homebuilding

As a daughter of an architect and granddaughter of a seamstress, with a great uncle in interior decorating home building and decoration should be a no-brainer to me. Unfortunately, this is where my genes have failed me.

When I move to a new apartment I go through a sudden outburst of nestling. I empty my bags and boxes as quickly as possible and scrub and clean the whole place from top to the bottom. Usually, during the first week I manage to make one or several trips to IKEA where the most random items attach themselves to my shopping bag.

Unfortunately this tends to be a passing phase and within days, if not hours I will have forgotten I have a new place, which should be made nice and presentable. Instead I will be horrified by cutter and stuff. I realise that in no time I will have to pack up everything again and at that point it is best not to own anything that could maybe and possibly be considered unnecessary and even the necessary items are a hassle. And with my lifestyle of action packed hours, I hardly ever spend any time at home anyway. So who cares what the place looks like?

My mother.

She phoned me the other day, again, to ask about curtains. I had been, since my move, promising to send her measurements and pictures of the apartment. I have no photos and do not own a measuring tape and – to really be quite honest, had forgotten the whole measuring thing. She also asked me about linen. Well I do have two sets. The other one might be something I got at the age of eleven, with bumblebees on it, but it works. Well, it works as long as I don’t have nightly visitors, at which point it might be slightly embarrassing. Plates and mugs I have several but I tend to use only the one that is next to the sink, having been left there after the latest wash. The others stay in the cupboard. I also own one bath towel and as long as I wash it between two showers it seems to be sufficient.

Or that is what I thought.

But I was proved wrong.

Yet again. After having argumentatively convinced my mother that I would not need a matt in my bedroom she got me one for the bathroom. And I must admit that it is rather nice to step out of the shower onto something else than a cold cold floor.