Upkeep vs Improvement
Photo by me
For the past couple of years, I have been working on a little project; to restore an old disused Tennis court. The journey has been a bit shaky at times, but tonight I made a giant leap forward when I finally got my surface cleaning equipment up and running and managed to clean about 70% of the surface in a day. The total area is about 600 sqm, so it is quite a big undertaking. It felt so good to fire up the pressure washer with the surface cleaning attachment and see the grime and dirt just flow away, once again revealing the vivid colored playing surface that had been gone for so long.
I almost got this project finished back in 2020. The surface was cleaned by a professional for two days straight and the results were spectacular. But it was a short joy, because we were hit by the worst storm in decades shortly thereafter which pulled down several trees over the Tennis court and almost destroyed the fence. It took me two years to (almost) get the court back to where it was in 2020. Last year I was busy cleaning up debris from the storm and repairing the damaged fence. There was no time over to reach the state of “improving” the place, only to do repairs.
This brings us to an interesting discussion regarding upkeep and improvement. With upkeep I mean the work that is always required to keep a system running, for example doing the dishes or vacuum cleaning. Upkeep is not optional, but you can postpone it for some time. There is always a constant battle between the two, and since I became a father, it has been more apparent than ever before. I have learned that the only way to do some serious improvement is to postpone some of the upkeep. This week is unique because we have managed to arrange babysitters for our boys, and this is the first time in years that both me and my wife can do serious focused work without interruptions. Our plan is to simply crunch as many hours as possible and for once, get passed the upkeep phase and start working on improvement.
It has bothered me for a very long time that I haven’t been able to use my surface cleaner. So, when I finally got things up and running, I just kept working until sunset and I couldn’t see what I was doing anymore. A heavy rain also rolled in and then it was time to give up. With the right tools, a job like this can be thoroughly enjoyable. Another reason that this task has taken so long, was that the electrical 16A three phase outlet was broken. But that one was also fixed a couple of weeks ago and I could finally daisy chain a bunch of hoses and start the pressure washer on site.
When I got back to the house the rainfall was very heavy, and I hadn’t walked my dogs yet. Which meant we had to go out into the rain and two big wet dogs are also a challenge to handle when you get back inside. This is clearly a good example of how postponed upkeep will punish you later on. But if I don’t finish the washing project now, then when? I made a conscious decision to crunch on and suffer a little. Because it is worth it, and it feels so good when you have done some honest physical work. Another flip side is writing blog posts in the middle of the night (1:30 at the time of this writing). But that is also a proper sacrifice.
Now I look forward to going to the Tennis court with my sons and practice riding a bike. It’ll be wonderful. And that is worth losing a couple of hours of sleep.