Seb celebrated his day of birth this week and I felt he deserved a treat and some time away from the build. We hadn’t quite managed to finish the snug in preparation for the plasterers and so despite all my planning and organising; we had to spend Monday morning getting grubby once again.
Seb has now perfected his celetex-ing skills and we managed to make our train with 30 seconds to spare…
After a much needed day together and night with our wonderful friends (who gave us a MONDAY night to join in the celebrations)…
…we jumped straight back to it with an added burst of vigour!
The plasterers FINALLY FINISHED! So we can say “so-long” to all the dirty, dusty work and hello to mops and hoovers! I’m desperate to start getting on top of the dust and to start feeling like we are really putting this place back together. I’ve got so many war-wounds (bruises), so many grey hairs (4), so many insomnia nights under my belt…I need to start seeing progress. I actually need it. For my sanity!
Steve Blackwell our amazing sign writer was finally able to hang the signs he’d made. It has taken us a while to repair the front of the shop and get everything organised, however, it was all worth it by the end of the week. Seeing the freshly decorated facade and new signs in situ. It brought a huge smile to our faces. We’re thrilled with how they look and starting to get so excited about opening now. The sign somehow makes it…official… we have a shop!!
Freshly dried plaster is horrible to paint so I spent a long time, sanding and white washing to make sure we get the best possible finish.
I started in the guest room and despite my impatience, I was keen to take my time and get it right. Seb was working so I stuck on a podcast and worked my way round the room, cutting in and roller-ing in straight lines (to the best of my ability!). We are doing a homage to Avon Cottage with this room, giving it a nautical feel and chose a soft blue which half way through I worried looked liked a boys nursery…But it’s ok….!! It’ll work once everything is in ;-)! Trust me. As I was cutting in and painting the ceiling I kept thinking about our future guests, lying in bed and looking up to the ceiling… I suddenly felt a lot of pressure to get it perfectly right! However, I plan to just get all future guest really drunk so lines look straight to them and ceilings look expertly finished…
Whilst Seb was working away at the weekend, I continued in the hallway and stairs, just trying to get the white base coats on and done well. I also need to say a massive thanks to Stuart & Hayley (YET AGAIN) for giving up a few hours of their Father’s Day to help us out and white wash our snug. I tried to protest but to no effect and I was just so grateful of their help I didn’t press the issue too hard… 😉
By the end of this week, everything did have a lick of white on it and we can start actually tidying up now and doing the fun part of DECORATING. Dominic is back to do the second fix next week so I’d hoped we’d be further ahead than we are. However, I say that every week…every day… I need to just accept that things will happen when they happen and be more realistic about how long everything takes.
An added bonus was that Clearview got in touch to say our windows had arrived and could be installed. They started with the bay window in the kitchen and although it was quite terrifying to see a massive hole in the front of our house, it lasted just 30 minutes before they had everything in place.
Sadly, because it is US and NOTHING has gone smoothly, one of the panes of glass had cracked….!! So that is now on order and will be replaced …when it’s replaced. Also, the council, in their infinite wisdom, has strung bunting right into the middle of our bedroom window so we had to call them to remove it before that window could be replaced, which typically didn’t happen until it was too late and Clearview had left…
So it still feels like just another job half done! However, the window that is in looks absolutely amazing and I can’t wait until it is finally all done as it really finishes both outside and in. Also the sound barrier created is UNBELIEVABLE and to anyone who doesn’t have double glazing – you should get on that! It is the way of the future…
One week to go to hit my target of finishing… PLACE YOUR BETS… Until next time…
Looks great! Heck of a project.
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