I said I would lay laminated floor in the living room, hall & bedroom for my son in his new home, looked very straight forward no corners to cut around very basic job I thought!!
I started on his living room last Tuesday it was 6 X 6 sq meter, “easy enough I will do this in a day” ,again I thought.
Only finished his living room at 6;30pm last night it took me 4 days ( i never went on Wednesday), boy was I aching from head to toe, the tiredness complely slowed me down which never helped as I was spending longer hours bending on my knees and then getting up to cut the ends of, i ended up in bed at 10pm last night got up at 10am this morning still shattered and aching all over.
I still have his hallway & bedroom to do, I don’'t want to let him down, but am really sure I can’t do these two, I never realsied just how bad MS can be (am new to it) because I can do all of things myself I keep forgetting I have this and keep on thinking “I can do everything I used to be able to do in the past”.
Never mind I will use this as a learning curve and not allow this illness to beat me new year and a new start for me 2011 was the year I took ill and have been down all year, time to move on.
You need a Bosch PMF 180, multi cutter tool, you can cut laminate, floorboards etc in situ, under skirtings and door jambs etc. £54 from Argos up to £90 in other DIY shops, Brilliant tool, it will not be a one off use either, you will find it useful for a multitude of little jobs! You can easily get replacement blades etc.
Just to add, we repaired floorboards in awkward spot ie. inside a built in wardrobe (needed to make hole square, in situ) took some off th bottoms of doors in situ and also off skirtings to fit laminate underneath (no need for beading to tidy edges) it really is an excellent tool, will save you getting up and down tiring yourself out
Yes, it takes a bit of getting used to, but once you know your limits it’s easier to keep within them. I would love to be able to go and do a supermarket shop, walk the dog, clean the house, cook a meal in one day, but this just isn’t possible any more - I have to pick one thing - if I’m having a good day I can do one thing in the morning and one in the afternoon, then recover in the evening, but these days are getting fewer. You find ways around things, eg I’m still working part time during the week, so I leave the housework until the weekend, and I do my supermarket shopping online so all I need to do is put it away after the nice man has delivered it. I just can’t go to work (even for 4 hours) and do much else on that day. I’m using a slow-cooker a lot for cooking decent meals - if I prepare the ingredients the night before, chuck them all in the slow-cooker and switch it on in the morning before I go to work, then my tea is ready for me at teatime and I haven’t had to do much (also, because I’m on my own, it lasts for 2-3 meals - lucky I don’t get bored easily!). I’m finding that I plan my days much more, eg i see 5 things that need done, but I know I won’t be able to do them all in the same day, so I plan what I’m going to do each day until those tasks are complete - then, of course, there are always more things!
You’ll get there, you just have to keep looking forward, not back, that doesn’t help.
I know exactly where you’re coming from. As my husband has a heart problem I’ve always been the one to do the majority of the housework and the diy jobs too. This summer just gone I had the bright idea that I wanted to re-vamp the kitchen and started by getting rid of the hideous vinyl floor tiles we had and replacing them with ceramic ones. Just scraping the old tiles off the floor (and believe me, they didn’t want to come off!) was enough to give me the inkling that it wasn’t going to be as easy as it may have been a few years ago. It took me the best part of two weeks, I think, with only an hour or so a day, to get them off. I honestly couldn’t manage any more than that as I was working at the time too. When the floor was all clean and ready for the new tiles I waited for one of my days off, started early in the morning and set to to try and do the whole floor in one go. Bearing in mind our kitchen floor space is quite small (5’ x 9’ approx). I managed to get all of the whole tiles down in that one day but I was completely shattered and remained that way for the next few days.
What I’ve slowly come to realise over the last 2 years I’ve been diagnosed it that you have to slow down a little. My Mum is forever telling me I do too much but if I feel ok I do it and then maybe it catches up with me later. If i don’t feel well enough I don’t start in the first place. When your body is telling you you’ve had enough unfortunately you have to listen to it. It’s not admitting defeat, it’s learning to manage it and as long as you never give in mentally it’s never beating you.
It will take a while for you to be able to accept you can’t do as much as you used to, I don’t think I have completely myself. Just take a step back occassionally, have a rest and try and pace yourself.
Maybe have a word with your son and explain things, I’m sure he’ll understand the problems you’re having. Oh and having all the gadgets to help is a must, it doesn’t take away from the physical effort of doing something like flooring but it certainly helps!