When part of my bathroom ceiling collapsed last year, I took it as a sign that I finally have to renovate my home in a big way. I made the preparations, but then decided to wait for painfully high rents for potential alternative accommodation to go down.

As the waiting stretched into many months, I was surprised by how I got used to the ceiling hole and the exposed pipes. I almost became fond of the “extreme industrial look”. And in doing so, it also struck me that sometimes putting up with milder home imperfections for a while could be a more sustainable way of living.