Help! I'm renovating an old house.

And I'm the least gifted renovator around. 2024 is starting off with a bang.

Welcome to 2024 dear subscribers, and a specially warm welcome to those of you who have recently subscribed. This month will be something of an anomaly here at Saving Culture, as two rather momentous events are taking place in my life.

First, we are moving from the beautiful Northern Irish countryside, where we’ve lived for the last 4 years, back to the city of Belfast — to an old house that needs a lot of work and TLC.

Second, later this week my husband starts a new job in London. He’s the practical one in the relationship, the one who is able to fix most broken things, lay tile, hook up washing machines and dryers, plaster walls and generally make himself useful. I, on the other hand, am the stereotype of the hopelessly inept writer. (For a bit of previous writing on my very talented husband, see here and here.) So his departure for this new career opportunity — while fantastic on many levels — means this house project will be falling mostly on me and therefore taking up every waking moment and every free bit of space in my brain. It’s already deprived me of a full night’s sleep almost every night in recent weeks. This may well be the only Substack I manage to put out for the rest of the month, after several years of devoutly consistent weekly essays.

But here’s the good news. I love change, I love upheaval, and I love a fresh start. I also love this old house, though at the moment looks like a Sarajevo bomb shelter circa 1994. I spent the last few days peeling many layers of wallpaper off the many walls, and today I will head back to start cleaning up the mess. Then my son and I (and our discombobulated dogs) will move in and make the best of it. Kind of like camping, but luckily we have new heating to keep us warm.

If you have any tips for managing a house renovation, let me know in the comments!

Belfast is a funny old town. It can be very charming and its people very warm, but it also has a heavy spirit that I find hard to carry. It has many ghosts. So it’s with mixed emotions that I move back and leave behind the stunningly beautiful but impossibly remote place where I spent the last four happy and very productive years. For a very short snippet of why I loved living there, see this essay from 2021.

Belfast lacks the magic that was visible to me every day in our last place of residence. It is a city that has suffered enormously, and that suffering shows. At its heart it’s a working class town, and like every other working class town it’s been abused and neglected. Here’s something I wrote about that a few months ago:

But what Belfast does have is highways and amenities and public transportation that will take my son to school. It has beautiful mountains and lovely parks and I will no longer have to drive for an hour on narrow country roads for necessities. So back we go. I’ll try not to be too maudlin about it.

One thing I have learned doing this Substack is how crucial routine is for writing. You must be able to lock out all other concerns and sit down and just write — every day, no matter what. Given the state of my life in these coming weeks, that is just not possible. So bear with me while I dig myself out. I’ll be keen as mustard to get back to this community I love.

And if you would be inclined to chip in a fiver a month to help get it across the line, that would also be most welcome.

And follow me on Instagram where I will hopefully be sharing amazing, envy-inducing transformation pictures. (I’m trying to think positive thoughts.)

See y’all on the flip side!