October 2nd - October 5th 2010

Work begins in the living room, first as always with decorating, there is lots of preparation, scrapping off the remains of the old backing paper, then a long session of filling cracks and sanding walls smooth, not to mention putting up ceiling coving.

I decide to use the lightwieght version of the ceiling coving, rather than the conventional plaster coving I have used in the past. With some trepidation at first, I am old enough to remember the nasty polystyrene ceiling tiles people used in years passed.

But the modern version proves to be a winner, it is simple to work with, it cuts with an ordinary fine toothed saw, and is fixed with solvent free "no more nails" type adhesive. It is so light one person can easily handle it, and the instant grab adhesive means there is no need to pin the coving in place until the adhesive sets.

Whilst I do this,  Tanya is busily choosing colours for the paint, she chooses from the Dulux range and settles on Blue Reflextion and Cornflower White (who thinks up these names?).

Here you can see her busily painting away, and yes she is painting in her PJ's, don't ask!

Before long she has enlisted the aid of a friend, Kim, so with three of us painting, work progresses rapidly as you can see.

The walls and ceiling are duly completed, then the new laminate floor is laid, skirting boards refitted, and gloss painting is done.

If only it could be done as quickly and easily as that short sentance implies!

Soon things are beginning to take shape, and we appear to be making progress, Tanya is a bit of a hoarder, and dare I say, even a little bit untidy, so I make a major effort to goad her into disposing of some of the junk, and having a tidy up!.

Before you know it, it is beginning to look like a home again, rather than a building site, but it is too early to be complacent, this is only the first room done, we still have two more plus the staircase to go.