Wednesday 29 July 2009

That's it - summer's over...

Oops, it's been a month since I last posted - I wonder where the time's gone? I mean, it's not as if I've actually done anything in the interim, just sat around on my lazy fat arse and consumed planetary resources mainly. But I did notice this morning that the Swifts have gone. So that's that, then - summer is definitely over. By the time you read this they'll already be back in Africa enjoying the hot sun that we don't have. Some people I know have put their central heating back on. Remind me again which month this is? Oh yes, that's right IT'S OCTOBER. That'll explain why I'm laying down my winter fat already...

Although I'm not doing much (beyond watching the veg at the allotment as it grows itself and occasionally yanking out the odd weed) The Husband, on the other hand, is working his socks off. We're (or rather, he's) in the middle of decorating our sitting room and upstairs hallway.

We actually started doing this in Spring 2007 by removing all the hideous, hideous woodchip wallpaper. It was such a nasty, messy, lengthy job that it's taken us two years to recover and move onto the next stage. Yes, it was that dreadful.

But the carpet is now up, polyfilla has been applied, all the woodwork has been painted white.


As you can see, a work in progress. We're next going to hang lining paper and then paint it. Behind the telly and the wall that's effectively the boiler cupboard is, hopefully, going to be this really interesting colour that I've picked after discarding half a dozen others. It's called 'Dusted Damson' but you can't tell whether it's pale lavender or dove grey or light brown - sounds awful but should look good (it's actually more purple than in the link). The rest of the walls are going to be a boring shade of cream or very light coffee or something like that.

We've decided on oak laminate for the floor (the floorboards aren't in good enough condition to just sand and varnish, sadly) but as our sitting room is on the first floor (2nd floor for American readers - if there are any...) noise might be an issue. We've lived with the floor as you see it now, i.e., without carpet, for a couple of weeks and it is quite loud and clattery but then we've no curtains up or rugs down so there's lots of hard surfaces for sound to bounce off. We've got special acoustic underlay to put down, and I've found a gorgeous wallhanging from The Pier (before they went bust), so when that's all done, the curtains are back up and the rug(s) replaced hopefully the problem will be solved.

Well, sorry for the lack of even vaguely interesting in this post but that's what we've been up to!