Waiting, waiting, waiting.

If you’ve been following my blog, you will know that we have been getting some building work done at the back of the house. It wasn’t a big job but went on longer than it should. Anyway, the structure is up now and the gardener has arrived to relay the patio. As I write this an electrician is fitting some outside sockets on the garden wall and so, at least things are progressing.

All well and good yet this period has reminded me why I don’t like getting work done around the house. Despite my complete lack of ability and patience with do it yourself, I prefer to get things done myself, on my own time scales and not those of others. Getting builders, electricians and gardeners in means that you spend a lot of time waiting.

You wait for them to arrive, you wait for the call to tell you that they can’t come that day, you wait for the knock on the door to say they’ve come across an unexpected problem or that they have run out of something they need. Waiting, waiting, waiting.

Even when they are here you are waiting around, unable to really get on with the things that you would normally do. Whole parts of your house are overtaken with tools and their accoutrements which gradually spread like a virus, locking you into an even smaller and smaller space. Though I leave my mobile phone number, I’m reluctant to go out just in case they need a decision or that they end up doing something that we hadn’t agreed to.

I find waiting very stressful. The sense of adrenalin building up in my body without any chance of release gets me on edge. I have to keep a lid on my urge to go and get things done.

I’m being unreasonable, I know. We wanted the work to be done and we asked the contractors to turn up. All work involves unforeseen problems and delay and life gets in the way of what we do. These things are true even in my own work. I am always waiting for people to respond and for things to happen, yet the key differences are that I have a greater degree of control and, while waiting, there are many other things to get on with.

Perhaps it’s not the waiting that is stressful but rather the lack of control. This kind of stress must be felt by billions of people every day, all over the world. At least with the building work, I can see an end to it. For many people this is a luxury they can only dream of.