Three (not so convincing) reasons for untimely renovation

We are in the middle of renovating our house. With the help of a young but experienced carpenter, we are stripping off old walls and floors and replacing them with new ones. We are making new storage spaces and additional shelves, although we are planning to tear down the house in a couple of years and build a new one on the same site. People would think, quite fairly, we are out of our minds. It is indeed a crazy undertaking. 

There is a Japanese phrase that you have to build three houses before you build a house that really satisfies you. Obviously, we don't have money for two houses of trial and error and the house we are planning to build is our first and hopefully our last. One of the reasons for renovating the house at this unusual timing is to experiment with some of the ideas we are considering incorporating into the new house. They may not work and it is better to know that sooner rather than later. And with less costs. 

Another reason is the effect the renovation has on our psyche. We have realized that it is not only the house we are renovating. Our minds too are being renovated in the process. There must be some powerful link between the two because we are more positive and upbeat persons now, despite the deplorable dent in our savings due to the renovation.

The renovation is also a homage to the house with an extraordinary history of half a century that we have been lucky enough to live in, first as renters and eventually as owners, the tale of which I will tell some other time.