decorous

Having put aside all ambition to be employed for the time being either gainfully or in a creative capacity, I essayed some renovation and decoration in the home, long, long overdue, judging by the slut's lace in every nook.
I "did" the bathroom and felt reasonably satisfied with the effort; even though the plumbing is antediluvian it managed to pretend to be a real bathroom.  Then I turned my attention on the kitchen, likewise grotty and outmoded but at least cleaned up and ready to receive visitors willing to be distracted by xmas decorations.  I re-papered the corner of the wall that had shreds hanging off it since October '09 since the flooding from the bathroom, painted the ceiling, including the umpteenth layer over where the orange juice exploded..  I began the process of cutting fabric for draught excluding curtains ... then the stain appeared on the ceiling ... and another ... and some more.  An inspection of the floor under the bathtub upstairs revealed that water seepage was so extreme that not only the floor but the entire outer wall were soaked, really drenched to the heart of the mortar with pebbles falling out of the pebble dash.  So I had to rip out the entire bath facing, lining, disarray the shelves and ... I'm exactly back to where I started:
Having put aside all ambition to be employed for the time being either gainfully or in a creative capacity ...
The nub of the failure here is not the deteriorating plumbing but stubborn wills battling in a failing marriage with neither party willing to invest money in a house that will quite soon cease to be a home.