Moving Day! Apartment Interior complete
Cris pushed back and told me not to do this. I’m still unsure if it was her selfishness, short shortsightedness or my inability to explain my vision. Maybe all three?
Selfishness because she was unflexible and seemed to not understand there are 7 days a week. I was asking for 2 days a week for myself for the first 3-4 months. The rest of the project, I had vacation time and the weekdays to stay there for working in the evenings.
Shortsightedness because she couldn’t see the potential to provide financial freedom for us in the future, with just a little bit of sacrifice in the short term.
My inability to explain my vision, scared of being called a narcissist again.
How do I tell someone that this can help us financially bring her Mother here to live part of the year? Not in that apartment, but anywhere we were close to Cris. How do I explain that while having a real fear of being accused of “future faking” or any of the other narcissistic tactics I read about over and over again, after she called me that.
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The interior is done and the tenant finally moved in! I couldn’t get photos of the place fully complete with everything empty. It was a wild week getting to the finish line.
I did a ton of the the work myself, by myself. Ripped down the old roof and rebuilt it. Drywall, flooring, full bathroom, the whole kitchen, relocating plumbing and electrical stuff after the fucking idiots didn’t do as I asked. The whole doorway was cut out and redone. All the interior doors, trim, baseboards, paint and what felt like endless caulking mess haha.
The kitchen upper cabinets still need to be painted. I bought used ones to keep the expense low and he tenant is cool with me doing that in the summer when I back from my few months in Wales.
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Why am I still journaling about this project relating to Cris? Because I keep asking myself “Am I running TOO something in Great Britain? Or running AWAY from something in Ontario?
My reality is, the plans and vision I had for that place is so ingrained in me, that I simply can’t be there and NOT think about Cris. The same with the boat and what I had planned for that – to make it a real comfortable home for us, with her input on every functional/aesthetic aspect.
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Money in life is not everything, but my retirement and whoever I spend my life with will be $500k easier. All because of how I chose to spend my time in 2025 and what I chose to give up – my hobby workshop where I spent all my free time.
Ironically, through this process, all the stuff Cris would complain about and “predicted” regarding not being able to see me was not true. I still spent lots of time with my family. I still had multiple date nights a week, often on weekend evenings in Hamilton or Toronto. I felt minimal stress, except for dealing with the company I hired for the heavy infrastructure work (more irony….they were supposed to alleviate stress).
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