We've been in just over nine weeks and have done some serious refactoring of our house in that time. Virtually the entire top floor has been redone and about two thirds of the house redecorated. I've lost count of the number of things that we've done, but somewhere around 500 odd tasks seems about right.
We've had the house rewired, sockets only; had the bathroom demolished; a new one built and installed; plus had several rooms replastered. The front bedroom, the back (baby) bedroom and the bathroom, plus the entire hall, stairs and landing now have smooth solid plaster.
Downstairs, we had an abortive and fraught relationship with a floor sanding person, who walked off the job vandalising as he went and he stole my nice hammer and tape measure. Further replastering in the living room and removing built-in cupboards, there and also in most of the bedrooms.
The house is awash with lovely Farrow and Ball colours, including half a dozen whites. We've learned to tile bathrooms, sand stairs, clean paint brushes, do endless hoovering and countless other jobs to make things right. We've also acquired lots more tools and the knowledge to use them.
All the preplanning was on backpack, then onto sheets of lovely yellow legal pad with a page per room. Tom, Vivvy, Michael, Vicky, Arthur, Doreen, Andrew and Abbie have been amazingly helpful and generous, so thank you all. Lucy has been amazing throughout, you are fabulous.
More photos and recommendations of tradesmen to come and maybe some stuff on doing physical things vs non-physical things, we'll see.
I feel that we own the house properly now, having got to know it so intimately over the past couple of months, from its joists to the curve of the plaster work. There is still a lot to do, but our focus of the past two months will arrive soon, so the rest can wait.
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