Exhausted

 Yesterday David, Christopher and I went to the other house again.

We got a few things done. David bought a light for the dining/kitchen area in the hope of making it brighter, it's a bit better but the corners are still in shadow.

I didn't get a photo of the new light.  I was shocked at the state of the old one. Fifteen years of dust!

Yuk!!!

David managed to clean the kitchen a bit more and bought a dish drainer and shelves for the pots and pans. We are trying out different ideas, I think it will take time to make the kitchen work. It really is a bad design.

Shelves for pots and pans and dish drainer

I don't understand that space behind the stove, counter, and sink. It's not really useable as it's too deep to be easily reached. I have to stand on tip toes to reach it!

Same view but I stepped back

The cupboards above are also useless. David is rather tall but he can only just reach the bottom of the cupboards.  To get anything you have to use a ladder. My mother-in-law was shorter than me, so I don't understand why she had these cupboards put in.  I am hoping to have enough money to change this kitchen soon. It won't be before we move in but at least next early next year!

While David was doing that I was busy sorting the engawa area. I've seen this translated as veranda but it's like an indoor corridor in front of the tatami room.  The house that we are in now the engawa has become a dumping ground. In the other house, I'm trying to make it into a reading nook.  I moved a cabinet from the dining room and am using it as a bookcase. It's a bit tatty but it has doors on, which I need as the cats have a habit of marking things and I don't want my books destroyed!  Again this is a temporary thing, once I get money I want to buy nice shelves for the area.

Bookshelf, full!

That is about 10% of the books that I have, I need more shelves!

This a view from the corridor into the tatami room a few months ago.

Before

Now

Not sure of the progress! That old TV has been thrown out and the boxes moved.  

Christopher finished the smaller bedroom, I think the cupboards need to be wiped out but other than that it's done!

We spent over three hours there.  By the time we finished,, it was about 34C, I was so hot, sticky, and tired!

We shopped on the way home but I really had no energy. I felt like I was walking through a thick fog. I couldn't concentrate on anything at all.  My speech felt slow and slurred, I just wanted to sleep. Totally exhausted.

I haven't been sleeping well at all for the past couple of weeks. My insomnia is worse than ever, I fall asleep alright but wake up after a couple of hours and then have trouble sleeping again. Last night I went to bed just before midnight, woke up at 2:30 but couldn't sleep again until after 4am, I got up at 6am, and have been struggling all day. I'm wondering if a mild sleeping tablet would help for a few days!

Something to think about!

On the way home we caught the end of a traffic incident.  Of course, David and Christopher had to remind me of the fact that I really believed that Japan didn't have police cars! 

Police car!!