Beware of starting any kind of renovation job, people. It always takes three or four times longer than you think.
However, despite the inconvenience, a lot of beauty, function, and space has been added to my apartment that certainly was not there before. For instance, I now have a deck, which I ate my dinner on earlier. And it's still hot up here, but now I have several more windows that I can open to let air circulate. That means Fluffy (my adorably cute cat) can come in and out whenever he wants now. He just runs round the top of the roof and jumps in through whichever window is open. I live in fear that he will be pursued into my apartment by a "pee-ing" tom acquaintance of his. You know, there's nothing quite like the smell of tomcat pee to bring the quality of life right down.