Here’s me trying to remember what we did Saturday…?
Ah, that was it… not much :)
A bit of moving things up from the front bedroom to the attic. I was planing a haircut, but we did not get the kids marshalled until too late in the day for that.
Sunday was going to be a big decorating day for me… Try to get some progress on the front bedroom. Louise’s mum was going to come over & they were going to go off & leave me alone in the house to get on with things & concentrate. Louise’s mum was late though, & just when we were giving up, she arrived… with the news that the trains were not running… So, That scuppered the plans that they should go off somewhere. Past the initial frustration & the repeated explanations & incredulity from Louise’s mum (justifying & over justifying the situation) we did settle into a routine that let me do some decorating. Did not get as much as we would have liked done, but this is the nature of things, especially when Jack insists he wants to help (when he hinders, so he cannot) & gets upset that it is not possible. He is interesting in that respect. He is not good at accepting no as an answer & will continue to ask & plead when something is out of the question, & then get upset. It’s a common kiddie tactic, which parents can generally be worn down with until they concede something. It actually rarely works for Jack (with me) as I will either yes or no. Louise will compromise or distract on some extreme occasions (as in reality I may do). On the whole though, this tactic does not work, yet he still persists…
Anyway – I got the polystyrene wallpaper covering the outer wall (reason required: a couple of cold spots that attract condensation probably caused by ‘joining stones’). I had intended to start papering over some of the polystyrene paper put up earlier with lining paper, & might have managed it if I had not mixed the paste so badly it was as lumpy as porridge. Had to dash out to buy some more.
Papered round the window & radiator too. That polystyrene stuff is easy to put up… I doubt that the lining paper will be so easy. Then having taken the manky curtains down, I put some more respectable ones up. Had taken down the manky plastic curtain rail too, & needed to replace that with one from another room (downstairs back – wooden venetian planned there). Had to go & scrounge a drill off my neighbour, Andy (Hamish daddy) as having literally searched high & low in my house for my drill, I found nothing. Moving things about so much is perhaps going to make things seemingly disappear until you straighten yourself out properly again.
Upshot: Well, it’s really weird how much more neat a room can look with a uniform wall and a good pair of curtains. By no means finished, but the transformation is quite satisfying. I have to try to transform this satisfaction into something more akin to momentum to actually finishing the job. i’ll never get anywhere if I do not.
At least I managed to get ZUM! #10 archived onto the ZUM! site (albeit in what you might call a ‘beta’ stage – so no real links yet). Still a goodly amount of work to do, but a good start.