to putting things in what seems more logical to his Aspie self but in reality is a different bloody damn place every time meaning I can't find a bloody damn thing I desperately NEED at any given moment).

 

After 13 years together he has managed to understand his Aspie ways to the point we've made successful life-style adjustments including when he is in a clearing-out frenzy he knows he has to sort everything into three piles (or bags or boxes, depending on what he's clearing-out this time) for me to check before he disposes of ANYTHING. And he does put things back where he found them now. 

 

So, it's time to try to do a Big Clear-Out - BIG HUGE BONUS: he is doing all the hard work of sorting and all I have to do is check his sorting before he starts disposing of things. 

Married to Asperger's isn't what I envisioned for my senior years but there are some advantages, for example his clearing-out frenzies that save me the heavy lifting. 

Now, if I can just win the lottery...