Enthusiasm still flagging but bedroom painting does get finished

Last night we went into central London to help start the celebrations for our friends Alex and Rosie's upcoming nuptials. Despite thinking we'd go for a quick drink to say hello we ended up running for the last tube. Gabe, Maria, we blame you and your excellent company! And the upshot is that we haven't done as much today as we thought we might.

Having said that I have cleared a lot of rubbish from the garden, finished painting the wood in the bedroom and made some ginger and lime cordial. And Jon's mended the lock on our door so we can actually open the door AND lock it, what a treat!

Now we've cleared the underlay in the bedroom so we can assess the floorboards. They're not as nice as the ones in the sewing room so we think we might paint them. Maybe a job for later on though, at the moment I just want to be in my bedroom and find where I packed my nail varnish.

Jon really likes taking photos of stripes

look at the sun pouring into my bedroom!

Nearly finished

After last night we were refreshed. With the prospect of Jon's parents coming to visit we had another stab at the bedroom. I did a first coat on those cupboard doors and Jon did another coat of the skirting board. Here's hoping all the blue will soon be banished so we can move the bed back and I can finally set up my sewing machine and start my dress for Mum's wedding. Only 3 weeks to get it done, crumbs!

When Hannah gives up painting in favour of adventures with the neon monster

Yesterday I finally got bored with painting. I just want it finished. This is mainly because we have used 1 million litres of paint trying to cover up all the bloody blue in the bedroom. And still, it peeps through. We did some spot touching up in an attempt to finish it and started painting the skirting boards, also blue!

This photo makes it look whiter than it is!

we're going to paint these doors too and maybe put a rail or two in here so we can hang up all our party frocks and shirts.

I should add at this point that it is very hot in London and our mid terrace is a little oven at the moment. hence all the painting in underwear. Also saves on the washing as we're still making trips to the Laura-Laundrette as our washing machine hasn't arrived yet. 

Plum break!

So after getting thoroughly annoyed with white walls with a hint of blue we decamped to Tim and Laura's for the best BBQ ever. Home baked rolls for tasty hot dogs, sweetcorn and grilled sardines, yum! All finished off with toasted marshmallows.

And James looked the best he has ever looked in a giant pink snuggly suit. Although you can't tell in these pictures he was also wearing a neon green t-shirt so he looked like some sort of super-cool rave baby. Cuddling babies, is much better than painting.

Feeling blue in the bedroom

Yesterday we were naughty and succumbed to the temptations of Chilli at Tim and Laura's. We got carried away with a beer and crazy boule. So the first coat of paint in the bedroom was applied slightly the worse for wear, painting until gone midnight. I only nearly fell off the ladder once, before we ran out of paint without finishing a first coat.

So when we looked this morning the first coat wasn't finished and the blue was still very much present behind our white paint. Jon heroically made a visit to B&Q so we could get stuck in again. 

How could I resist?

Now, second coat and a cup of tea later things are looking much more positive. But our ex-lanlord just accused us of leaving dog poo in the garden of our flat, the cheek! 

Sewing room, done!

what lovely floor boards

not so nice lino that Jon took off

is that an asbestos hearth?

Sewing room finished! So we decamped to here so we can work on the main bedroom. It looks cosy doesn't it?

Jon's music room is looking less finished. We're using it for storage while we do the bedroom but we'll finish it off before Monday I'm sure.

Time to start on the main bedroom. First clearing everything out including the big wardrobe

oh dear, the big wardrobe and Jon had a bit of a fight. Luckily his wrist isn't broken but it did cause him to have a bit of a naughty reaction.

Time for a tea Break!

rigger gloves!

Then we started to sand and wash the walls

Fridge and insect bite

Yippee! Jon has been told he can take the rest of the week off work as his training has been postponed.

Actually it's just as well because I've been pretty laid up today due to the BIGGEST INSECT BITE EVER!!!! Had to have my leg (knee pit bite, eeek) on pillows and everything. And the piriton I took to try and stop the swelling made me super sleepy.

But aside from that we've (ok, Jon's) made some good progress today.

While exposing skirting boards for painting in the sewing room we decided the floor boards looked ok so we're going to try exposed floorboards. Maybe come winter we'll decide we need carpets but right now we just want to get rid of the carpets. Either they (and their potential flea harbouring) or the ivy is responsible for my current pain so they have to go!

Wonder-Jon has been painting the skirting in my sewing room today, here's some before shots.... 

see, they're quite nice floorboards.

After... 

and he's done the window frame!

In other news, our fridge arrived! So now we can keep milk and stock up on white wine, phew!

Preparing tea. I managed to do this in my invalid state.

Prepare to see the ouch bite........

oh, it doesn't look as bad in a photo. But it really hurts and is really swollen, poor me.

meanwhile Jon keeps plugging away

his finished work, what a star! He even filled in the gaps in the skirting board with his special gun thing previewed earlier in the blog.